Recommendations
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Recommended
Experience
I specialise in disputes – helping clients to avoid, settle and, when necessary, fight them. I act for businesses, charities, public bodies and private individuals dealing with a wide range of contentious issues. With almost 20 years’ experience, I understand the financial, commercial and reputational impact a dispute can have. I give clear, pragmatic advice to help you manage risks, identify solutions and achieve them.
I advise on the full range of disputes affecting charities, with particular experience of supporting charities dealing with periods of severe challenge and crisis, whether as a result of internal disputes, claims by third parties, or regulatory scrutiny.
I’m frequently instructed in cases involving fraud and asset recovery, breach of fiduciary duties and the misappropriation of confidential information, including obtaining and resisting injunctions. I have been appointed by the High Court as a Supervising Solicitor in more than 20 search orders.
I also handle media disputes: defamation, privacy and confidentiality. I help publishers defend themselves against complaints and threats; I also have particular experience at the pre-publication stage, advising a wide range of charities, campaigning organisations and investigative journalists on draft reports and campaign materials. On the other side of the fence, I’m equally comfortable advising clients threatened with the publication of unwelcome material, almost invariably at short notice.
Of course, I see disputes in all sorts of other areas too. We’re a versatile team and over my career I’ve acted in contentious matters in many fields: professional negligence claims, building and construction disputes, shareholder disputes and health and safety investigations and prosecutions. I have worked across the divisions of the High Court, including specialist lists (Commercial Court, Technology and Construction Court and Companies Court), and have successfully resolved disputes through mediation and adjudication.
Recent projects
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I acted for proprietary trading firm against former employees suspected of misappropriating highly valuable bespoke software.
Following a complex forensic IT investigation, the Defendants gave undertakings to the High Court and paid my client’s costs.
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I have guided a large charity through a series of issues
arising from a dispute involving a trustee, providing “on call” support on governance, regulatory, reputational and other issues.
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I acted for a senior executive accused of fraud in responding to threatened coverage in a national Sunday newspaper.
Following prolonged engagement with the journalist, I was able to deter publication and the investigation into my client was dropped.
- I’m a highly experienced Supervising Solicitor and in recent years have been involved in two of the highest profile fraud cases before the London courts, handling the execution of search orders and, in both cases, overseeing subsequent reviews of millions of documents in many languages.
- I acted for the claimants in successful proceedings to confirm the validity of their appointment as trustees of a large religious charity.
- I acted for the trustees of a religious charity, successfully resisting an application by the trustee in bankruptcy to one of the charity’s former trustees for payment of charitable funds into the bankrupt’s estate.
- I acted for a defendant subject to a freezing order, in a claim in deceit by a creditor of two insolvent foreign exchange trading companies which were formerly owned and managed by the defendant.
- I acted for a defendant subject to freezing and search orders in a claim relating to allegedly fraudulent shipping contracts.
- I acted for a PLC in breach of warranty/misrepresentation proceedings and subsequently in a negligence claim against its former solicitors
- I acted for an architectural and interior design company in Technology and Construction Court proceedings, settled on favourable terms. Currently in subsequent costs proceedings
- I acted for an international charity in successfully resisting a claim by a former partner organisation for outstanding payments, due under a funding agreement terminated on suspicion of fraud.
- I frequently give pre-publication advice to charities, NGOs and others as to the risks posed by campaign materials and other controversial publications.
- I advised a manufacturer in relation to fatalities involving its products.
- I’m a highly experienced Supervising Solicitor – I have been appointed to supervise the execution of search orders well over 20 times
Areas of expertise:
Services
Sectors
Qualifications and career
- Magdalen College, Oxford, BA Modern History
- College of Law, London, CPE/Legal Practice Course
- Trainee at Lovells
- Admitted as a solicitor at Lovells in 2002.
- Practised at Olswang
- Joined Bates Wells in 2003
Pro bono, memberships, and appointments
- Member, London Solicitors Litigation Association
- Member, Commercial Fraud Lawyers Association
- Member, Charity Law Association to the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook (on defamation and privacy), the Jordans Charities Service, and frequent BWB client newsletters
- Joint pro bono co-ordinator for Bates Wells
- Former pro bono adviser at South West London Law Centres
- Worked closely with Citizens Advice on its campaign highlighting the controversial practice of “civil recovery” by major high street retailers, and acted pro bono for the successful first defendant in the first fully-contested trial of a “civil recovery” claim against an alleged shoplifter [A Retailer v Ms B & Ms K, Oxford County Court, 26-27 April 2012, Lawtel]
- Contributor to the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook (on defamation and privacy), the Jordans Charities Service, and frequent Bates Wells client newsletters
- Trustee since 2016 and Vice-Chair of Dulwich Hamlet Supporters’ Trust
Insights
