You have recently returned to the Bar after 20 years. What's been your route to your present chambers?

I qualified at the Bar in 1986 having done my pupillage at 3/4 South Square and what is now Pump Court Tax Chambers. I then left to do tax at Paisners (now BLP), then I did a stint in the corporate tax department at Allen & Overy. I was then approached for a role at Coopers & Lybrand and then in 1996 joined Deloitte and became a Tax Partner in 1999. I left early 2007 to return to the Bar with Temple Tax Chambers.

What was the thinking behind working at a magic circle law firm and Big 4 accountancy firms?

As opportunities arise you have to decide whether to stay put or take them. Tax is a transferable skill across the professions. At Allen & Overy I got a lot of experience dealing with multi-party commercial agreements. I moved to Coopers when they were looking to go down the multi-disciplinary practice route first internally, then with Tite & Lewis and later with Landwell; I was a part of the internal multi-disciplinary practice strategy. I moved to Deloitte with three others when they were looking to add legal skills to their corporate tax department. I got very good training in the legal and accountancy practices and met some excellent tax practitioners in both. I've seen transactions from different perspectives, ie working with solicitors, accountants and as a barrister.

Why did you move back to the Bar?

It was always my intention to return to the Independent Bar...at the end of the day I am an adviser. As you move up in large organisations more of your time is spent on running the business.

In returning to the Bar, how has this experience helped you?

Having sat on the other side of the table I feel I know what people want from a barrister. Tax is a legal subject, but increasingly accountancy driven. Also accountancy firms spend a lot of time developing the softer skills of their people. Marketing is obviously very important and I hope to use these skills in helping Temple Tax Chambers expand.

Is the credit crisis affecting your practice?

I have passed the JIEB Insolvency exams and worked alongside Insolvency Practitioners at Deloitte and am therefore ideally placed to advise on the tax and insolvency issues arising in administrations and liquidations and any subsequent tax litigation. HM Revenue & Customs are usually a major creditor and many of the issues arising are untested.

What do you think to those that say the HMRC moving in the direction of the IRS?

Tax is getting more litigious - HMRC have a new litigation strategy in place and are less likely to do deals than they were. There is certainly more co-operation between the various international revenue authorities and some of the recent UK developments, ie the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes are obviously modelled on ideas coming from the IRS.

What do you think of HMRC's so called "Litigate or Die" policy?

From a self-interested point of view it is good for lawyers as litigation is increasing, but it's bad for taxpayers, especially in the current climate; their time would be better spent running their businesses instead of dealing with claims which appear to be aimed at raising revenue against the obvious intent of the legislation. I've spent my professional career trying to keep my clients out of the law reports.

Since leaving the Bar in '86, what are the key differences you've noticed on returning to the Bar?

Over the years we have seen an increase in tax litigation, and I can see that increasing still further. The legislation is at least four times as long...we potentially now have the largest tax code in the world. A lot of advice is aimed at preventing clients falling into tax elephant traps rather than "schemes". HMRC are paranoid about avoidance and this had led to much of the complexity in the legislation. There’s also been an increase in tax related work like VAT/tax fraud at some criminal and commercial sets, which was less common before.

What are your views on the Legal Services Reform?

Because tax crosses the professional boundaries it is the one area where the concept of a true multidisciplinary practice is difficult because it doesn’t it sit within either the accountancy or the legal side, and can the two be truly merged? History to date has shown that may not be possible. In the mid 1990s there was tension between legal and accountancy, and it was the tax side that killed it.

Philip Ridgway, Tax Barrister at Temple Tax Chambers was interviewed by Guy Hewetson and Anil Shah, of LPA Legal Recruitment's Barristers Chambers division, for Counsel Magazine (December 2008)