Browne Jacobson LLP
Lawyers
Adrian Shardlow
Adrian has represented schools, colleges and education institutions for over 25 years, initially in litigation and over the last 10 years on school and academy trust structures and governance. Adrian represented successful Defendant in the High Court matter of NWABUDIKE v SOUTHWARK LONDON BOROUGH COUNCIL (1996) in which the school was found not responsible in a negligence action relating to a child who had absconded from a school. Adrian has been heavily involved in the academy conversions programme across the country and leads the academy conversions team from the Nottingham office. Adrian has supported all categories of school through the conversion process, including mainstream, special, pupil referral units, VA, VC, foundation and trust schools. In addition, he has also advised schools, colleges and local authorities on a wide range of education law and academy issues including group structures and sponsorship. Adrian currently acts for academy trusts and sponsors in merger and rebrokerage projects. Adrian has presented at large numbers of sector events in the past 12 months and has shared platforms with ASCL, the DFE, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and various sector commercial suppliers including PS Financials. Adrian is regularly asked to present as a guest speaker at academies updates sessions for firms of accountants. Adrian regularly presents a slot on academies and multi-academy trusts for Mercia Training aimed at training accountants on developments in the academies and multi-academies sector. These events take place every year in June and September in The East Midlands and London respectively. Adrian has supported many groups of schools in developing their strategy for group working and thereafter creating Multi-Academy Trusts and providing further advice and support when they expand or take on further schools. This year Adrian has been heavily involved with partnerships of schools looking to formulate their strategies for the future and he has facilitated a number working party group session meetings as a preliminary to creating group structures and Multi-Academy Trusts.
Alan Radford
Alan is a Partner specialising in dispute resolution both in the UK and the USA, multiple claims and risk management analysis; acts on behalf of professional advisors.
Alexander Harris
Alexander Harris (legal director – real estate) joined us from Dentons in 2017. Alex has over 20 years’ experience acting for retailers, supermarkets, international luxury brands, commercial tenants, landlords, investors, high net worth individuals, developers, local authorities and funders. Alex regularly advises clients on complex occupational requirements, development agreements, agreements for leases and the purchase and disposal of freehold and leasehold properties. Alex acts for the LVMH group and the luxury brands within the LVMH group on their property interests in England.
Amanda Callaghan
Amanda is Head of Office in Manchester. She has over 30 years’ experience in the healthcare advisory and claims field and is well respected by clients, experts and legal peers. She is a leading individual and is recognised for her depth of knowledge of healthcare organisations and her commitment to the NHS and its clinicians. Amanda is regularly involved in training lawyers and clinicians and has presented at the annual BMA Medico-legal conference. Her clients have described her variously as ‘tenacious’ and having ‘impressive legal and clinical knowledge and experience’ and they value her team approach to litigation, providing constant support and accessibility to all involved.
Amelia Newbold
Amelia is a Senior Associate in our health team with many years’ experience as a solicitor resolving clinical negligence claims, acting on behalf of NHS Resolution and NHS Trusts and has also represented claimants. Amelia leads on the clinical risk management work we do for NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts and our other health clients. She is involved in a number of projects to identify the learning from claims and inquests to support wider patient safety and quality improvement work, including undertaking ‘deep dive’ analysis of inquests and claims we have concluded for individual NHS Trusts to highlight and examine specific trends and identify learning from these experiences to prevent harm and hopefully also reduce litigation.
Amy Keogh
Amy joined our Birmingham office as a solicitor in early 2015. Previously, Amy has advised on contentious and non-contentious restructuring and insolvency matters on behalf of corporates and individuals. She has also worked with practitioners, creditors, individuals, institutional lenders and major corporates on their cases. Amy was promoted to Senior Associate in 2018 (less than 18 months after being promoted to an Associate) as the firm acknowledged the level of her skills, expertise and relationships, in particular with key Asset Based Lenders, including Close Brothers Ltd., Shawbrook Bank Ltd. and ABN AMRO Commercial Finance Holdings B. V. Amy is well known and highly regarded by those that provide alternative funding through asset based lending, a market which has grown rapidly over the past 10 years. Amy has advanced quickly in her career and is ‘one to watch’ for the future – she's listed as a Next Generation Partner in Legal 500. Amy has since been promoted to Partner in 2021.
Andrew Pattison
Andrew is a legal director in our Nottingham MPS team. He is a very experienced litigator with a wealth of expertise in high value, complex litigation against health professionals.
Andrew Noble
Tax.
Angela Williams
Angela is a director in the Technical Claims team based in the Exeter office, specialising in complex employer liability claims and acting extensively for insurers, particularly NHS Resolution, with a focus on large loss claims and those involving key technical points.
Angela has the leading case of Feest v SWSHA & Bay Island Voyages (2015) (The Celtic Pioneer) to her name. This Court of Appeal case is the only UK authority on the applicability of Article 14 of the Athens Convention to claims for contribution against carriers at sea and the extent of Article 16.
Angela has a particular interest in occupational stress claims and claims involving bullying and harassment. Notable success in defending these claims include a discontinuance of a high-value and technical stress at work claim (confidential) and the reported case of Bailey v DPT (2014) a High Court claim by a psychiatrist for occupational stress which was dismissed by the Recorder at Exeter District Registry. Angela is an experienced litigator in this area dealing with many high profile and sensitive claims.
Angela has developed an expanding practice of defending breach of confidentiality and data protection claims. Advising NHS Trusts and NHS Resolution on this increasingly important area of law, she ahs several cases to her name where Claimants have discontinued. Angela is a trusted advisor in this area, regularly providing training and advice to her clients.
She has externally published in PIBU, NLJ, Westlaw and Local Government Lawyer. She also publishes and edits a newsletter to the firm's major clients each month.
Angela provides support to NHS Trusts on risk and health and safety including risk management recommendations arising from claims.
In collaboration with the firm's education department, Angela advises schools and academies on defending personal injury claims to staff and pupils. Recent cases involve blindness to a pupil and a serious assault to a pupil on a residential school trip.
Anja Beriro
Anja is a partner in the Government and Infrastructure Team at Browne Jacobson, with over 11 years of acting for both public and private sector clients in relation to procurement and projects as well as being recognised for her wider understanding and experience of local government decision-making. Anja has developed a clear specialism in public procurement and local government alternative service delivery models built during her career. She previously worked for Sheffield City Council. Anja acts as a trusted advisor to local and central government and health sector clients. The highlights of Anja’s recent public procurement and local government work include: Working as a key advisor to the London Borough of Croydon for the disaggregation of their current IT arrangements and procuring up to 9 new service specific contracts, worth over £30million. Advising Shropshire Council on the purchase of three shopping centres in Shrewsbury for circa £50million. Anja advised on all non-property and tax issues, including powers of investment, reporting and procurement issues. This has led to several current instructions in relation to property investment and procurement of works contracts. Continuing to act as strategic advisor to Harlow District Council in relation to their relationship with and management of their wholly-owned companies, including delivering training, advising on decision-making and contract variation, for services worth over £17million per annum. Playing a key role in being successfully appointed as the sole legal advisors to the London Borough of Croydon for a minimum period of 5 years. Anja acts as deputy project manager, alongside Craig Elder, and supports the Council in all aspects of integrating the Council and Browne Jacobson teams. Legal services are estimated to be worth £2million per annum. Advising the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to their £100million plus suite of IT contracts, a five year project that completed in 2018.
Ann Cojeen
Ann Cojeen specialises in all aspects of commercial property healthcare matters for independent and public healthcare organisations and medical professionals and has considerable experience in this sector.
Anna Saccaggi
Anna is a Senior Associate working within the firm’s Healthcare Team in the insurance and public risk department. She specialises in defending clinical negligence claims, acting on behalf of the NHSLA and healthcare trusts.
Anthony Nagle
Commercial: technology, outsourcing and complex projects.
Barry Sully
Property.
Ben Bentley
Ben is an accomplished Partner Barrister working in the firm’s in-house advocacy team since his call to the Bar in 2008.
He routinely appears in court to conduct trials, coroner’s inquests and to prosecute on behalf of government regulatory agencies at various tribunals. He is adept at drafting court pleadings, advising on issues of liability and quantum in personal injury matters, and handling complex civil procedure applications.
He has had considerable success in employer and public liability matters in court and has also achieved notable victories defending against credit hire claims. He is additionally experienced in dealing with costs matters, particularly in challenging the recovery of after the event insurance premiums.
Ben’s education practice also extends to prosecution on behalf of the National College for Teaching & Leadership; and advising and advocating at all levels of Tribunal in respect to Special Educational Needs and Disability Discrimination matters.
Beth Dowson
Beth Dowson qualified into the tax team at Browne Jacobson in 2006, and is a Legal Director in the team. The main specialisms in her practice are property tax, employee share schemes, and corporate transactions, including vendor tax planning. She also advises a range of clients in the SME sector on employee and management incentives, including on HMRC approved and unapproved share schemes.
Bettina Rigg
Bettina is the head of our higher education sector. Recognised as a leading expert on advising higher education institutions by Chambers and Partners for several consecutive years, Bettina advises on a variety of higher education matters, including employment, regulatory and student matters.
Having been a member of the Council of the University of Exeter for nine years (where she was the dual assurance lay lead for HR and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and worked closely with the teams involved in obtaining accreditation with Athena Swan and the HE equality charters), she has a deep understanding of the issues facing the higher education sector and the role of governance. She also works closely with sector associations to help their members to engage with topical legal issues.
Bettina advises clients on operational and strategic issues relating to staff and students and regulatory matters concerning the Office for Students. She has developed a specialism in Equality Act issues. She has spent time on secondment to university in-house legal teams. Bettina is an ADR Group accredited mediator and has mediated a wide range of employment and education matters.
Bonita Trimmer
Bonita joined Browne Jacobson LLP in 2014 and was promoted to Legal Director in 2018. She has specialised in IP for over 20 years with a focus on brands and designs disputes. Chambers currently ranks her as an “Associate to watch”. World Trademark Review 2019 attests that “Bonita has excellent legal knowledge and produces top-class written work. You can’t catch her out because she thinks everything through carefully.” Bonita is also described as “top class” by Legal 500 (West Midlands Intellectual Property) and as a “name to note” for Brand Management.
Bridget Prosser
Bridge is one of the leading national specialists in healthcare employment law who, having led the employment team at Capsticks' Birmingham, moved to Browne Jacobson at the end of September 2019.
She has a national role with particular interest in the South West and our Exeter office.
Bridget specialises in all aspect of employment law/HR in the healthcare, police and not-for-profit sectors and has additional expertise as an independent investigator and trained workplace mediator.
She has achieved considerable success in defending a large number of Employment Tribunal claims, a significant number of these claims related to complex whistleblowing and discrimination issues with public/media and regulatory interest. Bridge has in-depth knowledge and many years' experience managing complex cases involving doctors in difficulty (conduct, capability, health and breakdowns in team/colleague working relationships).
She is trusted in handling complex and sensitive senior People Management issues which impact on the organisation's reputation or have a regulatory angle, including the Duty of Candour; Fit and Proper Person requirements and referrals to regulatory bodies to include the GMC and NMC. Bridge's work as an investigator has ensured she has additional insight when advising on challenging investigations into grievances at senior level, sensitive whistleblowing concerns and culture reviews involving CQC and/or NHSE/I.
As a trained Workplace Mediator Bridget is aware of the benefits of deescalating disputes particularly when they involve complex group dynamics.
Bridget Tatham
Bridget is an EL/PL defence specialist with expertise in the management of bullying and stress at work claims. She is Head of the Birmingham casualty team, responsible for the management and development of our casualty offer, advising our local authority and commercial insurance clients on motor, public and employers’ liability, from policy coverage through to claims and risk.
Bridget is responsible for the strategic direction of the firm’s public sector insurance division, working to set strategy for growth drawing on our strength in the public sector. In that capacity, Bridget heads Foil’s Public Sector Focus Team (“SFT”), and in the last 12 months has successfully reframed the scope of the SFT to reflect core services in the sector.
Her “Claims Club” is the envy of rival firms and is now run out of our key offices, bringing law to life for local authority claims managers and risk and insurance officers.
Bridget has been able to build a growing adult social care practice, dealing with claims from residential and nursing care home providers. She has a particular interest in dementia care. These claims have significant reputational impact on the provider particularly where it is alleged the negligent treatment has resulted in the death of a resident.
Bridget is also a key member of our commercial insurance strategic team and leads our cross-practice team dealing with the Inquiry, prosecution and compensation issues.
Bridget is a Nominated Partner for the NHS Resolution Risk Pooling tranche of business.
Carl May-Smith
Carl May-Smith is a partner and barrister specialising in regulatory and criminal law with a particular focus on the health and care sector. He and his team provide a broad variety of advice including on health and care standards (CQC and others), health & safety and fire safety.
His clients include care providers (independent and NHS), investors (in health and care sector businesses or otherwise), companies requiring proactive or regulatory litigation advice and public bodies.
Carl has considerable experience of advising and representing individuals and corporate bodies, whether they are facing regulatory or criminal investigations or proceedings, have been the victims of crime or are involved in such proceedings less directly. At other times he provides proactive advice and training to businesses and others on regulatory matters to help them avoid such issues arising.
For investors, banks and insurers, particularly in the health and care sector, Carl and his team offer specialist due diligence services. He works alongside commercial and corporate colleagues or independently to apply his wealth of experience to help identify existing or potential regulatory risks.
In addition to this work, Carl has advised and represented national and local regulators including the Health and Safety Executive, Care Quality Commission, Natural England, local authorites and fire authorities.
He regularly appears as an advocate in the Magistrates' and Crown Courts as well as in Tribunals and at inquests.
Caroline Green
Caroline Green (partner – real estate) was appointed as Browne Jacobson’s Senior Partner with effect from 1 May 2019 and has brought a fresh perspective to a role that requires vision, knowledge, diplomacy and determination. As part of her role, Caroline chairs the firm’s elected Board which carries an oversight function. Away from work, Caroline is a non-executive director of SwimEngland, the national governing body for swimming. Caroline has over 30 years’ experience of dealing with real estate and commercial contracts, co-leading our nationally-recognised retail and leisure team with Sarah Parkinson and she also heads up our nationally-recognised logistics team. Caroline represents an impressive list of luxury brands including the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy group of companies in the UK, a world leader in high-quality products with a unique portfolio of over 30 prestigious brands across five different sectors; namely fashion and leather goods, perfumes and cosmetics, watches and jewellery, wines and spirits and selective retailing; its brands include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Celine, Fendi, De Beers, Donna Karan, Givenchy, Loewe, Marc Jacobs, J W Anderson, Fresh and TAG Heuer. Caroline acts for parcel carrier to the retail industry, DPD and for cash carrier, Loomis. Caroline recently obtained a master’s degree, specialising in data protection and cyberspace and wrote her dissertation on the GDPR from the retailer’s perspective. Caroline regularly speaks at retail conferences and this year hosted a discussion group at the IBA’s Fashion & Luxury conference. Caroline’s clients say she has a rare combination of real estate expertise teamed with a deep understanding of the specific issues affecting the retail sector. She is also applauded for consistently delivering sensible and pragmatic advice, in addition to “having a great sense of humour that makes her easy to work with”.
Carolyn Thackstone
Carolyn is a solicitor who qualified in 2005 and specialises in regulatory law particularly in relation to work on behalf of the Teaching Regulation Agency.
Catherine Rustomji
Catherine is a specialist charities solicitor who advises charities, not for profit organisations, social enterprises, charity trustees and individuals wishing to establish charities. Her particular focus is on constitutional and governance matters including different legal structures and the duties and responsibilities of charity trustees. Catherine operates across the health, education, arts, public and private sectors and advises a diverse client portfolio including national, regional and local charities, not-for-profit organisations, community groups, schools, colleges, churches, welfare and professional associations.
