Overview

Zara Yusuf joined Three Stone in October 2025, and she accepts instructions across all of Chambers’ main practice areas.

Before joining Three Stone, Zara completed her pupillage at Radcliffe Chambers, where she gained comprehensive experience of the full range of commercial and Chancery work.

Prior to coming to the Bar, Zara worked as a Private Client Tax Advisor at Ernst & Young (International Tax) and Blick Rothenberg. Her work covered all areas of the UK taxation of individuals, often with a cross-border aspect.

Zara then worked as a Statutory Instruments Paralegal at the Cabinet Office. She contributed to the drafting of secondary legislation across the Government Legal Department, including pensions and insolvency legislation.

Alongside the Bar Training Course, Zara worked as a Research Assistant, where she focused on company, partnership, and agency law for a book titled ‘The Fundamentals of Business Law’. She also volunteered as a Director and Mentor at Young Bar Mentoring and remains committed to improving access to the Bar in this role.

Zara received a first-class degree in Ancient History from Newcastle University, where she ranked first overall in the year and performed the best in the dissertation module, obtaining the Senior Johnson Prize and a Letter of Commendation respectively. Zara subsequently obtained a Distinction in the Graduate Diploma of Law from BPP University, having been awarded the Programme Ambassador Scholarship. She then achieved a Distinction in the Bar Training Course at City Law School, where she received the Academic Excellence scholarship.

Zara was awarded the Exhibition scholarship, the Philip Teichman Award, and the Duke of Edinburgh Entrance Award from Inner Temple.

Relevant experience

Commercial Disputes

Zara’s experience in commercial disputes includes the following:

  • Drafting a Defence to claim for breach of contract, on the basis that the contract was invalid and unenforceable, due to issues including a lack of relevant authority, unfair terms, and duress.
  • Securing a favourable settlement on behalf of a defendant company in a breach of contract dispute.

During pupillage, Zara assisted on various commercial law matters, including:

  • Preparing a pre-action letter in a complex breach of contract dispute.
  • Assisting junior counsel in a trial involving issues of novation, breaches of contract, repudiation, and termination of the agreement.
  • Drafting a Defence in a case about an estate agent’s breach of duty claim in relation to the sale of a property at an alleged undervalue.
  • Drafting Particulars of Claim and a Reply, which centred on whether a binding contract existed.

Company

Zara has been instructed in a range of company matters, including:

  • Obtaining a time extension for the registration of a charge at Companies House.

Zara’s experience of company law matters has involved assisting with and attending numerous application hearings, including those concerning s.216(3) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (restriction on the re-use of company names), directions regarding access to documents, imaging orders, further disclosure, and rectification of the register of company charges.

Zara also drafted numerous applications and documents, including the following:

  • Drafting a skeleton argument to rectify the register of company charges.
  • Assisting with written submissions following a court hearing on the interpretation of a section of the Companies Act 1985.

Insolvency

Zara has been instructed as sole counsel on a variety of personal and corporate insolvency matters, including:

  • Frequently instructed in contested bankruptcy petitions and applications to annul bankruptcy.
  • Regularly appearing in the High Court, representing petitioners, debtors and supporting creditors in hearings for winding-up petitions.
  • Successfully representing a contributory in a just and equitable winding-up petition.
  • Advising on the appropriate avenue for the appointment of administrators.

Zara has assisted with and attended numerous insolvency-related hearings. The application hearings included those concerning a contested administration (chiefly, which administrators should be appointed), extending an administration, final charging orders on land, and the strike-out of a winding-up petition or for its advertisement to be restrained. In addition, she assisted in the trial of Re Saville Foley LLP [2025] EWHC 1071 (Ch), which concerned the admission and rejection of proofs of debt in a liquidation, and the question of the liquidator’s personal liability for costs.

Zara also drafted numerous applications and documents, including:

  • Particulars of Claim against directors of a company (in liquidation), comprising claims for debt, repayment of unlawful dividends, and breach of directors’ duties.
  • A skeleton argument for an application to extend administration.
  • An opinion regarding potential preference claims and associated breach of duty claims against directors.
  • Advice on the question of whether a company could be considered dissolved.
  • A Defence in response to claims under ss.216 and 217 of the Insolvency Act 1986, which alleged that a prohibited company name had been used and thus sought to impose personal liability on directors for the company’s debts.

Private Client

Examples of private client work that Zara gained experience in include:

  • Assisting in a trial involving an issue of pedigree, stemming from a kin enquiry.
  • Drafting an opinion on the question of whether joint tenancies were validly severed and on the merits of asserting that the severances were procured by actual and/or presumed undue influence.

