Zara Yusuf

Overview

Zara Yusuf is a member of Three Stone, and she welcomes instructions across all of Chambers’ main practice areas, either as sole counsel or as part of a team.

During her training, Zara gained comprehensive experience of the full range of commercial and Chancery work, and she is now developing a broad commercial chancery practice.

Zara also draws on the extensive exposure gained from her varied work before coming to the Bar. Zara worked as a Private Client Tax Advisor at Ernst & Young (International Tax) and Blick Rothenberg. Then, she worked in the Statutory Instruments department at the Cabinet Office, where she helped draft secondary legislation, 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. Zara then achieved a Distinction in the Graduate Diploma of Law (BPP University) and a Distinction in the Bar Training Course (City Law School), having attained numerous top scholarships from the institutions and Inner Temple along the way.

Areas of expertise

Relevant experience

Arbitration

Acting in an arbitration concerning cryptocurrency under HKIAC rules (ongoing, with Christopher Howitt).

Commercial Disputes

Zara is regularly instructed in a range of commercial matters. She has a particular interest in commercial disputes that intersect with her private client, insolvency, and/or property practice.

Her recent experiences include:

Drafting various statements of case in contractual disputes, including those raising issues of unfair terms, duress, the Consumer Rights Act 2015, bailment, and conversion.
Advising on potential Counterclaims, Anonymity Orders, Early Disclosure Orders, a Part 20 Claim, and ancillary interim applications.
Securing a favourable settlement on behalf of a defendant company in a breach of contract dispute.
Successfully appearing in multiple trials on the Small Claims Track.

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.
Appearing in applications under ss. 859M and 859N of the Companies Act 2006.

Restructuring and Insolvency

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

Regularly appearing in the ICC Interim Applications List.
Advising and representing administrators in an application for compulsory liquidation, including advising on the validity of an initial extension by creditor consent.
Obtained strike-out of an unfair prejudice petition.
Successfully opposed an application to set aside a statutory demand.
Obtaining a validation order.
Frequently (and successfully) appearing 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.
Advising on and assisting with the preparation of a liquidator’s claim under s.212 of the IA 1986, regarding the misuse of a sum obtained by way of a Bounce Back Loan.
Successfully representing a contributory in a just and equitable winding-up petition.
Advised on the merits of an application to set aside a statutory demand.
Obtained an unless order in the context of an unfair prejudice petition.
Advising on the appropriate avenue for the appointment of administrators.
Drafting a validation order application and providing related advice.
Advised in conference regarding an appeal against a costs order following a just and equitable winding-up petition and the appointment of an additional joint liquidator.
Advising administrators on potential claims that can be brought against the directors.

Private Client

Examples of private client work that Zara gained experience in during her training include assisting with a trial involving an issue of pedigree, stemming from a kin enquiry, and providing advice on whether joint tenancies were validly severed.

Taxation

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

Assisted Stephen Woodward
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, often with a cross-border aspect.

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:

Advised on the merits, procedural aspects, and drafting of an Order for Sale application, in the context of an estates dispute.

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.
Appearing in multiple final charging order application hearings.
Regularly advising on claims for possession and appearing (successfully) at possession hearings (including rent, mortgage, and trespass cases).
Advising on the recoverability of service charge arrears.
Advised on the merits, procedural aspects, and drafting of an Order for Sale application, in the context of an estates dispute.

Pensions

Zara has worked on various pensions matters, including:

Advising on the merits of bringing a claim against an occupational pension scheme provider regarding possible miscalculations of pension payments, including advice on any limitation obstacles.

During her training, Zara drafted 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, and assisted in a prospective Part 8 claim to address the position of the pension scheme membership.

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

While working in the Statutory Instruments department at the Cabinet Office, Zara helped draft pensions legislation.

Community and other

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