Ceri-Sian Williams
Ceri-Siân is a Senior Associate in our social care team. She specialises in defending claims against local authorities including defending allegations of abuse against employees of a local authority, foster parents, and professional negligence against social workers. With experience of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, Ceri Siân was heavily involved in the case of Armes v Nottinghamshire County Council (2017), the leading case on vicarious liability for foster carers.Her technical expertise is called upon be a range of clients and she also oversees our recovery project.
Charlotte Harpin
Insurance and Public Risk
Chloe Poskitt
Chloe specialises in commercial litigation and contentious insolvency. She advises clients on breaches of contract; misrepresentation claims; supplier/consumer disputes; breach of restrictive covenants; injunctions; shareholder disputes; fraud; office holder claims; and cross-border recoveries. Chloe acts for both public/private sector clients across a variety of sectors. Chloe has a particular specialism in cases that involve breaches of restrictive covenants by senior executives; contentious IT matters; defective goods/services; and disputes in the energy, manufacturing and retail sectors. She has maturity and experience way beyond her years of qualification, developed through her constant dedication to providing clients with the service normally expected at partner level.
Chris Stark
Chris is a partner and joined the firm in January 2013 having worked in-house at a large acute NHS Trust for four years. He is a solicitor advocate (civil) and regularly appears in both the Court of Protection and the Coroner’s court, conducting his own advocacy.
Chris brings a wealth of experience and a varied practice from his time working in-house and has subsequently undertaken long term secondments in both a major independent health sector provider and a mental health Trust. He sits on an acute NHS Trust Clinical Ethics Committee and specialises in in all aspects of mental health law, mental capacity, Court of Protection and coronial law. He is a regular speaker at training events across the country.
Chris Emm
Chris specialises in acting for education sector clients on a wide range of property matters, academy conversions and the acquisition and disposal of school land. He has personally advised in relation to over 500 schools nationally on the property aspects of their conversion to academy status, as well as numerous rebrokerage projects, both freehold and leasehold. This includes dealing with shared use agreements, third party access, PFI, City Learning Centres, chance to share agreements and other issues affecting school sites. Chris has also been involved on the property aspects of BSF and PSBP projects. Such is his reputation, Chris was headhunted by the Education and Skills Funding Agency for a 12-month secondment in 2013 to assist in the delivery of the property transactions required under the Free Schools, Studio Schools and UTC Programmes.
Christian Dingwall
Christian qualified as a solicitor in 1986 and joined Browne Jacobson in 2019 as a partner in its Commercial Health team. He advises health and social care clients, including many NHS trusts, foundation trusts, commissioners and other bodies, about commercial and corporate law, governance, compliance and regulation.
Christian specialises in organisational and service transformation in the NHS and wider health sector, including, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, integrated care partnerships and reconfiguration. Legal directories rate him as a top lawyer for health transactions.
Christine Hughes
Christine is an Associate Solicitor in IPR defending personal injury claims.
Claire Cornish
Claire specialises in the defence of claims brought against a variety of professionals. She has extensive experience in defending solicitor negligence claims and advising professional indemnity insurers in respect of policy coverage issues.
Claire Bridgman
Claire is an associate in the Birmingham team, having trained at Browne Jacobson in 2011-2013 and qualified as a solicitor in 2013. Claire is an experienced litigator, having a background in defending clinical negligence claims which included defending numerous cases to trial and pursuing a case to the Court of Appeal. More recently, Claire specialises in Court of Protection and Inquest work. She has extensive experience in the latter, and regularly appears in Coroner’s Court providing advocacy for clients and supporting witnesses through the process. Claire also regularly advises on a broad range of advisory matters including DOLS, Mental Capacity and responsible commissioner issues. Claire frequently provides training to NHS Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups on a variety of topics including Coronial Law and Process, Court skills, Consent and the Mental Capacity Act.
Claire Burns
Claire (legal director) has over 17 years’ experience, acting for several household names including Walgreens Boots Alliance, a luxury retail brand group (LVMH-confidential) in the retail sector and DPDGroup in relation to storage and distribution. Claire has substantial experience of work at prime retail locations such as New Bond Street, Sloane Street Mayfair and Covent Garden and in several large shopping destinations and at Bicester Village. Claire is also the go-to person for logistics instructions, having acted for DPDGroup on all of their warehouse acquisitions this year and for Alloga.
Clare Shepherd
Clare is a Senior Associate and joined the firm in April 2020 having worked in-house at a large Local Authority for three years. She regularly appears in both the Court of Protection and the Coroner’s court, conducting her own advocacy.
Clare Auty
Clare is head of the Commercial Health Team and leads the Independent Health and Social Care practice across the firm. Clare is also a member of the Board. She is a proven corporate/commercial solicitor and executive with over 15 years’ in-house experience managing legal functions, eight at board level. She has over 15 years healthcare experience. Clare has direct provider experience from being on the Board of a mental health provider a private acute hospital. She understands the numerous challenges faced by providers. Clare has a breadth of legal knowledge including core commercial and corporate law to employment, pensions, risk and governance. Clare specialises in health and social care transactions, service transfers, commercial contracts and healthtech.
Colin Peck
Business & Professional Risk
Craig Elder
Craig is a Partner in Browne Jacobson’s Government and Infrastructure Team and takes a lead on major projects, procurements and high-value local and central government work. Craig has over fifteen years’ experience advising public and private sector bodies in relation to PFI, PPP and other long term commercial arrangements.
Cynthia Watts
Cynthia has over 25 years’ experience defending public bodies, initially within the health sector. She specialises in the defence of civil claims brought against local authorities and the police, inquests and other advisory work. Civil claims work includes personal injury, Human Rights Act, Equality Act, abuse, claims against social services departments, misfeasance, wrongful arrest or detention and malicious prosecution.
Dai Durbridge
Business Services: Education
Dale Collins
Dale is a partner specialising in regulatory crime, particularly health and safety, environmental and food safety breaches. He is a solicitor advocate, holding his Higher Rights qualification, and has been a criminal advocate for over 25 years, appearing before Magistrates’ and Crown Courts and other tribunals. Dale, as a recognised leader in health and safety, was for over 10 years a prosecutor advocate for the Health and Safety Executive, representing it in many of its largest cases and was their chosen advocate for quarry related investigations. He now devotes all of his time to assisting and representing multi-national businesses and SMEs in relation to regulatory investigations and prosecutions. He is regularly instructed in fatal accident matters assisting throughout the investigation and representing the organisation at the inquest and court hearings. He holds an MA in Environmental Law and is instructed regionally by manufacturing and farming businesses regarding environmental breaches and pollution incidents. His vast experience leads to him being invited to speak at national conferences where he speaks on various health and safety topics and the practical effects of a regulatory investigation and prosecution.
Daljit Kaur
Senior Associate, Daljit, joined Browne Jacobson following over 11 years in local government and works within the firm’s Business Services team supporting our education clients.
She specialises in providing pastoral advice to schools, academies and educational establishments within the education sector as well providing support for appeals against EHC Plans and Disability Discrimination in the First Tier Tribunal.
She also advises clients on Freedom of Information requests and Data Protection.
Damian Whitlam
Damian is a Partner in our Nottingham office and acted for the Defendant Justyna Zeromska-Smith v United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust [2019] EWHC 980 (QB); [2019] 4 WLUK 293 – a case of significance with regard toi anonymity order and secondary victims in psychiatric damages (and cited in the Court of Appeal And commented upon in leading practitioner textbooks).
Damian is currently engaged in a project with NHS Resolution and the University of Nottingham seeking to improve complaint responses provided to patients by NHS organisations. Working with other stakeholders (including the PHSO), it is hoped this will help NHS organisations resolve patients concerns effectively.
He leads teams of lawyers advising on claims covering a wide breadth of value and complexity, including particularly claims involving mental health and an ongoing high profile group action.
David Henderson
David is a New Zealand enrolled barrister and solicitor and Chartered Accountant with a background working for a Big-Four accounting firm and Australian bank advising in the taxation and financial services sector. David advises on financial services disputes and regulation and also works closely with startups in the FinTech sector.
David Toulmin Van Sittert
David specialises in complex and high value defendant clinical negligence claims representing both general practitioners and consultants.
David Harris
David rejoined Browne Jacobson as a Professional Development Lawyer in the property department responsible for training, precedents, updates, Lexcel and general know-how.
He previously worked in education, lecturing and tutoring on the Legal Practice Course, the Graduate Diploma in Law and the LLB at Nottingham Trent University.
Before moving into education, David worked as a Solicitor at Browne Jacobson dealing with all aspects of commercial property work before joining Nottingham Trent University.
Dawn Lobley
Dawn is a highly experienced Legal Director with over 19 years’ experience in all aspects of employment law and has been involved in numerous complex, high value and high profile employment issues. Dawn works for a wide variety of clients including those in the public sector as well as commercial clients. She has a particular expertise and experience in dealing with complex tribunal claims. She also regularly advises commercial and public sector clients on TUPE issues.
Derek Bambury
Business and professional risk.
Derek Bambury
Derek specialises in all aspects of professional and institutional default, management liability, insurance coverage and contentious insolvency.
Dominic Swift
Dominic Swift is a partner in the Real Estate team and is also the chair of The Evolve Multi Academy Trust.
Dominic has 30 years’ experience working within the commercial property field and specialises in complex projects, appreciated by his clients for bringing not only legal expertise but also strong project management skills. His clients welcome his “hands on and can do attitude”.
Dominic has project managed many academy conversions and advised a number of free schools focusing particularly on strategic site assembly. He has also played a major role in developing and delivering new services to help academy trusts in their strategic planning for the rapidly changing world they face.
Dominic Buckley
Property
Ed Anderson
Business and Professional Risk
Ed Pollard
Ed is a partner in the firm and specialises in health advisory work to include serious medical treatment matters, mental health, inquests, Court of Protection, fitness to practise, mental capacity, the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, human rights and judicial review. Ed works with many NHS Trusts, national NHS commissioners, NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups and private health providers across the country. He also has significant experience of assisting insurers in all aspects of their cover, with particular focus on fitness to practise proceedings and inquests.
Emily Addai
Emily is an employment specialist with 9 years experience, who advises both public and private sector clients in a wide range of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. These include disciplinary procedures and grievances, tribunal claims, unfair dismissal, redundancies and restructures, contractual issues, TUPE advice, reviewing of policies and procedures, discrimination and whistleblowing.
Emma Wake
Emma is a Senior Associate in the Construction team, based in Birmingham. Emma has experience in advising a range of clients including employers and developers, main contractors, consultants and local authorities on a variety of issues, focusing primarily on dispute resolution. Her experience includes litigation, adjudication, mediation and other forms of ADR.
Emma Grant
Associate, Emma, joined Browne Jacobson as the Professional Development Lawyer for Business Services, being responsible for supporting the department in relation to their precedent documents, know-how bank and ongoing training. She is also involved in providing technical support on complex matters and works with the firm’s risk and compliance team. Emma has over 10 years’ experience of advising on corporate transactions – including acquisitions and disposals of companies and businesses, management buy-outs and buy-ins, as well as group reorganisations. Emma has also advised on various company law aspects, including: the formation of partnerships and LLPs corporate governance and compliance issues directors’ and company secretaries’ duties shareholder agreements and joint venture agreements share capital issues, including reductions of capital and buybacks advising on procedures involved in company general meetings advising shareholders regarding their rights and in connection with shareholder disputes. Emma has acted for a varied client base, from private individuals and owner managed businesses to large private companies and listed plcs.
Emma Hinton
Emma heads up the Birmingham team and is well known in the West Midlands market for delivering an excellent, efficient and straight-talking service to her clients – and as a result she has a loyal following. She has worked hard to use her style of delivery to expand her exclusive Midlands Santander Growth Capital relationship to a number of directors in the London GC team which has created a new workflow for the team. In addition to Santander she counts HSBC Birmingham, Natwest Birmingham TMT team and numerous CYB Birmingham teams as her key repeat funder-clients. This year Emma has built new relationships with Shawbrook and Metro (as a result of the firm’s recent panel appointment to both funders), Northedge, Oaknorth (a referral as a result of a very positive borrower experience on a transaction) and Thincats, all of which will expand and diversify the team’s workload in the future. Emma works on all types of financing transactions, has a keen interest in health as a sector and is very committed to the local West Midlands market.
Emma Rees
Emma is a Defendant Clinical Negligence Specialist with over 25 years' experience of acting for NHS Resolution and NHS Trusts in the defence of NHS hospitals and staff. She specialises in high value catastrophic injury claims particularly those relating to complex birth injury; complex neurological injury and acquired brain and spinal injury in both children and adults. She is experienced in the resolution of liability and quantum issues both in the course of litigation and by mediation and ADR.
This year notable cases she has managed include:
a. A complex cauda equina case where breach of duty was admitted but causation was denied. There were factual disputes as to symptoms present at the time of the presentation and as to the likely treatment timelines even with the management contended for. The parties agreed to adjourn a CCMC and to proceed to early mediation where the case was resolved and where the Claimant was provided with an opportunity to raise queries as to the care received.
b. An adult neurological injury claim relating to an alleged delay in diagnosis and treatment of a collapse of thoracic vertebrae which was alleged to have caused spinal cord compression. Causation was complex due to pre-existing comorbidities. The case was resolved by ADR.
c. A child neurological disability claim relating to the management of their mother during labour and delivery. Full pre-action admissions were made. A collaborative approach was adopted between the parties with judgment entered and a stay agreed in order to await a more definitive prognosis.
Emma Taylor
Emma is a Partner in our insolvency practice specialising in both corporate and personal, and contentious and non-contentious matters. As a psychology graduate, Emma’s professional career began in the legal department at Muller Dairy UK. She returned to College to convert to law before going on to qualify at Eversheds in 2009. Emma is highly experienced in all forms of insolvency procedure and practice.
The nature of insolvency referrals means that Emma has experience across a range of sectors including: retail, IT, education, local government, healthcare, construction, energy and agriculture. She is accustomed to acting in unusual situations and has a calming and methodical style which can help put clients at ease. Emma is regularly instructed to advise directors on their duties, on the risks of insolvency and on the appointment of insolvency practitioners through to the sale of assets and/or antecedent recovery actions.
Recent instructions include advising a sub-tenant on the effect of a Part 26 Restructuring Plan and obtaining an amendment to that Plan to avoid the immediate termination of those sub-leases; advising directors on the implications of the Loan Charge and on their liabilities as a result of entry into various tax avoidance schemes; acting for a buyer of a going concern media company from administrators; and obtaining a court order to appoint the majority directors’ choice of administrators in hostile circumstances.
Fiona Butler
Fiona has developed a broad professional disciplinary practice in education and healthcare over the last 21 years. Praised for ‘stellar advice which takes pitfalls into account’, she is now a trusted legal advisor to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) and sits as Legal Advisor to the Professional Conduct Committee of the Chartered Institute of Building.
Fiona is a key name in a highly responsive team has strategically advised both the Teaching Regulation Agency and Department of Education in relation to the first ever case in which a teacher was prosecuted for failing to comply with the Prevent Duty as defined by s.26(1) of the Counter-terrorism and Security Act 2015.
Fiona’s health practice sees her instructed in a wide range of cases from simple ‘documentary’ inquests to complex Article 2 cases, often with a high media profile. She has acted on behalf of NHS Trusts (acute, mental health, community and ambulance), local authorities, education settings, security regulators and insurers both locally and nationally.
Fiona is a registered pupil supervisor with the Bar Standards Board and having pioneered the way for Browne Jacobson to become an approved Pupillage Training Organisation in 2010 and has successfully trained four barristers and assisted with the training of four others.