Taxation

Zara has worked on a range of matters involving taxation, such as:

  • Drafting an opinion to advise on whether a payment constituted a loan or a gift and on the resultant inheritance tax liability of the estate in either scenario.
  • Advising on the merits of rectifying and/or rescinding a deed of variation executed by solicitors acting for a surviving spouse, due to a potential, unintended IHT liability.
  • Advising on the tax treatment of an estate, including the cumulation concept, and whether a property transaction constituted a failed potentially exempt transfer.

Before coming to the Bar, Zara worked as a Private Client Tax Advisor at Ernst & Young and Blick Rothenberg, where she obtained valuable experience in all areas of UK taxation of individuals.

Trusts

Zara worked on a range of trusts matters including:

  • Drafting a Defence and Counterclaim, and a Reply to a request for further information in a case involving a dispute about the beneficial ownership of a property, which required ascertaining the beneficial ownership of a portfolio of properties.

Wills and probate

Zara has gained experience in a wide range of contentious and non-contentious wills and probate matters. Some of the documents and applications that she drafted include:

  • An application for strike-out or summary judgment on behalf of an insurance company, against the background of a claim against an executor.
  • An opinion to advise the executors on various substantive and procedural issues, including the merits of a challenge to the will based on undue influence, the consequences of certain caveats being entered into, and the appropriate parties to the proceedings.
  • Written submissions on behalf of an estate’s personal representative, addressing a CPR Part 11 application made by a beneficiary to challenge the Court’s jurisdiction to determine the Part 8 claim brought to administer the estate.
  • A witness statement and details of claim pursuant to CPR Parts 8 and 64, for the trustees of the deceased’s estate to be authorised to distribute the will trust in accordance with the accounts and proposed distribution, and for an order that the estate of a deceased beneficiary be represented in the claim, pursuant to CPR 19.12.
  • A mediation position statement and a without prejudice letter for a family estate dispute, in order to agree on the distribution of the will trust and the estate.
  • An opinion to be presented to the court on the merits of a proposed settlement of a claim brought under the 1975 Act, on behalf of a protected party.
  • A deed of variation.

In addition, Zara attended a mediation which concerned a spousal claim under the 1975 Act. She also attended a hearing in which proprietary and freezing injunctions were sought, after trustees had failed to account for assets that were the subject of an ongoing claim under the 1975 Act.

Property

Zara has been instructed as sole counsel in various property matters. Her recent experiences include:

  • Appearing in the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in a case concerning various service charge disputes, followed by drafting written submissions on the construction of the lease, specifically on the recoverability of management agent fees.
  • Advising the borrower in a mortgage possession claim and obtaining a vacation of the hearing date.
  • Obtaining a final charging order.

Examples of property cases that Zara has worked on include:

  • Drafting an opinion, Particulars of Claim, and skeleton argument in a property dispute involving the expiry of a headlease.
  • Advising in a case concerning the forfeiture of a long lease.
  • Drafting a witness statement and claim form for an order for sale application.
  • Drafting an opinion on the question of whether joint tenancies were validly severed.
  • Advising a former tenant under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 on potential claims in contract and/or proprietary estoppel.

Pensions

Zara has worked on various pension matters, including:

  • Drafting advice in a Part 8 rectification claim to equalise the scheme benefits between men and women, following an error introduced during a scheme amendment and replicated in subsequent scheme amendments.
  • Assisting in a prospective Part 8 claim to deal with the position of the pension scheme membership.

Zara completed the Beginners’ Course on Pensions Law given by the Association for Pension Lawyers.

Community and other

  • Director and Mentor at Young Bar Mentoring (2023 – Present)
  • Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel – Junior Junior Panel (2025 – Present)

Qualifications

  • BTC – Distinction, City Law School (2023 – 2024)
  • GDL – Distinction, BPP University (2021 – 2023)
  • BA Ancient History – First-class (first overall), Newcastle University (2016 – 2019).

Selected work history

  • Research Assistant – Newcastle University Law School (2023 – 2024)
  • Statutory Instruments Paralegal – Cabinet Office, Government Legal Department (2022 – 2023)
  • Private Client Tax Advisor – Blick Rothenberg (2020 – 2022)
  • Private Client Tax Advisor (International) – Ernst & Young (2019 – 2020).

Prizes and scholarships

  • Academic Excellence Scholarship – City Law School (2023)
  • Philip Teichman Award – Inner Temple (2023)
  • Bar Course Exhibition Scholarship – Inner Temple (2023)
  • Duke of Edinburgh Entrance Award – Inner Temple (2023)
  • Full-fee Programme Ambassador GDL Scholarship – BPP University (2021)
  • GDL Exhibition Scholarship – Inner Temple (2021)
  • Senior Johnson Prize – Newcastle University (2019)
  • Letter of Commendation – Newcastle University (2019).