Francis Mackie
Francis has over 30 years of experience in the London (re)insurance market. He joined Browne Jacobson in February 2017 as Partner based in the London office.His experience covers a wide range of insurance and reinsurance sectors, mainly dealing with dispute, advice and overage issues, with particular experience in energy, professional indemnity, political risks/contract frustration, commercial property, financial institutions/D&O, pharmaceutical/product liability, contingency risks, binding authorities/MGA’s and a range of reinsurances such as the excess of loss market . His practice is well known in the London Market and International Arbitration arena, where he has run arbitrations in London, Bermuda, and the US and Europe. His dispute practice also includes significant London Commercial Court cases/disputes over the years.
Gabor Taller
Gabor has a recognised expertise in social housing development work and complex funding work and has led on the securitisation of more than £1bn of affordable housing over the last 5 years. Additionally, Gabor is currently acting for major national housing association clients assisting in the delivery of thousands of much needed affordable housing dwellings. Clients include (amongst others) Platform, EMH, NCHA, Longhurst, Midland Heart, Minster Property Group and Tuntum.
Gabor (and the team as a whole) is sought out by an extensive range of clients because of this social housing expertise; including not only housing associations but also private-sector developers, funders and public bodies.
Gareth Davies
Gareth leads our Private Equity practice in the West Midlands from our Birmingham office as part of our wider Corporate team. Gareth is part of an award winning and industry recognised team (Real Deals 2021). He is recognised by Private Equity Sponsors and Management Teams as commercial, always available and able to get deals done. In addition to his Private Equity practice, Gareth acts for corporate clients ranging from global corporations (Europe and the US in particular) to UK based PE portfolio assets, SME’s and OMB’s.
Gareth has advised on multiple transactions across many different sectors, including technology, construction and real estate, education, energy and infrastructure, healthcare and manufacturing. Gareth is a member of our Financial Services and Insurance FMG focussing on Private Equity Sponsors.
Clients of Gareth’s include Palatine Private Equity, NorthEdge, LDC, Apiary Capital, BGF, Altia, PBE Group, Sodexo, Equable Partners, Manor Adventure, MSQ Partners, LearnPro/XVR, Access2Music and Radiant Financial Services.
Gary Oldroyd
Gary has been a professional indemnity lawyer for more than 20 years dealing with claims against a wide variety of professionals. He has also dealt with significant coverage disputes on behalf of primary and excess layer insurers. Gary has been involved in some of the largest and highest profile claims against solicitors and has been ranked as a leader in his field for more than 10 years
Gavin Cummings
Business Services/Corporate Finance
Gemma Corlett
Gemma is a Senior Associate who specialises in defending high value clinical negligence claims for NHS Resolution and healthcare Trusts and has a real talent for client relationship building. Gemma has a long history in the health sector and a wealth of experience of acting in claims from the patient, NHS and private clinicians’ perspectives, and it shows. Our largest client has made a point of singling her out for praise for her grip of exactly what they want. Despite a stretching caseload with an average damages reserve of £10-15million per case and her supervision of others, Gemma also recognises the need to play her part in the legal fabric in Manchester and also finds time to support the Manchester office profile. She led the recent, incredibly successful, ‘12 days of Christmas’ initiative, planning joint events and donations to 12 different charities and arranging the media coverage.
Gerard Hanratty
Gerard heads Browne Jacobson’s Health Sector and continues to be at the forefront of advising the NHS nationally and health sector overall on the development of Integrated Care Systems and major service reconfiguration projects. He is regularly sought for advice on all matters relating to public law, especially when public bodies face challenging decisions and he has successfully defended many judicial reviews. His expertise and pragmatic approach helps clients deliver on their plans and understand how to deal with challenges. The coming year will bring further work on the developing health and social care system, as well as advice on how to meet the challenges of introducing digital technology into the sector.
Hannah Rice
Senior Associate, Hannah, specialises in personal injury law; supporting solicitor handling large loss cases relating to road traffic accidents, employers’ and public liability claims.
Heather Caddy
Since joining Browne Jacobson in 2013 as a Senior Associate, Heather has provided specialist advice and support to both public (NHS England, NHS Acute Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, Ambulance Services, Clinical Commissioning Groups) and independent health sector organisations as well as individual healthcare practitioners. More recently, her practice interest has expanded, to include Court of Protection, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and Mental Health Law. Very recently Heather impressed the team with the way she cut through a complex mental health matter concerning the interplay between the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Mental Health Act 1983 and the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions relating to this area.
Heather is a really versatile healthcare lawyer, which was of vital importance when she joined our then quite small team in 2013 and she continues to play her part as trusted advisor to our clients both directly and a really knowledgeable and friendly go-to for our trainees and others joining us who are new to the healthcare team and its specialist work.
Heather Mitchell
Heather leads the employment law side of the firm’s successful education sector practice. She is an Associate in the London’s employment team, having been at the firm for over eight years. Heather has extensive experience in providing strategic advice to large Multi Academy Trusts on complex staffing matters. She specialises in advice to senior teams on resolving high profile staffing matters as well as large scale restructures and representing her clients at the Employment Tribunal.
She speaks regularly at national conferences including those of the Association of School and College Leaders, Freedom and Autonomy for Schools – National Association, the National Association of School Business Management, Optimus and the Academies Finance Directors ‘Super 10’ forum
Helen Simm
Helen advises corporate and individual clients within investigations and prosecutions by the major regulators including the Serious Fraud Office, Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency and Financial Conduct Authority.
Helen Forman
Helen has over 13 years of costs experience in both the Claimant and Defendant market, with extensive experience of a spectrum of civil litigation, personal injury and medical negligence type cases. Helen deals with cases of all levels of value and complexity, from the most straightforward matters to the high value, complex and novel. From the initial drafting of a schedule of costs, through to detailed assessment if required, Helen manages her files with an emphasis on maximising costs recovery for the client. Helen uses her knowledge to obtain the best result in the shortest time frame possible. Helen’s approach to costs and personable style ensures that her client’s receive the best possible service at all times. Helen also has experience of undertaking client Audits and providing internal and external training courses and also assists with the management and development of the costs team.
Helen Morgan
Helen is a Senior Associate in the corporate team and has experience advising on all aspects of corporate work.
Helen specialises in complex group reorganisations often involving capital reduction demergers, dividends, capital reductions, intra-group business and asset transfers, reorganisations of share capital, share-buybacks and s.110 schemes and leads the team in this area.
Helen also has experience providing technical company law advice, advising on the corporate aspects of Family Constitutions and advising registered societies, LLPs, property management companies and companies limited by guarantee.
Helen Badger
Helen specialises in employment law and acts largely for public sector clients including the NHS and the education sector. Helen has represented clients in complex Tribunal claims and has particular experience in defending whistleblowing claims against the NHS. She also has expertise in handling difficult employee relations cases often involving multiple allegations of discrimination, whistleblowing, breakdowns in relationships, mental health issues and fitness to practise. Helen regularly advises clients on non-contentious matters including TUPE, workforce reorganisation and interpretation of terms and conditions of employment and has been a key member of the team advising on NHS trust mergers. A recent example of Helen’s expertise includes advising an NHS Trust on a complex and potentially high profile unfair dismissal and whistleblowing claim by a doctor. The claim had significant reputational and financial risks for the client given the intense publicity around whistleblowers in the NHS. The Claimant was supported by a number of high profile NHS whistleblowers who have campaigned vociferously in relation to the plight of NHS whistleblowers. Their involvement meant that the pending proceedings were likely to have attracted national and regional press interest which was a significant reputational risk for the client at a time when it had very recently merged with another organisation and was under increased scrutiny. Through challenging negotiations with the Claimant’s representative and sensitive discussion with the NHS regulator who was required to approve settlement, Helen secured agreement of all parties to enter into a mediation. A two day mediation resulted in a settlement of the claim for a sum which was around 10% of the Claimant’s valuation of his claim and approximately 25% of the sum the Claimant was willing to settle for at the start of mediation. The case client’s comments included “Helen has engaged in hours of discussion with the Claimant’s legal team to narrow the issues and the massive gap between the parties on quantum. Helen has attended meetings at Board level to ensure the Board were fully sighted during this period and was also pivotal in the Trust securing Treasury approval to settle (which in itself is exceptional). Her dogged determination to get to a settlement at mediation and her skill and expertise in doing so secured a settlement that will enable all parties to move on, avoid the need for an ET Hearing and deliver best value for money to the taxpayer. Helen is an asset to the team at Browne Jacobson and I wanted to write formally to ensure the Trust’s thanks are on record”.
Helen O'Dwyer
Helen leads the delegated authority claims handling team in Nottingham. This handles a high volume (thousands) of claims a year for FTSE 250 insurers specialising in professional negligence, D&O, public liability property damage and employment practices liability insurance. Helen has particular experience handling claims against non-traditional professions in the SME market ranging from letting agents, wedding photographers to funeral directors. Helen also has good experience of policy coverage investigations and disputes.
Helen Ayers
Helen is a Senior Associate in the Health, Advisory and Litigation Team (HAL) at Browne Jacobson. She runs a complex, high value portfolio of cases including birth injury, spinal, brain injury, and amputation claims. She supervises trainee solicitors and junior solicitors within the team. She is a Deputy Team Leader for a NHS Resolution team. Helen regularly delivers training to HAL and clients. A particular interest is quantum and she delivers training on basic and complex quantum. She also delivers training on Fatal Accident Claims.
Helen Rideout
Helen has over 20 years’ experience, defending high profile civil liability claims for commercial insurers and organisations in the public and private sector. Helen’s background in health and care sees her regularly advising clients where there is an overlap between health and care issues in claims, including issues of human rights breaches, professional negligence, public liability allegations and fatality claims. Given the nature of these claims many carry an element of press coverage and reputational risk and Helen’s clients turn to her to coordinate response to investigations by police, HSE, safeguarding and CQC together with coordinated press releases (https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tate-modern-attacker-care-cut-21458655 - confidential) as well as handling the complex civil claims. Helen’s clients include the NHS Resolution, for which she is the national Nominated Partner lead and is responsible for the strategic direction of non-clinical claims. With her specialist health and care background, Helen has been advising the DHSC and NHS Resolution through the Covid-19 pandemic on policies and emerging risks (confidential). Helen is also lead partner for Markel (UK) Ltd and Nottinghamshire County Council, advising on their complex claims and supporting with their organisation’s learning, risk profile and claims strategies.
Helen Cairns
Principal Associate
Helen E Taylor
Associate, Helen, is based in Manchester and specialises in property transactional work. Helen has over seven years’ experience advising clients on a wide range of property matters.
Herjit Khinda
Herjit has a large portfolio of claims consisting mostly of insurer-backed employers’ and public liability claims. These range from high value claims with some cases exceeding reserves of £750,000. She also deals with high value multi-track motor claims. She has a particular interest in counter fraud having overseen the counter fraud team in Nottingham and Birmingham with a portfolio of claims involving LVIs, staged/contrived accidents, multi-party fraud and bogus passenger claims. Her counter fraud experience particulary with the Health clients has seen a number of successful repudiations which invariably resulted in recovery of our costs. Herjit plays a key part in delivering an exceptional quality service to all of our motor clients; ensuring team compliance with SLAs and internal protocols. She is also responsible for delivering key management information on a monthly basis, which outlines the status of each case, up to date reserves and current defence spend. More recently she has advised and is defending claims where bullying and harrassment form the basis of their allegations; as well as dealing with claims involving cyber crime.
Holly Chadwick
Holly is a Senior Associate in the Browne Jacobson Social Housing team
Iain Blatherwick
Iain joined the firm in 1993, specialising in corporate transaction work for both private and public sector clients, as well as partnership and LLP issues. He became a Partner in 1999 and then head of our business services department in 2008. In May 2009, Iain took on the role of Managing Partner and over 11 years presided over a period of unprecedented growth and activity for the firm, before stepping down in April 2020. Iain now has a focus on Governance and Leadership, with three key aspects 1) executive leadership coaching - Iain is a qualified and accredited executive coach 2) business structures – corporates, family companies, reorganisations, LLPs and partnerships, and 3) private client – wills, trusts and estate planning.
Ian Deakin
Ian is an employment partner and leads our Manchester team. Ian advises clients across the full spectrum of employment issues including litigation, strategic issues and day to day advice. Ian specialises in Employment Tribunal litigation as well as Employment Status and TUPE transfers. Last year’s Legal 500 entry stated that Ian gives “sound and commercial advice”. Ian continues to support the growth of the employment team in the North West and nationally and is a recognised and formidable employment tribunal advocate.”
Ian Long
Ian is a Nominated Partner for NHS Resolution and works on complex, high value and high profile claims. Ian has a close working relationship with NHS Resolution and is regularly involved in the client’s working parties and projects. He is a Divisional Lead responsible for 3 of our national teams. He has a particular interest in wrongful birth claims and cases involving the ambulance service. He is client partner for 2 of our large Trust clients and leads on our client relationship management work for Trusts. He is a member of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers Sector Focus Team for clinical negligence charged with developing policy, engaging in thought-leadership and facilitating training for members.
Imogen Holmes
Partner in the firm’s Lincoln office, with eight years post-qualification experience in tax planning, estate and trust administration and mental capacity matters. Working knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and o fhealth and social care legislation means that Imogen is often involved in complex applications to the Court of Protection for vulnerable young adults/the elderly, as well as healthcare meetings and challenges to local authority funding decisions/allegations of abuse. Current caseload includes a number of complex, high value estate and trust matters with contentious issues. Qualifications with STEP and ACTAPS gives Imogen a unique edge in dealing with these cases which require a detailed understanding of the legal position including the Settled Land Act, inheritance tax and the practical application of reliefs (APR/BPR and working farmers relief) combined with an approach that focuses on dispute resolution and the best outcome for clients. Imogen works regularly with other professionals in tax planning matters for business owners, clients with agricultural assets or families with complex needs to suggest and implement practical and dynamic solutions. Following a recent talk at an NFU seminar, the branch rep commented that it was ’the best I have been to in my NFU career ... ‘, and client comments include: ‘Main strengths ... accessibility, discretion, integrity, genuine interest in the client, anticipation of the client’s needs and a desire to resolve all legal issues as quickly and efficiently as possible’.
Jacqui Atkinson
Jacqui joined us as our national Head of Employment Healthcare in June 2018. She joined the firm having previously spent 10 years establishing and heading up the Capsticks employment team in Birmingham and wanted to move to a practice which would be ready to meet the changing demands of the NHS as it continues to transform itself into system working and integrated healthcare systems.
Jacqui has over 20 years’ experience in advising Trust Boards and senior NHS managers on employment issues in the health and care sector. In the last year Jacqui has provided thought leadership on many key workforce issues arising out of Covid-19 and has helped to support healthcare clients to support them as the system transformed to become flexible and agile to meet the demands of Covid 19. This has included supporting CCGs and NHS Trusts in sharing the workforce across the NHS and from the private sector. From a very early stage Jacqui was instrumental in setting up a Covid-19 information hub for clients and delivering webinars nationally on key issues to support the sector with one of the most challenging periods in the history of the NHS.
The expending employment healthcare practice now comprises a client base which ranges from CCGs, Provider organisations, care homes, dental and GP practices and independent healthcare hospitals. This enables us to provide employment expertise, policy advice and thought leadership which reflects our thorough understanding of the healthcare system as a whole.
Jacqui has built up a strong reputation for her strategic advice, tactics and expertise in advising Trusts on a whole range of employment issues. She is known within the region as the go to lawyer for managing Doctors performance, conduct and capability issues.
Jacqui Atkinson
Jacqui joined us as our national Head of Employment Healthcare in June 2018. She joined the firm having previously spent 10 years establishing and heading up the Capsticks employment team in Birmingham. Jacqui has 20 years’ experience in advising Trust Boards and senior NHS managers on employment issues in the health and care sector. Her appointment also bolsters the firm’s healthcare practice. She is a member of the Browne Jacobson Health Sector Board. The expanding employment healthcare practice comprises a client base which ranges from CCGs, Provider organisations, care homes, dental and GP practices and independent healthcare hospitals. This enables us to provide employment expertise, policy advice and thought leadership reflecting our thorough understanding of the whole healthcare system. Jacqui has built up a strong reputation for her strategic advice, tactics and expertise in advising Trusts on managing Doctors performance, conduct and capability issues. She has led multi-disciplinary lawyer teams supporting clients facing serious investigations involving the Police, GMC, NMC and the Coroner. She has also advised NHS Trusts on regulatory issues such as fitness to practice and duty of candour.Her wider employment practice includes advising on whistleblowing, cultural reviews, complex disciplinary/grievance cases, discrimination, TUPE, redundancy, organisational change and mergers. She is a highly experienced litigator and regularly advises clients on the strategy and management of defending ET claims. She is also a robust litigator. She was the lawyer who successfully led at all stages from ET to the Court of Appeal on the age discrimination case of Woodcock v Cumbria PCT. She also plays a major role in client training and development across the healthcare sector.
Jade Rodwell
Jade is a senior associate in the Birmingham Health, Advisory and Litigation team. Jade acts on behalf of NHS Resolution and various NHS Trusts dealing with clinical negligence claims.
James Tait
James is head of our Birmingham employment practice and a partner in the team dealing predominantly with private sector work. He has 19 years’ experience of all aspects of employment law dealing with both contentious and non-contentious issues. He deals with the firm’s tech, retail and manufacturing clients.
He has been involved in a number of high profile reported cases in the EAT, High Court and Court of Appeal. He has particular experience of advising on:
cross border transactions, advising on TUPE compliance including warranties and indemnities
protecting confidentiality/trade secrets and enforcing restrictive covenants for the purposes of business protection
discrimination and whistleblowing claims.
James regularly trains the department’s clients with other members of our team and speaks at local and national conferences on employment law. He has provided multi-day training to a number of the firm’s international clients. He has published many articles for the local and industry press.
James also undertakes international employment work and is a member of the firm’s Pangea Employment group, which is a group of international lawyers, and sits on the firm’s international desk. James is also a board member of the British American Business Council in the Midlands which is an organisation aimed at promoting transatlantic trade and business. He is also a trustee of Performances Birmingham Limited which manages the world renowned Town and Symphony Halls in Birmingham.
James Arrowsmith
James leads our social care and safeguarding practice, which advises on childrens and adult services issues, and deals with safeguarding and abuse related claims arising in health and care settings. James has broad experience of advising clients tackling complex problems and incidents, drawing together a team with key expertise to address every facet. These include advice on statutory duuties and guidance, provider failure, inquiries, allegations against staff and the disclosvery of large scale safeguarding failures or abuse. He is passionate about working with clients to achieve outcomes that matter to them.
James Fawcett
James is a highly experienced partner leading our large Technical Claims team that spans both our London and Nottingham offices. He specialises in Defendant insurance litigation, with particular expertise in complex personal injury litigation and claims arising from equality and Human Rights legislation. His very large over-arching team includes our local authority team, motor team, commercial insurance specialists, our education sub-team, housing team, and he also manages a sub-team which specialises in pursuing business recovery and debt actions. James’ breadth of expertise means he is well placed to collaborate across our broader practice both to enhance our offer and to continue to build the unique reputation his teams have developed to embed transferable skills.
He currently handles a varied caseload of complex, high value litigation, acting on behalf of educational establishments, Local Authorities, Public Bodies, as well as commercial and agricultural organisations. He has considerable experience in handling catastrophic injury claims, including cases involving traumatic brain injury, amputation, fatal accidents, disease and stress at work claims.
James works closely with a number of key clients, providing tailored training sessions, secondments, and advice on risk management issues. He will always look to immerse himself in the client’s philosophy and adapt his approach accordingly.
James has a growing reputation in the education sector.
James Busby
James specialises in banking & finance law and acts for banks, financial institutions and borrowers on a range of transactions including real estate finance, corporate acquisitions and general corporate lending.
Jeniz White
Jeniz is an Associate based in our London office.
Jeremy Arnold
Associate, Jeremy, specialises in defending PI claims, particularly surveyors, other property professionals and construction professionals. He has worked in-house at an insurer (Zurich), brokers (Lockton) and at a self-insured large company (Connells). He has worked in private practice undertaking all types of Defendant PI work as well as Claimant work, which were all claims on behalf of lenders against surveyors and solicitors. He has also had exposure to D&O and Cyber claims.
Jeremy Irving
Jeremy heads Browne Jacobson’s financial services and insurance regulatory practice, part of the firm’s broader offering to clients in the Financial Services and Insurance markets.
Jeremy’s practice covers both prudential (capital) and conduct regulation for risk-carriers (including banks, insurers and reinsurers) and intermediaries (including brokers, investment advisers and managing general agents). His practice is primarily focused on strategic advice for clients’ boards as well as their compliance, legal and risk functions. Central to this practice is advice on the growing regulatory requirements as to environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) sustainability and responsibility.
A principal area of advice is the regulatory risk management of strategic projects – both in terms of value protection (eg dispute resolution involving competitors, or former counterparties or employees), and growth / value enhancement (eg corporate deals and commercial ventures). The advice involves the effective handling of regulators’ actual or prospective responses to the aims, methodologies and outcomes of such projects, and especially the handling of internal inquiries and investigations, and resultant regulatory notifications. Jeremy frequently advises on issues arising from firm authorisations, changes in control, challenges to capital adequacy (in terms of capital requirements, allocation, typology and values), cross-border business, appointed representative and other delegation / distribution arrangements, and senior manager approvals.
Products and sectors on which Jeremy advises include consumer credit, derivatives, funds, general and life insurance (in particular on the UK implementation of ‘Solvency 2’ and the ‘Insurance Distribution Directive’), payment services and electronic money.
Jo Phillips
Legal Director (New Zealand Qualified)
Joanne Mulvenna
Senor Associate, Joanne, specialises in personal injury, defendant litigation, employers liability, public liability and has a wide range of experience working with insurers.
Joanne Pruden
Joanne is a Partner specialising in Defendant litigation and dispute resolution, and heads up the Technical Claims and Social Care Team in Exeter.
Joanne has advised the NHS on claims under the Liabilities for Third Party Scheme since 2006 and has been Nominated Partner for our Exeter office since June 2016. Her responsibilities include supervising the team in the Exeter office, on the whole spectrum of complexity and value of civil litigation matters and providing delegated authority instructions where appropriate. She is the point of contact for NHS Resolution and NHS Trusts and drives forward a high quality professional service, providing good value and delivery on client objectives.
Joanne's client base includes a range of insurers, local authorities and NHS trusts. Her practice covers the full breadth of complex and high value Civil Liability claims and she has particular expertise in local authority work and claims against public bodies having previously worked in-house for a unitary authority.
Joe Babos
Joe specialises in both contentious and non-contentious employment law matters across the firm’s sectors, including advising on employment tribunal claims, settlement agreements and day to day employment issues.
Joe Price
Business and Professional Risk
John Adams
John is a partner and head of Insolvency and Dispute Resolution in London leading a team specialising in both domestic and cross-border insolvency and commercial disputes. He has a specialism in contentious insolvency matters which often arise out of fraud such as his work advising the US Trustee of Bernard Madoff L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and the estate of Bernard L. Madoff. He advises on all aspects of asset investigation and recovery including in the context of corporate and personal insolvency.John has vast experience of recovery of all types of assets from the fraudster’s stereotypical Spanish properties to racehorses, bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.The fraud matters that John advises on often involve criminal or regulatory investigations running in tandem which requires liaising with the appropriate authority. John is also a great tactician and well versed in using the full litigation toolbox to achieve the desired outcome for his clients including worldwide freezing orders and third-party disclosure orders such as Norwich Pharmacal Orders.Although John is best known for his contentious insolvency and fraud work, he also advises on non-contentious insolvency matters including advising directors on the appointment of administrators or liquidators and advising on the sale or purchase of assets of insolvent companies.John is a member of several insolvency and fraud associations including: Insolvency Lawyers Association (ILA), R3 – Association of Business Recovery Professionals, INSOL Europe/International, Fraud Lawyers Association, London Solicitors Litigation Association, Financial Services Lawyers Association. In addition to regularly attending fraud and insolvency conferences, John is often invited to speak including at the INSOL Europe Annual Congress and the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime.
John Appleyard
John heads up a team of six costs specialities, provides costs services across the firm, dealing with a whole manner of costs litigation from the various teams and disciplines nationwide. The team is practiced in the costs of personal injury work (ELPL, RTA, health & disease) as well as dealing with professional risk & commercial cases. John has invaluable experience in dealing with costs management and the tactical ways to combat QOCS, ensuring that his clients recover as much as possible when they are entitled to doing so, as well as controlling legal spend across the board. On a day to day basis John’s case load is predominantly high value cases and technical advocacy, including significant group litigation from our social care teams, covering a range of disciplines.
Jon Snade
Jon is a partner in the national corporate team, based in London, specialising in advising on corporate transactions for SMEs, entrepreneurs and investors. Jon has a particular focus on advising high-growth technology companies and disruptive, tech-enabled businesses, including FinTech and InsurTech clients and has received recognition in the legal directories (Legal 500 and Chambers) for his expertise in the fields of venture capital, M&A and FinTech.
Jon guides and supports high-growth businesses and their stakeholders throughout the company growth lifecycle – from start-up to exit – and advises on a broad range of UK and cross-border private company transactions, including venture capital and private equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and reorganisations.
Jon is also a French speaker and an active member of the French Chamber of Great Britain.
Jonathan Hayden
Jonathan is client partner for a number of our CCG and NHS provider clients and leads many of our healthcare contracting projects.
Examples of recent work include being one of the partner leads on the merger of Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
He has co-ordinated our recent roundtable session across our health and care contacts considering the national consultation on the proposed Integrated Care Provider contract.
Jonathan Tardif
Commercial dispute resolution.
Jonathan Cook
Jonathan specialises in defendant public liability work including employers’, occupiers’ and highways liability cases from initial instruction to trial. Including small claims, fast and multi track work.
Jonathan Borer
Senior associate Jonathan’s confidence and commercial approach to complex transactions has seen him build work for an impressive client list in a relatively short space of time. Clients include names such as Inland Homes Plc and Bournville Village Trust. Jonathan’s focus is on property development, advising in relation to site assembly and acquisitions, disposals and general development work, for both private and public sector clients. He also covers investment sales and acquisitions and landlord and tenant work. His recent work includes advising on acquisitions of 500 unit and 580 unit residential led development schemes in Greater London for £21.5M and £28M respectively (and particularly complex dual disposals of the latter scheme to two purchasers for a total in excess of £50M), a £13.8M acquisition of a 325 unit residential led development site from Aviva and sub-sale to Clarion, the disposal of land for Homes England to Birmingham City Council for the development of the Athletes’ Village for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, an acquisition of land within a sustainable urban extension and subsequent multi-party negotiations relating to collaboration arrangements for the delivery of in excess of £250M of scheme infrastructure. Jonathan’s versatility has proven invaluable to his clients and his hard work and pragmatism are particularly valued by clients who frequently require work to be delivered within tight timescales.
Jonathan Newbold
Jonathan specialises in dealing with claims with a financial services or management liability element. He has particular expertise in policy coverage matters. He also regularly assists underwriters with the drafting of policy wording and advises insurers on strategy and risk management across professional indemnity books of business.
Jonathan is head of Browne Jacobson’s Financial & Professional Risks Group in Exeter, London and Nottingham, which comprises 12 Partners, 16 Solicitors and 8 Legal Assistants.
He is one of Browne Jacobson’s leading partners for insurance coverage disputes. He advises on both primary layer and excess layer insurance matters.
His coverage work has arisen primarily out of professional negligence matters but he has also received notable instructions in the context of product liability, property, public liability and employers’ liability covers.
He spends the majority of his time providing strategic advice to one of Browne Jacobson’s most significant clients, Hiscox Insurance Co Ltd. As part of his role as the partner with key responsibility for managing that client relationship Jonathan also takes responsibility for the delegated authority claims handling schemes that we successfully run for Hiscox in relation to many hundreds of professional liability and employment practices liability claims.
Jude Cummings
Jude specialises in professional negligence disputes defending particularly estate agents, solicitors, IFAs and insurance brokers. Also advises on policy coverage issues.
Judith Stone
Judith is an Associate in the Construction team, based in Birmingham.
Judith has experience working for a range of clients including: employers, main contractors and consultants. Judith primarily focuses on dispute resolution and her experience includes litigation, adjudication and expert determination.
Kassra Powles
Kassra specialises in development and strategic land transactions, acting for landowners on option and promotion agreements for housing led developments as well as acting for private developers and local authorities on mixed use and commercial developments. His experience of acting for a wide range of clients – landowners, developers, local authorities, promoters – gives Kassra an understanding of all the players in a property development and can guide clients through the competing demands and conflicts that will arise along the way.
Kate Bear
Kate specialises in defending historic abuse litigation, and negligence claims against professionals working in the social care, education and voluntary sectors. Particular expertise in multi-party group actions and complex failure to remove claims.
Katie Michelon
Katie joined Browne Jacobson as a trainee in 2007 and has nearly ten years of experience as an education lawyer. In her early career (2010), she completed a secondment to the in-house legal team at The Girls’ Day School Trust. She now advises maintained schools and academy trusts on a range of education law issues including governance, admissions, safeguarding, school intervention and parental complaints.
Katie has been heavily involved in the academy conversion programme following the implementation of the Academies Act 2010. She has advised on the corporate and commercial aspects of hundreds of academy projects including the creation and expansion of multi-academy trusts and the conversion of church schools, special schools and pupil referral units. She was the lead lawyer on the first hospital school conversion in the country. She now focuses largely on group projects, working closely with a number of multi-academy trusts on their expansion, including academy merger and re-brokerage projects.
Katie has also developed a particular area of expertise in school intervention and Ofsted advice and leads on this part of the firm’s practice. She provides advice to schools and academies who may be vulnerable to formal intervention measures from their local authority or the Secretary of State, including launching judicial review proceedings. She also supports schools with challenging Ofsted inspections and seeking delay to publication. As part of her work in the area of school intervention, Katie contributed to representations made to Parliament on the Education and Adoption Bill.
Katie regularly speaks at seminars and national conferences including, for example, the Optimus Child Protection conference and National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Annual Conference, as well as delivering bespoke training to governing bodies and senior leadership teams on topics such as exclusions, governance and safeguarding. She has also featured in the education press having written articles for publications such as Schools Week, The Voice (an Institute of Schools Business Leadership publication) and Attendance Matters and has been interviewed for education pieces in The Guardian and LexisPSL. She also regularly contributes to the Association of School and College Leader’s (ASCL) Leader magazine and has written briefing notes for the NAHT and Optimus as well as Browne Jacobson’s own newsletters and website. She has also delivered webinars on topics such as digital safeguarding, parental access to information and re-brokerage.
Katie leads a mentoring scheme with Greenwood Academies Trust which offers career and pastoral support to students at local academies, including one-to-one mentoring and work experience.
Kelly Miles
Kelly is a senior associate and specialises in clinical negligence on behalf of NHS Resolution and healthcare trusts.
Kelly Buckley
Kelly is a Partner in the Nottingham NHS Resolution team and has been actively involved in a number of the leading cases included within our submission, in particular [non-publishable matter 1]. Kelly has extensive experience of acting in high value and/or complex clinical negligence claims for NHS bodies including NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts and NHS England along with GPs and privately insured doctors.
Kelly has a wealth of understanding of the legal landscape regarding informed consent following her involvement in the leading Court of Appeal case of Shaw v Kovac. She has worked with NHS Trusts and clinicians to provide an insight into this important and developing area of law and medical ethics. See for example our video blog on consent. https://www.brownejacobson.com/health/training-and-resources/training-videos/2018/11/consent-for-clinicians
She is one of the team’s mediation champions and has considerable experience of mediating the most complex and sensitive cases. This includes successful resolution of a group action involving multiple patients, a very high value claim where a GP had suffered significant physical harm during childbirth and a teenage suicide case which was covered by BBC’s Panorama programme.
Kevin Lawson
Kevin advises upon complex and catastrophic injury claims across EL, PL and motor with an emphasis on high value claims. He has numerous claims valued between £5-£10m.
He has particular expertise in the areas of sport, equine and leisure having advised governing bodies and individuals in areas of motorsport, archery, golf, tennis, judo, triathlon, horse riding, climbing and karting.
Kevin’s support is often requested within days of a major incident occurring, working alongside insurers and their customers to proactively resolve a claim in a collaborative and cost effective way, whilst reducing settlement times and indemnity costs. Brand and reputation are key areas he pays particular attention to.
Kevin has particular expertise in rehabilitation support for those seriously injured. He has advised over 40 case managers on rehabilitation excellence this year.
Kevin also provides a wider advisory role to clients, encompassing provision of risk management advice to avoid incidents.
Beyond direct claims management, Kevin leads the commercial insurance casualty strategy for the firm, and is deputy head of the Insurance Sector. This includes delivery of client facing training, advice on operational change to streamline efficiency, market intelligence and product innovation.
Kevin’s key clients include Hiscox, The LTA, The PGA and Marble Arch.
Laura Hughes
Laura Hughes is public and administrative law lawyer, specialising in all aspects of decision making by public bodies. She regularly advises on governance, regulatory regimes, consultation, appeals, judicial reviews, planning law, environment and inquiries. Laura is client partner for a number of "household name" clients in the public sector, such as Welsh Government, the National Audit Office, Sports England, Natural Resources Wales, UK Sport, Qualifications Wales, Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Arts Council for England. She is trusted by clients to run their most high profile matters, and advise on matters of strategic importance. This year she has advised on a number of high profile and complex matters for her clients. She has advised Qualifications Wales in relation to all matters concerning the cancellation of exams in 2020 and 2021, and on how grading should occur in the absence of assessments. This involved regular attendance at QW Board, as well as being part of QW’s internal project team, and attending meetings with the Minister. She has also advised Northern Ireland Audit Office in relation to their extraordinary audit of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Welsh Government on Building Safety legislative and organisational reform, Natural Resources Wales on strategic flooding issues and UK Sport on governance issues associated with the This Girl Can campaign.
Leah Jones
Leah is a Partner in the Complex Claims and Social Care Team and, in addition to her full case load, she is also part of the leadership team, managing a team of lawyers. Leah has a broad client base of both public body and insurer clients. She regularly delivers bespoke training and workshops to clients and internally. Leah is technically excellent and has a busy case load of complex, high value and sensitive claims with a focus on claims in the health and social care and higher education sectors, both public and private. Her experience encompasses: actions relating to historical sexual abuse and neglect; claims for breach of HRA including Art 2 (Right to Life), Art 3 (inhumane treatment) Art 5 (Deprivation of Liberty), Art 6 (right to a fair trial) and Art 8 (Right to Private and Family Life); representation of intervener in public care proceedings; discrimination claims (primarily in higher education settings); actions for defamation and misuse of private information; stress, bullying and harassment at work claims; and catastrophic injury/disease claims for both public and employers’ liability e.g. mesothelioma; double amputation workplace injury.
Leanne Wareham
Leanne is a Partner in our commercial health practice specialising in the health and social care sector and also leads the firm’s dedicated independent healthcare group. She advises NHS trusts, private and third sector clients and GPs on corporate law and corporate governance and contracting issues. Her experience includes handling joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, disposals, management buy-outs and buy-ins and a variety of contractual matters including advising on the NHS Standard Contract. She also advises on LLP and partnership matters.
Lee Ashwood
Senior Associate
Lorna Hardman
Lorna heads the UK clinical negligence practice and is Browne Jacobson’s national lead partner for NHS Resolution, taking responsibility for the quality of all the work we do for this client and the support we provide to it and its member trusts. She has been a Nominated Partner since 2010 and has more than 25 years’ experience of advising NHS and private bodies on healthcare litigation, particularly complex and high value claims, inquests and serious incidents. She is also client partner for a number of Trusts.
Lorraine Longmore
Senior Associate, Lorraine, specialises in professional indemnity claims; defending professionals in the property, legal and financial services sectors; also advises in relation to insurance coverage disputes.
Lucy Worwood
Business services: private client and charities
Lucy Erskine
Lucy is a Senior Associate working in the Birmingham office. She works in the Medical Protection Society team handling claims brought against the society’s private members. Lucy specialises in clinical negligence and has experience of working at both Claimant and Defendant practices handling a wide variety of cases including birth injuries, orthopaedics, spinal injuries, plastic surgery and fatal accident claims, to name a few.
Lydia Michaelson-Yeates
Business Services
Lydia Cox
Lydia specialises in clinical negligence defendant litigation for the Medical Protection Society.
Mark Stubbs
Business and Professional Risk
Mark Barnett
Mark is a partner specialising in health and social care based in our Exeter office. He is an experienced litigator with a background in defending clinical negligence claims on behalf of the NHS, with a particular expertise in dealing with cases against mental health providers. This has included dealing with high profile and sensitive cases and advising on Human Rights Act allegations. Mark represents NHS trusts at inquests and has appeared before numerous coroners. He regularly provides training on coronial law and has represented health and social care providers in court, undertaking his own advocacy including on Article 2 and Jury inquests. Acutely conscious of how much anxiety inquests can cause, Mark is committed to supporting clinicians through the process, at the same time as ensuring the client is able to demonstrate wider learning from an organisational perspective. In doing so, Mark recognises the role the Trust’s legal advisers can have in improving patient safety and regularly supports Trusts in wider learning and training which can arise from patient safety incidents. Mark advises health and social care providers and commissioners on the Mental Capacity Act and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, including taking medical treatment and welfare cases to the Court of Protection. Notable cases include advising a CCG where significant safeguarding issues arose in a package of care for a service user, advising an NHS Trust in a case where a patient was refusing an amputation for an infected foot ulcer and withdrawal / withholding treatment from a patient with a prolonged neurological condition. Mark also advises on a wide range of other health law related issues, such as delayed transfers of care, duty of candour, confidentiality, safeguarding and consent to treatment. He is a regular first point of contact for many clients in the south west. Mark supports the health sector in diverse ways, having helped set up the MCA/DoLS forum, hosted in our Exeter office, as well as the MHA Forum, also run in our Exeter office. He presents at numerous seminars, networks and events on MCA / DoLS in the south west, as well as speaking at regional and national events. He also worked closely with an NHS Foundation Trust in the south west to set up and deliver a patient / family experience video to facilitate and widen learning and understanding of issues around the Mental Capacity Act.
Mark Hughes
Mark is a leading name in the East Midlands market, with a particular focus on private equity transactions for sponsors as well as Management Teams. In 2019, Mark led a number of transactions for long standing client SDL Property Services Group, advised Apiary Capital on its acquisition of G3, acted for the founders on the disposal of Scarsdale Vets to IVC, advised Littlefish on its investment by LDC, and acted for Belvoir Lettings plc on a number of transactions.
Mark Hymers
Mark joined the firm in 2008 and specialises in retail and commercial real estate including leases of property in high street, shopping centre, and business park locations. Mark also deals with lease management matters including consents for alterations and rebranding for retailers with large estates, and land management matters including the grant of easements for one of the UK’s largest landowners.
Mark advises national and international retailers including leading high street brands, as well as heritage conservation organisations and charities, and one of the UK’s leading construction consultancies.
Competencies: Mark specialises in commercial real estate, advising on a range of property matters including in relation to leases and 1954 Act renewals (where he has acted for landlords and tenants), acquisitions and disposals of leasehold and freehold land, as well as ongoing lease management matters such as agreements for works and consents to underlet or assign.
Mark Daniels
Intellectual property; Birmingham commercial; business services.
Mark Lewis
Mark Lewis heads up the firms property finance team which specialises in secured property lending. Mark’s team supports the banking and finance team as well as independently acting on property finance transactions (development, investment and agricultural). Mark specialises in acting for many banks and alternative debt providers as well as acting for borrowers. Mark provides practical commercial advice to our banking and corporate client’s in taking security over/lending against property. Mark is known for being easy to use, approachable, proactive and always prepared to “give a view”. Mark has strong connections across the East and West Midlands and as a result has bought in a number of banking clients/work into the team, specifically from HSBC, Natwest, Handelsbanken, Shawbrook, Clydesdale Bank and Cambridge & Counties Bank. Mark’s recent highlights include: advising a high street bank in a £15m forward fund of a mixed use development in Rickmansworth which is anchored by household name tenants; acting for Clydesdale Bank in the funding of the purchase of a 96,000 square foot warehouse in Leicester acting for a high street bank in a £9.3m hotel development in Chester; advising a two bank syndicated club on its £80m lend to an independent healthcare acting for the sellers on the MBO of Genesis Dental Group which comprised of 11 dentist sites acting for PCT Healthcare Ltd in its £80m acquisition of 64 pharmacies from WR Evans (Chemist) Limited. This was Insider East Midlands Dealmakers Awards 2016 ‘Deal of the Year’
Marlene Henderson
Business and professional risk/financial and professional risk.
Martin Cannon
Martin is a Partner with over 30 years of experience of advising clients in the construction industry having started within the legal department of one of the UK’s largest contractors. Martin’s practice has three main areas: PFI Disputes in Health, Education, and Local Government Services Claims for major contractors Acting as an adjudicator Martin is known for advising on large complex disputes seeking to provide the clarity necessary to allow settlement to be achieved. This skill is recognised as he speaks as the lawyer representative at the Department of Health’s Private Finance Unit and in the quality of work he undertakes. Main Clients: Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust BAM Construction Limited North Midland Construction Limited Blackpool Borough Council University College Birmingham (UCB)
Matt Jones
Matt is a 3 year PQE associate in the team.
He specialises in contentious construction matters and also deals with non-contentious matters.
Matt works for a range of our clients including high net-worth private individuals, local authorities, façade and ground work engineers as well as for a range of tier one main contractors and sub-contractors. He has recently completed a secondment at Mace.
Matthew Dorman
Associate
Matthew Alderton
Matthew is an experienced advisor and litigator specialising in public, regulatory and information law. Matthew has provided advice and representation to clients in high profile and complex judicial review proceedings, statutory appeals, procurement challenges, and data breach/breach of confidentiality claims.
Matthew previously worked within the Government Legal Department conducting high profile litigation in the areas of constitutional (the Brexit cases), health and social care (the junior doctors, accountable care and overseas charging judicial reviews), social security (the 2 Child tax judicial review), and information law.
Matthew is dual qualified in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Matthew Hirst
Matthew, a Senior Associate with the firm, specialises in resolving disputes and advising on investigations in the financial services sector. In addition, he has extensive experience of resolving professional liability claims and coverage disputes.
Matthew Woodford
Matthew leads our EU and competition team where he advises on both behavioural competition law and UK and multi-jurisdictional merger control. His behavioural work includes advising national and multi-national companies and trade bodies on compliance issues as well as extensively advising on sales and distribution strategies. He and the team have defended numerous clients in investigations and dawn raids by the CMA and the European Commission, as well as making leniency and immunity applications (including appeals to the Competition Appeal Tribunal). He also advises clients on developing and implementing tailored competition compliance programmes, including running training and workshop sessions for employees and putting in place internet based training modules. Examples include implementing compliance programmes for national retailers, automotive manufacturers and numerous national trade bodies/associations.
Matthew Trinder
Matthew joined the firm to start Browne Jacobson’s London clinical negligence team in November 2017, focusing on ‘private’ med-mal insurance and independent healthcare.He has a wealth of experience of acting for Insurers, leading healthcare providers and individuals, NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts and medical defence organisations , with a particular track-record on high value or complex claims, especially those involving neurosurgical (spinal or skull base), genetics, screening and pathology issues or obstetrics. He has a reputation as being a robust fighter on unmeritorious claims with a strong success rate at trial, combined with a commercial approach to cases which must be settled. Since arriving at the firm, Matthew has won places on a significant number of insurance panels, is regularly referred cases as a result of conflicts or where the insured have had their indemnity withdrawn. He advised on the mass litigation concerning the Irish national screening programme for cytology. Matthew was previously ranked prior to leaving Bevan Brittan but joined after our submissions. He represents defendant groups on the High Court User’s Group in London and on the Civil Justice Council working party on fixed costs. The bespoke scheme for running claims up to £25,000 under fixed costs devised by Matthew and the small, invitation-only working group of experts will be one of the major changes to clinical litigation for all firms in this sector.
Matthew Harpin
Matthew was promoted to partner from 1st May 2019 and has over 19 years' experience defending employers' and public liability claims and disease claims for a wide range of local authorities/commercial clients throughout the country. He is very highly regarded by his clients and regularly obtains trial wins, discontinuances and favourable results at JSM for them. He has secured a number of findings of fundamental dishonesty at trial for his clients.
Matthew’s technical ability is matched by his understanding of his clients and their philosophy towards fighting claims. His notable reported cases include:
McDaid v Walsall MBC (2018)
Ryan v Hackney London Borough Council (2016)
Millard v Walsall MBC (2014)
Yew v Gloucestershire County Council (2013)
Robson v Gloucestershire County Council (2013)
Thorley v Vicarage Residential Care Home (2010)
Matthew is described in:
Legal 500 2017 as ‘knowledgeable on the law and gets to the heart of issues in a case; he has excellent perception as to which cases to fight’;
Legal 500 2018 as ‘experienced in public and employer’s liability claims’;
Legal 500 2019 as a ‘key figure’; and
Legal 500 2020 as ‘well regarded’.
Matthew regularly delivers training to his clients and has led on Browne Jacobson's highly regarded Highways Symposium attracting keynote speakers from the DfT and Road Liaison committee
Michael Sadler
Business and professional risk: Construction and property risk
Michael Chambers
Michael has 20 years’ experience of handling litigation, arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). He is a partner who supervises a team across both Birmingham and Exeter offices. He specialises in complex clinical negligence claims including birth, brain and spinal injury claims and complex multiparty claims.
Michael Mousdale
Mike is a partner in our government and infrastructure team. Mike specialises in public procurement, commercial public sector projects and leads our Waste and Recycling Group. He is recognised as a leading expert in local government law and public procurement. Mike advises on innovative transactional work for public sector bodies and those who supply to the public sector.
After an early career in local government, Mike became a leading procurement and projects lawyer, advising upon many of the first PFI/PPP projects and delivering some of the most innovative deals in the public sector, including the first LLP structured partnership Kier Sheffield LLP and a number of strategic partnerships (including joint ventures arrangements under the One Barnet programme).
Mike has advised on a number of landmark PFI deals, including the Greater Manchester and Merseyside Waste schemes, the Greater Manchester Police project and a number of schools projects, including the first all secondary school estate project (Haringey), the first Voluntary Aided project (Cardinal Heenan in Leeds) and the first SEN PFI (Salford).
Mike is a regular speaker on procurement and alternative delivery vehicles for organisations such as CIPF An and White Paper. He wrote the Legal Guidance on collaboration for the Welsh Local Government Association and recently authored a guide on Insourcing for CIPFA.
Mike Hoye
Mike is a Legal Director who brings a wealth of experience to the team and leads on the department's quality and risk piece. He has extensive experience of all aspects of commercial property, including disposals and acquisitions, options, lettings, licences, both residential and commercial development and funding. Mike advises a number of the firm's leading retail sector clients, including: Boots, Pure Gym, Halfords and Wilko. He also plays an important role in the team working for Homes England as well as having an appreciative and longstanding private client base.
Mike Mousdale
Mike is a recognised leader in the fields of public procurement, local government, administrative and public law, having led on some of the largest and most innovative transactions in the sector. He acted on three of the first four local authority PFI schemes, delivered the first local government LLP joint venture and put together a number of strategic partnerships. Mike’s experience covers all services, including schools, health, waste, leisure, IT and support services, transport and housing. Mike speaks at many conferences and seminars, such as for SOLACE, the LGA and Solicitors in Local Government. He is a regular speaker at the leading public procurement conference run by White Paper Conferences, alongside other leading practitioners. He regularly provides training to clients and organisations such as CIPFA on subjects such as procurement, local authority companies and commercialisation of services in local government.
Nat Avdiu
Nat has been assisting a number of local authorities with procurement exercises, commercial contracts and commercial projects. Some of the matters that she has been involved in include: Advising and drafting various commercial agreements in respect of various types of services including income and management systems, benefit systems, social care, children’s services, software and licences, adult and community learning, procuring bus and bus services and catering; Advising academy trusts on various agreements to enable academy conversions and transfers including schools build or refurbished through PFI; Advising a number of local authorities in respect of alternative delivery models for setting up trading companies including the use of the Teckal exception and community benefit societies; Working in collaboration with the Commercial Health team to carry out due diligence exercises for acquisitions in the public health sector.
Neil Walker
Neil Walker is a Legal Director in the Built Environment team of our Real Estate department, with over 25 years’ experience in advising a wide range of private and public sector body clients on a variety of commercial real estate matters Neil’s primary focus is in advising a wide range of local authority clients (and their companies) on commercial property issues and he has particular expertise in leading, managing and advising on complex regeneration, infrastructure delivery and commercial/residential/mixed-use development matters, including forward funding of new-build projects, and he works closely with our construction, tax, planning and environmental, commercial and public law colleagues He also advises local authorities on site assembly, acquisitions and disposals and on investment property transactions including portfolio acquisitions and provides lead real estate support to commercial colleagues on wider public sector projects including the outsourcing of leisure and social care services Neil also present seminars and webinars and delivers internal and client training sessions.
Nick MacKenzie
Education.
Nick Smee
Business Services
Nick Hurley
Nick, recognised as a Rising Star in previous editions, is a Senior Associate who has been a part of Browne Jacobson’s Government and Infrastructure practice since January 2015, having joined from the projects team at Nabarro LLP. He has considerable experience advising public and private sector clients on a wide range of public sector projects (including major procurements, infrastructure projects and joint ventures), with a particular focus on complex regeneration. Nick’s recent experience has also included outsourcing, commercialisation and advice on the structuring/operation of wholly-owned local authority housing/development vehicles. He has spent time on secondment in-house at both local authorities and key suppliers to government. The highlights of Nick’s recent work include: Acting for Folkestone and Hythe District Council (and Otterpool Park LLP) on Otterpool Park, a garden town project which will deliver up to 8,500 new homes. Advising Lovell Partnerships on its housing-led regeneration joint venture with West Sussex County Council which will deliver an initial pipeline of over 500 new dwellings across the county. Acting for Watford Borough Council on the Town Hall Cultural Quarter regeneration project. Advising the London Borough of Ealing in relation to Southall Gateway, a housing-led regeneration project that will deliver over 500 new homes, of which circa 80% will be affordable. Advising Kent County Council on its re-procurement of facilities management for its entire corporate estate. Acting for Morgan Sindall in relation to a number of corporate regeneration joint ventures and extra care development schemes with local authorities. Advising Chichester District Council on the Southern Gateway regeneration project. A circa £120m GDV mixed use town centre regeneration project led by the District Council, collaborating with West Sussex County Council. Continuing to act for the London Borough of Ealing on The Green, Southall, a major housing-led town centre regeneration scheme with a GDV of £200m. Continuing to advise the London Borough of Havering on the delivery of two housing regeneration projects with capital value of over £800m. Continuing to act for Watford Borough Council on the redevelopment of the Watford Health Campus via an asset backed vehicle. The Health Campus is a 29 hectare site under multiple ownerships that will be subject to over £500m of development. The most recent development being a multi-storey car park adjacent to Watford Hospital with a capital value of circa £50m. Advising Chalkdene Developments LLP (a regeneration joint venture between Lovell Partnerships and Hertfordshire County Council) on a series of five development schemes with a combined GDV of circa £50m. Acting for Lightquote Limited, a private sector developer, in relation to a housing-led mixed-use regeneration scheme in the centre of Barking, the developer working in conjunction with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham to deliver circa 300 new homes Advising City of Lincoln Council in relation to the delivery of the Western Growth Corridor, a housing led mixed use regeneration project to deliver circa 3,000 new homes. Advising an NHS Foundation Trust on potential commercialisation options in relation to its surplus estate. Advising Uttlesford District Council on its corporate joint venture with Norse, with a contract value of £30m. Acting for Barking and Dagenham Trading Partnerships Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Council) on various commercial matters and acquisitions. Advising both Elmbridge Borough Council and Harlow District Council on the configuration and operation of their respective wholly-owned housing company structures.
Nicola Paterson
Associate, Nicola, has experience in dealing with a range of personal injury claims, including EL, PL and RTA claims. She works on complex injury claims and in particular deals with brain injury, chronic pain cases, fatal claims and life changing injury claims generally. She has assisted on claims concerning chronic pain, brain injuries and spinal injuries where medical causation has been disputed and in investigations relating to liability, causation and quantum.
Nicole Judah
Senior Associate - Employment - Non HR ServicesNicole has recently joined the firm’s employment team in London as a Senior Associate. She has significant experience of advising clients from a wide range of sectors on contentious and non-contentious employment law matters.Nicole advises both public and private sector clients on every aspect of employment law, including redundancies, restructures, TUPE transfers, general HR advisory matters such as disciplinary, grievance and performance management procedures, reviewing and drafting employment documentation, settlement negotiations and employment tribunal litigation. Nicole represents a number of academy clients in defending them against Tribunal claims, ranging from race and disability discrimination to unfair dismissal. Two of her most notable claims are defending an academy client against a claim for age discrimination on the grounds that the transitional provisions in the Teacher’s Pension Scheme are discriminatory and defending an academy client in proceedings that have escalated to the Employment Appeal Tribunal. Nicole also has experience of high-value settlement negotiations and has recently advised on exit strategies for 2 Headteachers. Nicole often writes briefing notes and articles, and acts as the go to person for her HR colleagues.
Nigel Blackwell
Business services: Corporate
Nigel Lyons
Nigel is a partner working in the firm's Criminal, Compliance and Regulatory Team. Nigel has a criminal law background and has specialised in all types of contentious regulatory advocacy for many years. He has a particular emphasis upon health and safety and environmental cases.
Nigel advises in all areas where fatal and non-fatal accidents result in criminal investigations. This can involve factory sites, farms, government and local authority properties, maritime incidents (both on and off shore), road traffice and all types of private and commercial premises. Nigel's experience allows him to advise in all such areas.
He deals with public and private sector matters wherer therea re serious accidents and injuries. Defending companies/partnerships and individuals facing gross negligence/manslaughter/health and safety investigations involving commercial and agricultural accidents. These could result in investigations by all types of linked government bodies includign HSe, Environment Agency, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, DEFRA, HMRC to name but a few.
Nigel deals with Transport and Logistics matters for national and local transport and infrastructure businesses. He deals with DVSA investigations together with referrals leading to public inquiries before the Office of the Traffic Commissioner.
Nigel advises internaional, national and local businesses on health and safety risk reviews. This has been particularly relevant with the ever changing Covid risk regulations.
Nigel's regulatory expertise means that he is also regularly called upon to advise schools, multi academy trusts, higher education establishments and universities upon education sector risk issues and regulatory reviews.
He also acts for hospital trusts, ambulance services and fire authorities who require regulatory advice as a result of catastrophic incidents. These can include assisting such bodies with police, coronial enquiries and at inquests.
Nik Carle
Nik specialises in professional liability claims against a broad span of advisers, particularly surveyors and valuers, estate agents, lawyers, designers and renewable energy consultants. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) are key client relationships. Nik is also admitted as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and is listed as an approved Arbitrator on CEDR’s UK panel for commercial arbitration appointments.
Nikita Sonecha
Nikita provides strategic employment advice to employers of all sizes, from start-ups to multinationals. She helps HR teams, directors, MDs and CEOs to make commercial decisions that maximise opportunities, minimise risk and prevent disputes. She is also experienced in business restructuring, and how to deploy employment strategies that achieve commercial objectives.
Nikita advises on dispute situations that organisations can face, with particular expertise in dismissals, disciplinary and grievance processes, and post-termination restrictions. She attempts to resolve disputes using cost-effective methods such as negotiation and mediation but is experienced at handling tribunal cases if required.
She also advises individuals on their employment, from recruitment through to departure, including resolving issues arising along the way. She has extensive experience in discrimination, particularly race, age, disability and maternity. She advises many senior executives on complex employment matters such as service agreements, commissions, bonus arrangements and exit provisions.
Nikita has a particular interest in data privacy, advising on the new UK Data Protection Act that incorporates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). She helps organisations to achieve compliance with the new requirements, including giving in-house seminars.
Pamela Shepherd
Pamela heads up the national property disputes team at Browne Jacobson. She has specialised in property litigation since qualification in 1992 joining the Birmingham office of Browne Jacobson as a partner in 2012. She is well known in the West Midlands - particularly for her technical expertise and commercial competence.Pamela’s work continues to have a commercial landlord and tenant bias acting in equal measure for both landlords and tenants, but also acting for landowners and public sector clients.Her focus in the last few years has been, and remains, on team growth, excellence through quality and knowledge, and profile building having, as an example, now established a solid lecturing background with the RICS, including speaking at their National Landlord and Tenant Roadshow in both 2018 and 2019. Pamela spoke at the Property Managers Association in Nottingham this year for the 7th year running.As part and parcel of this concentration on team growth, the national team goes from strength to strength with continued development throughout the West and East Midlands
Patrick Berry
Patrick is an associate in the Banking and Finance team with one year PQE.
Paul Kirkpatrick
Paul joined the Commercial Dispute Resolution Team in Manchester in 2020 having previously led Dispute Resolution teams at national commercial law firms, based in the Midlands and the South East respectively. Paul acts for major corporates, working closely with in-house teams and General Counsel to achieve commercial resolutions to business-critical issues. Paul acts as the lead-partner on a wide variety of commercial matters, and takes overall responsibility for numerous key client relationships.
Paul specialising in high-value, complex litigation, often with an international dimension. He advises on a wide variety of commercial and contractual matters, including disputes involving: breach of contract, professional negligence, breach of warranty, shareholders’ disputes, breach of confidence and numerous other commercial issues, frequently involving foreign jurisdictions. He has expertise in the automotive sector and has a wealth of experience in cross-border disputes and corporate litigation.
His experience includes representing clients from pre-action through to trial and injunctive proceedings. Paul also has a substantial amount of experience in resolving disputes through alternative dispute resolution, including leading numerous mediations, without prejudice meetings and multi-party round-table discussions.
Paul McCannah
Paul is a partner in the Corporate team (having been promoted from Senior Associate in May 2019) specialising in M&A, private equity and general company law.
He has a focus on driving the team’s technology sector, including advising on the disposal of an industry leading gaming manufacturer and developer Reflex Gaming.
He advised sellers and management on the private equity backed tertiary buy out of CARE Fertility Group funded by Silverfleet Capital, as well continuing to act on numerous “add-on” acquisitions for CARE. He also advised the shareholders of Delamin Nitriding Salts on the sale of its industrial salts business to the US subsidiary Parker Trutec Inc of Japanese parent company Nihon Parkerizing Co.
Paul Hill
Paul Hill is a partner in the Banking and Finance team principally based in Birmingham and he also serves as the sector head for Energy and Infrastructure at Browne Jacobson.
Since joining Browne Jacobson in 2019 Paul has made a real impact in the West Midlands market, not only through integration into the commercial community but also through building and developing client relationships. He has also been able to leverage strong interconnections between the West Midlands and London. He has advised on a number of high profile deals including:
(1) Rcapital Partners in connection with their portfolio of debt/equity investments in new and existing businesses;
(2) Blazehill Capital (and certain founder investors) on the set up of a new alternative lender;
(3) Quilam Capital in connection with their portfolio debt/equity investments in new and existing businesses;
(4) IB Group in connection with their corporate refinancing and subsequently the raising of CLBILS finance;
(5) PBE Group on a multi-jurisdictional holdco corporate financing;
(6) NatWest in connection with the provision of a revolving credit facility to a UK university; and
(7) LDC in connection with their successful exit of Addo Food Group to European private equity firm PAI Partners.
Within the energy and infrastructure sector, Paul has utilised his strong connections, reputation and capability to bring together the breadth of experience across the wider firm to provide a strong fully packaged offering in this area. This has culminated in a stream of high profile work, including advising on some of the highest profile recent infrastructure acquisitions in the UK market and has secured a number of collaboration opportunities in the sphere with large UK City and US white-chip firms. Selected highlights in this sector include advising:
(1) First Sentier Investors in connection with their successful c £1 billion acquisition of energy-from-waste assets from SSE plc and their subsequent acquisition of the entirety of the Wheelabrator UK EfW business from Macquarie;
(2) a global asset manager in respect of their proposed purchase of Suez’s UK recycling and recovery business;
(3) PBE Group on a multi-jurisdictional holdco corporate financing;
(4) AFC Wimbledon on the debt/equity financing and construction of their new football stadium;
(5) Manchester County Council in connection with a District Heating Project;
(6) Oxford University Trust in connection with a hospital PFI;
(7) Performances Birmingham on the financing and redevelopment of Symphony Hall;
(8) Homes England on a variety of and
(9) Derby County Council on the termination of the Derbyshire EfW Waste Project.
Paul has also secured a UK panel appointment for Hydromine Inc, a sustainable energy company focussed on the power plant origination and investment, on-boarded Sculptor Capital, a global alternative asset manager, as a client of the firm and has been involved in a number of panel tenders for large FTSE companies.
Paul Ray
Paul is the head of the team and is a highly regarded and very experienced banking lawyer based across Browne Jacobson’s Birmingham, Nottingham and Manchester offices. He advises UK and international corporate borrowers, banks and other lenders on bilateral and syndicated finance transactions, refinancings, restructures/turnarounds, acquisition and development finance, investment finance, debt purchase, asset based lending and general matters. Paul is recognised as a leading individual in the current Chambers Directory and Legal 500 Directory and advises on funding transactions in the private and public sector. He leads the Browne Jacobson Homes England Investments team (a panel appointment acting for the lending division of the Homes & Communities Agency funding residential housing developments which has led to a strong stream of income for the Browne Jacobson banking & finance, property and construction teams).
Paul Wainwright
Paul is head of Counterfraud and intelligence at Browne Jacobson and jointly heads up the Fraud and Financial Crime practice across the firm’s national offices. Paul is responsible for civil fraud and financial related regulatory matters, in terms of litigation investigation and prosecution. He specialises in financial recoveries for losses due to fraud, counter fraud strategy, and has a focus on financial risk management advice and compliance within regulated sectors. Primarily managing litigation in complex fraud cross sector, Paul’s practice involves management and c-ordination of intelligence and fraud investigations, asset tracing and recovery, as well as defending suspected fraudulent claims, for corporate, public sector and insurer clients and has had notable successes with prosecution strategies. He has extensive experience of insurance claims fraud, including policy and indemnity interpretation for dishonesty and fidelity claims. In addition Paul advises on anti-fraud, bribery and corruption policies, client and supplier due diligence, and conducts investigations and recoveries of losses attributable to fraudulent enterprise including cyber-enabled crime. Paul is a member of the special advisory panel for the Fraud Advisory Board and has spoken at industry events on matters including fraud, financial crime and cyber-enabled fraud. Paul has recently been awarded a Masters (MSc) in Counterfraud and Counter Corruption at the University of Portsmouth.
Paula Dumbill
Paula specialises in intellectual property and technology law. Paula has a wide range of experience in non-contentious work in this area, including, in particular, advising technology companies on IP protection and exploitation strategies and clients in the retail and manufacturing sectors on brand protection. Paula has advised on research and development arrangements between innovative private sector companies and academia and also on sponsorship and joint venture arrangements entered into by a well-known figure in the rural estates sector. Paula has also continued to advise one of our longstanding clients in the outdoor clothing sector on the strategic direction of its IP portfolio, and also a world leader in explosives and blasting with a reputation for technological innovation, on the exploitation of third party generated IP, including licensing arrangements and IP protection strategies. Paula continues to advise brand-rich manufacturers in the sectors of sports and leisure, food, retail, distribution and luxury clothing on the strategic management of their trade mark portfolios. Paula is a key member of the firm’s IT and outsourcing business development team and she also has a particular interest in the development of the firm’s HealthTech work.
Paula Hamer
Paula has over 20 years’ real estate experience with particular expertise in complex development projects. Paula is praised by clients for her “professionalism and commitment to understanding our requirements”, whilst other solicitors welcome “her willingness to try to find solutions that work”.
Paula acts for clients from both the private and public sector and specialises in development, regeneration and investment transactions.
Peter Allen
Peter specialises in advising on corporate transactions of all kinds, particularly M&A and complex joint ventures – most often acting for owners and managers of private businesses when selling to trade or financial buyers. Whilst he operates across sector lines, he has particular experience of advising on deals in the food and beverage and healthcare sectors. Peter has a strong reputation with clients and fellow market practitioners for his pragmatic, constructive and commercial approach on transactions.
Peter Ware
Peter is the head of the Government Sector at the firm. He is a recognised expert in public procurement being on various editorial boards and industry bodies. Peter is a regular speaker at various national conferences. Having worked for a local authority for a number of years he can also bring his sector insight to the advice he gives. His clients particularly value the practical ways he advises on the challenges they face.
Peter Jones
Peter is a partner in our team and heads our national employment practice. He has over 30 years’ experience in all aspects of employment law including contentious and non-contentious issues. He advises on a wide range of employment related subjects. He acts for many high profile organisations in both the public and private sector. He leads the insurance employment claims handling team and HR team. Peter assists with risk assessment associated with employment related situations and the management of such risk, including: • advising on procedures leading to termination of employment including disciplinary matters and settlement agreements; • advising on grievances and their consequences; • dealing with claims relating to redundancy, discrimination, unfair and wrongful dismissal and other contentious employment matters; • dealing with circumstances (including disputes and industrial action) involving trade unions and other employee representatives; • providing training to clients in relation to employment related topics; and • regularly advising on all non-contentious employment issues such as TUPE and the drafting and implementation of contracts and other related documentation.
Philip Gray
Philip leads the Birmingham Beds Sector team acting for public and private sector clients on residential and mixed use projects across the country. He works for a number of regional house builders and commercial/mixed use developers specialising in site acquisition and assembly. Philip also advises public sector organisations, including Homes England on site acquisitions and disposals for residential development and also as part of Homes England’s Home Building and Infrastructure Funds, providing development finance to regional house builders and local authorities. His recent work includes a site acquisitions in the North West; Derby city centre; and a number of sites in Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire (which are intended to provide more than 1,000 new homes). He has also recently advised on the disposal of local authority land in the Midlands for the provision of c.900 new homes and strategic infrastructure. Valued by his clients for his ability to unlock potential deal-breaking issues and being a strong negotiator, his experience of development across the public and private sectors set him apart from many lawyers in the residential development sector.
Rachael Murphy
Senior Associate, Rachael, specialises in professional negligence, property damage and insurance coverage disputes; defending professionals in the property, legal and financial services sectors.
Rachael Morris
Rachael is a partner leading a team specialising in complex neurological injuries affecting children to include claims arising from obstetric and neonatal care. Rachael has acted for several defence organisations and has spent over 16 years at Browne Jacobson in the NHS Resolution team. With 20 years' experience of clinical negligence work and a reputation for her empathetic approach, Rachael provides a reassuring presence to trust clients and witnesses and an in depth understanding of the needs of the families impacted by these claims. Rachael is the client lead for George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Rachel Billen
Rachel is an employment lawyer with a particular specialism in ‘employment for schools’. She undertakes both non-contentious and contentious work for maintained, academy and independent schools. She advises on a wide variety of employment issues affecting the sector including the TUPE aspects of the academy conversion process and in/outsourcing/retendering as it affects academies, redundancies and restructures, disciplinary and grievance, unfair dismissal, discrimination, capability, performance management, settlement agreements, contractual issues and employment policies. She also deals with employment related civil claims such as negligent misstatement and civil claims of discrimination. Rachel speaks regularly at events for schools and educational associations, and is also a school governor.
Rachel Lyne
Rachel has a wealth of experience advising across a range of regulatory issues covering investigations and enforcement action brought by the Health & Safety Executive, the Police, Food Standards Agency, Environmental Health Officers, the Environment Agency and Fire Authorities.
Rachel’s contentious practice means she has gained significant experience in advising clients on a range of issues including: corporate manslaughter, health and safety, environmental offences (water pollution, waste, packaging, and noise, odour and light pollution, food safety including hygiene and labelling), fire safety, trading standards, consumer protection and licensing. She advises across the sectors with particular expertise in advising the: construction and engineering, retail, manufacturing , logistics, education and health. Rachel has experience of advising at the most senior level within an organisations dealing with the most urgent types of regulatory investigations including fatal accidents and has extensive advocacy experience in both the criminal and coroner courts.
As well as advising corporate clients, partnerships and individuals facing investigations and enforcement she also provides non-contentious advice on range of regulatory issues including: post Brexit compliance requirements, packaging and waste regulations, crisis response protocols and supporting training, compliance requirements for product launches including tech products, medical devices regulations and bespoke training on a range of regulatory issues. Rachel also has a significant public inquiries practice and is currently instructed to represent Core Participants in the Manchester Arena and Grenfell.
Rachel Whitaker
Rachel is a Senior Associate in the firm’s Commercial Health Team and heads up our health sector procurement practice. Rachel has developed a well-respected practice in the area of public procurement specialising in the complex area of health and social care procurement. As a result of her in-depth knowledge of NHS governance and structures combined with her procurement practice Rachel is advising on strategic and innovative NHS models aimed at delivering the Long Term Plan. On the contentious front the highlight of Rachel’s year is being instructed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust to act for it, the preferred provider, in the disputed Nottingham Treatment Centre litigation (Circle Nottingham v NHS Rushcliffe CCG [2019 EHWC] 135). The Trust’s position was instrumental in securing the lifting of the Automatic Suspension and allowing the CCG to contract with the Trust to bring forward the sought after service redesign. Rachel’s role in this and other matters attracts continual praise from clients: “Rachel has been an absolute star”, “I’d particularly like to thank Rachel who even when I was “agitated” by our competitors managed to remain calm and professional at all ALL times” and “she knows so much off the top of her head”. Rachel’s technical legal skills coupled with her ability to provide pragmatic and commercial advice is one of the reasons she has a growing and loyal client base and why she has picked up a number of significant new clients this year both on the buyer and provider side. Other highlights of Rachel’s recent public procurement work include: Successfully defending a number of procurement challenges on behalf NHS bodies including CCGs and NHS Trusts. Providing specialist regulatory due diligence support to foreign companies looking to invest in UK companies selling to the public sector. Rachel, together with Louise Bennett, continues to roll out the firm’s programme of ‘Managing procurement risks’ workshops which are aimed at senior procurement officers and in house lawyers at contracting authorities. The workshops have been attended by over 250 delegates and the quality of the events is universally recognised by delegates: “Excellent session, well presented, interactive, different activities and knowledgeable presenter”, “Excellent training day – particularly useful the way in which case studies were used to enable practical application”, “Excellent course. Interactive element was very good” and “very useful overview of a procurement process, especially for those new to procurement disputes. The tactical advice was especially helpful”.
Ray Silverstein
Raymond heads the London employment practice. He advises a stellar list of retail clients, including brands within the world’s largest luxury goods groups and a string of fashion brands including ones based in France, Italy and the UK, on all aspects of employment law from day-to-day workplace issues to Employment Tribunal and High Court claims. He advises arm’s length and other public bodies, employers in the education, manufacturing, financial services and IT sectors and senior executives. Raymond, and/or members of his team, advise on immigration matters, draft and advise on employment contracts, staff handbooks and present training, including mock Employment Tribunal hearings. He leads on our work in the modern slavery space.
Rebecca McLean
Business Services
Rebecca Toates
Rebecca Toates, Partner, works within our built environment team and specialises in commercial, residential and mixed-use developments, infrastructure and regeneration schemes. She acts on all aspects from site acquisition, including joint venture and collaboration agreements, through the development process to investment sales and financing (with particular expertise in forward funding). Rebecca acts for both public sector bodies (including Homes England and a significant number of local authorities) and private developers and investors on complex projects and particularly enjoys the project management aspects of coordinating a legal team to meet her clients’ objectives.
Rebecca Coe
Rebecca is a Senior Associate working within the firm’s health advisory and litigation team. She has worked solely in the area of medical negligence since 2010. Rebecca specialises in defending clinical negligence claims, acting on behalf of NHS Resolution and NHS Trusts.
Rebecca Fitzpatrick
Rebecca leads the mental health and social care advisory team from the Manchester office. One of the leading national specialists in mental health and mental capacity law, with over 20 years of experience in the field including work in relation to the Mental Health Act, the Court of Protection (mental capacity issues), the High Court (complex treatment cases, e.g. involving children), the Administrative Court (judicial review, human rights and community care issues) and the Coroner’s Court. She sits as a fee-paid First-Tier Tribunal judge (mental health) and also regularly lectures in the above areas of law to a range of professionals, including at national and international conferences in the field. Becky is well known for her expertise in the areas of consent, capacity and best interests. She regularly advises in relation to national guidance and strategy on mental health such as NHS England’s Five Year Forward View for Mental Health & the Transforming Care programme.
Richard Freeth
Business services: education
Richard Medd
Richard is our Managing Partner and leads the delivery of our strategy. He has 20 years’ experience working with our clients across the private and public sectors as a corporate finance partner, advising on mergers & acquisitions, private equity deals, international transactions, corporate reorganisations and the commercialisation of public services.
Before becoming Managing Partner Richard headed up our Business Services department and uses his management experience alongside his expertise in corporate governance derived from his client work to manage all aspects of the firm’s operation.
Richard Barlow
Insurance and public risk.
Richard Briggs
Richard is a partner on the NHS Resolution team in Nottingham. He supervises a team of junior lawyers dealing with NHS Resolution claims and conducts his own caseload of high value, complex matters. Richard specialises in clinical negligence and advises NHS Resolution and healthcare trusts on patient claims and risk management.He has a particular interest in mediation and leads our cross-office project on this topic.
Richard Nicholas
Richard is a partner in the technology group working on large scale technology and digital projects as well as related data issues. He focuses on technology and outsourcing deals, cloud computing and digital law, together with the data aspects of those deals. Recent advice has been around issues of artificial intelligence and cyber security and the impact of personal data on new technologies. He regularly advises technology businesses as well as their customers on procurement of and adoption of new technologies. This has included advising: • a PLC on the development of an employee tracking app and the related data protection issues in respect of its use • a Digital Marketing/ Influencer business on its compliance with data law and its agreements and development of a “salesforce” software equivalent for online influencers • an international technology business on the supply of CRM technology to several FTSE 100 companies. • One of the world’s leading providers of B2B IT systems on its equipment, software and services agreements Richard regularly speaks on Technology, Data and Digital law issues, including CompTIA (the Computing Trade and Industry Association), Privacy Paths podcasts and the “Digital Leaders Conference”. He is a regular speaker at technology events including regular sessions for DPOs and IT directors. Richard is also a coach to a number of businesses and has for the last 15 years run a network for in house lawyers across a wide range of sectors.
Richard Johnson
Richard is an Associate Solicitor in the Technical Claims Team in Exeter. Prior to joining Browne Jacobson, Richard was formerly a Partner heading an office for a major trade union solicitor in the South West before transferring to Insurance litigation work in 2009. He has a case load of mainly high value multi-track cases acting for both public and local authority clients. Richards particular specialism lies in industrial disease claims including asbestos related illnesses, Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), Occupational stress, deafness and Work Related Upper Limb Disorder (WRULD). Richard also speaks regularly on issues focusing on disease claims at the in-house Claims club.
Rita Patel
Rita is a Senior Associate with 30 years’ experience covering a broad spectrum of residential freehold and leasehold property work for private clients, developers, banks, educational establishments, charities, UK companies and off-shore companies.
Robert Wofinden
Robert (partner) has 16 years’ commercial property experience and specialises in property development and strategic land transactions, but also advises on a wide range of more general commercial property matters, acting for and advising a wide range of clients including high net worth private clients, investors, developers, charities and owners of large landed and commercial estates. Robert’s expertise includes advising on conditional property agreements, options, promotion and collaboration agreements, leases and land transfers and advising on a wide range of rural, agricultural and renewable energy property transactions.
Roger Birchall
Roger is an experienced corporate lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions for corporates, funders, management teams and sellers.
Roland Gray
Roland specialises in landlord / tenant matters, and property management and land development projects. He has extensive experience of working with a diverse range of blue- chip companies and organisations that cut across the retail, leisure, industrial and housing sectors. He has particular expertise in carrying out large scale due diligence projects and has acted on a number of key strategic acquisitions and disposals in the public and private sector, including accommodation in PPP projects and public sector mixed-use housing schemes.
Ryan Brown
Ryan is a partner in our corporate team and is based in Manchester. He was noted as a ‘star in the making’ by The Legal 500 in 2021. Ryan advises on all aspects of corporate law but has a particular focus on private equity transactions (acting for investors, investees and management teams) and complex international M&A.
Ryan has extensive experience preparing companies, shareholders and management teams for an exit. He is seen by many of his clients as an extension of their senior management team and is regularly used by his clients as a sounding board for strategic decisions, particularly those relating to incentivising senior employees, M&A, re-organisations and succession planning. He also supports a number of large corporates with their M&A strategy.
Ryan’s practice covers various sectors but some of his notable clients on the private equity side include Palatine Private Equity, Maven Capital Partners and Apiary Capital and on the corporate side include Edit Agency, the CTS Group, Triangle Fire Systems and Access Creative College.
Before becoming a partner, he was shortlisted for “Lawyer of the Year” at the Insider North West Young Professionals Awards 2020, the Made In Manchester Awards 2020 and the JCI Manchester Young Talent Awards 2020. He has also produced some topical thought leadership articles on the pitfalls of vendor due diligence in the context of W&I insurance and how retentions could be unlocked by utilising insurance products.
Samantha Paxman
Samantha is a Partner and Barrister with an extensive professional disciplinary, civil and public law practice.
Noted as a rising star in the professional disciplinary sector in 2019 and 2020, Samantha has been instructed on a number of complex, high profile and lengthy hearings. Samantha represents clients from initial instruction through to advocacy at the final hearing and provides advice which is technical, thorough and pragmatic. Described by an opposition barrister as both “delightful in manner and rigorously forensic”, Samantha presents cases in a manner appropriate for investigative proceedings with a sensitivity towards witnesses and respondent professionals, particularly those who are vulnerable.
Samantha is one of the senior team acting on behalf of the Teaching Regulation Agency. As lead for cases at the hearing stage she provides oversight and supervision of junior colleagues along with strategic advice to the client. In the last year Samantha has provided timely advice to the client in relation to the introduction of virtual hearings.
In addition to her professional disciplinary experience, Samantha also acts for public sector and insurer clients in high profile complex inquests, Court of Protection proceedings, civil trials and proceedings before the First Tier Tribunal Health, Education and Social Care Chamber.
Sarah White
Sarah White is a very experienced NHS Resolution Nominated Partner with a wealth of expertise in handling high value clinical negligence claims, specialising in multimillion pound catastrophic injury cases. She is based in our Birmingham office. She has a tremendous track record of swift resolution of claims, analysing and rapidly settling indefensible cases, and fighting and winning high profile and high value defensible claims at trial. She is responsible for supervising our trial portfolio across the teams, and sits on the Browne Jacobson Board
Sarah Manning
Sarah is a leading clinical negligence defence specialist. She leads a team of lawyers dealing with work on behalf of NHS Resolution, Medical Protection and Dental Protection. She is responsible for the management, supervision and development and provides the strategic overview and direction of the full portfolio of cases they handle. She is the operational lead for the claims work we undertake for Medical Protection.
She has over 25 years’ experience of acting for health law clients. She has an impressive track record in defending complex and high value claims, particularly involving cerebral palsy, acquired brain, spinal and other catastrophic injuries, delayed diagnosis of cancer, meningitis and septicaemia and Fatal Accident Act Claims. She has extensive trial experience including successfully defending two multi-million-pound cerebral palsy claims involving a significant number of healthcare professional witnesses and expert witnesses. She has handled many high value claims involving the assessment of complex quantum and has negotiated settlement for sums in excess of £10m, including periodic payment order settlements. She is very experienced in dealing with claims involving multiple defendants and the strategy and tactics to deploy in negotiations on apportionment of liability whilst also working collaboratively on a joint basis where appropriate to resolve issues cost effectively.
Sarah Parkinson
Commercial property.
Sarah Hooton
Sarah specialises in employment law and provides support to members of the employment team in areas such as know-how, precedents, technical research and training. Prior to taking on this role, Sarah was a partner within Browne Jacobson's employment team and advised both public and private sector clients on a wide range employment law matters including unfair dismissal, redundancy, restructure, contractual issues and all areas of discrimination. Sarah undertook a mixture of contentious and non-contentious work and also conducted her own advocacy in the employment tribunal.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
With a strong reputation in the social care arena, Sarah is one of our most experienced Partners focusing exclusively on abuse and safeguarding claims. Sarah is noted for her ‘exceptional experience‘ of defending high-profile sex abuse claims in the 2021 Legal 500. Instructed directly and by insurers of : Sports organisations including national governing bodies Faith groups Private education providers Local Authorities She leads on the firm’s children’s social care publications and forums. She has and continues to lead on a number of group actions and is highly regarded for her fairness and expertise in handling claims against Children’s and Adults’ Services Departments; reflected in the fact that many of those who are frequently her opponents have agreed to be referees. She is also the firm’s specialist on redress schemes. She has experience in taking a number of cases to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and has a particular focus on costs – sitting as a Deputy Costs Master in the SCCO. She led on the Personal Injury Working Group on Historical Child Abuse claims initiative run by Master McCloud.
Scott McKittrick
Director
Shaun McCabe
Shaun heads up the Nottingham team and is one of the best known lawyers in the East Midlands market place. He heads a team of dedicated banking specialists who have a dominant position in the East Midlands.
Shaun advises lenders, private equity houses and corporate borrowers on refinances, acquisitions, development finance, investment finance, asset based lending and general lending matters. Shaun has a particular expertise advising on private equity transactions and advising on asset based lending structures.
Shaun is recognised as a leading individual in the legal directories. He is an experienced operator well known in the Midlands market and , during the course of this year, has advised a number of high profile deals including:
• advising Palatine Private Equity on the secondary buy out of CET UK supported by senior facilities from Clydesdale Bank and mezzanine facilities from Beechbrook Capital (this transaction was named on East Midlands deal of the year by Business Insider)
• advising Littlefish on its MBO backed by Lloyds Development Capital and HSBC (named as SME deal of the year in the West Midlands by Business Insider)
• advising Wise Living Homes on a £33m development finance facility provided by ICG Longbow
Sian Brown
Sian is a Senior Associate in the Nottingham NHS Resolution team. She specialises in advising NHS Resolution and Trusts on clinical negligence claims. Sian has previous experience working with NHS Trusts to improve patient safety. She leads on NHS Resolution’s Early Notification Scheme aimed at improving safety in maternity care through the early investigation of maternity incidents where babies are born with a potentially severe brain injury. Sian is described as hard working, experienced and reliable, and is praised for her attention to detail.
Simon Tait
Simon heads up our health practice nationally, and is responsible for the sector strategy across all of Browne Jacobson’s Offices. His practice is primarily contentious, advising on regulatory matters, inquests, and clinical governance matters.
Simon specialises in advising on high profile clinical investigations, including inquests often attracting national press coverage.
He is client partner for a number of our key clients including the Medical Protection Society, Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Sophie Ashcroft
Sophie is a dispute resolution partner specialising in technology disputes. She has particular expertise in disputes arising from complex IT projects, digital transformation, outsourcing and managed services. She helps clients to manage risk in ongoing projects and get distressed projects back on track. Where issues cannot be resolved, she advises on strategies for termination, handover and exit.
In addition, Sophie regularly resolves disputes involving misuse of confidential information, shareholder and board disputes, and is experienced in bringing and defending claims for all types of relief, including claims for loss of profits, wasted expenditure, declaratory relief, injunctions, and judicial review. She acts for both national and international clients across a variety of sectors, including technology, entertainment, telecoms, outsourcing, and financial institutions.
Sophie Thring
Senior Associate, Sophie, is experienced in dealing with a variety of both contentious and non-contentious employment issues. She advises clients from a wide range of sectors in relation to all aspects of employment law, including tribunal claims, TUPE and general HR advisory matters such as disciplinaries, grievances and performance issues. She also has significant experience in dealing with employment documentation, including reviewing and drafting bespoke documents for clients. She is experienced in delivering training seminars and workshops for clients on a variety of employment law topics.
Stephanie McGarry
Stephanie advises on policy drafting ranging from health and safety to mental health and wellbeing. She advises and assists in relation to police, fire authority, health and safety and coronial investigations and if necessary the safeguarding process which often runs alongside such investigations. She is also familiar with issues affecting large portfolios of commercial buildings and residential premises and has produced bespoke databases for clients to assist them in managing their regulatory responsibilities as landlords, tenants and building owners. Her breadth of knowledge across the regulatory field makes her an invaluable source of expertise for clients.
Stephanie regularly represents public bodies, including fire authorities, and advises in relation to the strength of evidence and liability risks both from a prosecution and defence perspective.
She has a particular specialism in dealing with large scale and complex health and safety and corporate manslaughter investigations. She has advised in respect of numerous fatal and non-fatal accident criminal investigations in connection with a variety of industries. This includes deaths on construction sites, agricultural sites, in educational settings and in NHS and local authority premises.
She assists clients with disclosure exercises for the purposes of the Coroner’s inquiry and police / regulatory investigations and regularly appears before coroners and magistrates’ courts.
She regularly attends interviews under caution with the Health & Safety Executive and the police.
Stephen Matthew
Stephen works in our Government and Infrastructure team and specialises in joint ventures, regeneration, procurement and outsourcings. He acts for public bodies and contractors and has experience in overseas markets (notably public private partnerships). Stephen manages teams across various disciplines in delivering major projects.
Stephen George
Partner
Suki Tonks
Property
Susan Mabbott
Susan brings her considerable interpersonal skills to firm wide operational leadership of this department across our five-office network. Her experience at working at every level within the firm, along with a natural flair for spotting strengths, means that she is well placed to put the right people in the right roles. She is a qualified business coach and mentor (Institute of Leadership and Management).
This involves leading on the delivery of firm strategy through key sector and departmental business planning and making sure they fit with central projects, to include IT case management and Human Resource and Learning and Development activities. Susan is a member of the firm’s Exec as well as the Core Insurance Sector and Local Authority Boards.
Locally, Susan leads Nottingham’s Technical Claims and Social Care Team handling a broad range of Defendant personal injury, and RTA related litigation on behalf of Local Authorities, health bodies and other public sector clients, as well as commercial and agricultural organisations.
She is an appointed nominated Partner for the NHS Resolution’s Risk Pooling Scheme and thus has responsibility for ensuring high quality service delivery from her team dealing with those claims. Susan is also client relationship partner for a number of commercial insurance and public sector clients.
Susan’s work continues as Partner sponsor for the firm’s highly successful apprenticeship scheme, Browne Jacobson being the first law firm to engage a cohort of apprentices within its legal teams.
Susan Slade
Susan is a Senior Associate specialising in defending high value and complex employers’ and public liability claims on behalf of the NHS, insurers, local authorities and private companies.
Susan Voice
Partner, Susan, joined the firm in 2018 from Royds Withy King and brings with her over 11 years’ experience in commercial real estate law, specialising in the retail and leisure sector. Susan has acted for a broad range of clients including high street and luxury retailers, art galleries (including overseas exhibitors) and charities. Her extensive experience includes acting on landlord and tenant matters, disposals, acquisitions, lending and re-finance of retail sites (high street stores, retail parks and shopping centres), office buildings and development projects. Susan acts for a number of national brands including acting for Pure Gym on their property interests in England.
Suzanne Hawkins
Suzanne is a senior associate who has specialised in personal injury litigation for 28 years. Historically she handled clinical negligence, road traffic, public and employers’ liability claims for both claimants and defendants, including representing clients' interests at inquests. She is now part of the firm's Technical Claims Team specialising in defendant employers’ and public liability claims for local and public authorities, health trusts and corporate bodies but also deals with some high value clinical negligence claims. She generally handles more complex, higher value and fatal accident/injury claims and, in particular, she deals with cumulative injury and disease claims including asbestos related injury. For many years Suzanne predominantly handled claims for local authorities. These included, amongst others, claims against police and fire services. Suzanne continues to represent local authorities, in particular in disease claims. She also represents other local health and corporate entities.
Thomas Gibby
Thomas is a Senior Associate who specialises in IT & large scale technology outsourcing projects for insurers and their network of brokers, and public sector bodies and government agencies. He works with the Browne Jacobson projects team to structure and advise on large IT outsourcing projects, in addition to advising on related compliance areas including software licensing and data protection. He is also a Certified Data Protection Practitioner. Clients particularly appreciate the commerciality and creativity of Tom’s advice and his ability to understand commercial contracts and provide a wide range of commercial advice, including related compliance areas of software licensing and data protection. His commercial awareness is supplemented by his periods of time spent with the in-house legal teams at Elekta Ltd, Ricardo PLC and The All England Lawn Tennis Club.
Thomas Howard
Thomas has over 20 years’ experience advising public and private sector clients across a range of property work, with particular emphasis in investment and health sector work. In the last 3 years his team has advised on the acquisition of over £200m of property assets for local authorities. The team also act for clients in all landlord and tenant matters linked to the management of their assets. Thomas has led teams on many complex investment projects and developed that experience further by completing a CMI recognized Project Management Programme at Nottingham Business School. This allows Thomas to ensure large and complex projects are delivered efficiently and effectively within a range of project management structures and theories. Thomas takes a very commercial, and pragmatic, approach to his advice and deliberately maintains a private sector client base. For over 14 years he has been the lead property adviser to a large pension fund, working on all matters affecting their large property portfolio. This ensures that he fully understands the needs and concerns of both sectors and particularly enjoys working on large projects involving both sectors. An advocate of LEAN management, Thomas does no over-lawyer his advice, focusing instead on dealing with the issues that matter and always looking for creative solutions. Thomas puts client relationships at the forefront of his work and prides himself on developing strong relationships with his clients and in delivering them a quality service; he has advised a number of his clients for many years and has several clients introduced through referrals from clients and their agents
Tim Claremont
Tim is the head of our construction and engineering team, which comprises 3 Partners, a Legal Director, 9 Solicitors (rising to 11 in early 2020), 2 trainees and a paralegal. He has extensive experience advising clients in relation to both domestic and international engineering and construction matters. Clients praise his engagement with the issues and pragmatic and quick responses. He continues to advise on major national and international projects, including major disputes for Centrica, Zurich Insurance plc, the Japanese heavy industry contractor IHI and in relation to two large waste to energy projects. His other recent work includes advising Yara, the world’s largest producer of ammonia, nitrates & NPKs, regarding an arbitration in relation to a new fertilizer terminal in Tanzania.
Tim Johnson
Tim is a partner specialising in insurance policy drafting and distribution, and associated commercial and compliance issue. Tim heads up Browne Jacobson’s insurance wordings team, which advises insurers, MGAs and brokers on their policy wordings. Tim and his team have a particular focus on the readability of policy wordings, and are regularly instructed to redraft policies in plain English, using techniques developed in conjunction with leading linguists from the University of Nottingham. Tim and his team often advise in relation to major projects such as the creation of suites of policy wordings and associated documents both for new market entrants and for existing markets when launching new product lines. Tim also advises clients on commercial, regulatory and compliance issues relating to the distribution of regulated insurance products and services, including compliance with ICOBs, IDD and CASS. His clients include Lloyd’s syndicates, retail insurers, overseas insurers, MGAs, brokers and broker networks. Tim regularly advises brokers and other insurance intermediaries on all aspects of general regulatory compliance, including regularly advising on compliance issues in the context of disposals and acquisitions of regulated entities.
Tom Briant-Evans
Tom is a senior associate in the education team and has been involved in the sector for almost 10 years. Although Tom regularly advises maintained and independent schools his focus is primarily on the academy sector where, having trained as a corporate lawyer, he specialises in corporate and commercial advice to academy trusts.
Tom has built up considerable experience in advising trusts on incorporations, conversions, transfers and merger projects and along the way has dealt with all types of school including special, PFI, AP, VA, VC, foundation and trust schools as well as advising on numerous free school projects. In addition to conversion work, Tom has been involved in several complex and high-profile re-brokerage matters acting on behalf of DfE appointed trustees.
Away from the transactional side of his practice, Tom regularly supports trusts with amendments to their articles of association, funding agreements and wider governance issues. Tom also advises trusts on their commercial dealings be it through the incorporation of trading subsidiaries or through the establishment of robust commercial contacts and SLAs with third-party providers.
Vicky Tomlinson
Vicky plays a key role in leading corporate transactions in the independent health and care sector. Vicky has worked with a number of private sector health and care clients on all areas of corporate work including share, business and SPV property acquisitions and disposals, group reorganisations and general company law matters including shareholder agreements, constitutional and corporate governance issues.
Vicky’s clients include integrated retirements communities, care home developers and operators, private hospitals, health tech and medical device companies, domiciliary care providers, fertility clinics, children’s services and specialist care providers. Vicky works with companies at all stages of their journey, from start-ups and buy and build platforms to large care groups and internationally listed companies.
Out of work, Vicky is busy looking after her toddler, she plays the violin and sings in a band, and has recently represented England winning a gold medal in the Touch Rugby European Championships.
Victoria Searle
Victoria is an associate in our admin law, environment and planning team. She advises public bodies on their statutory duties and powers, constitutional and administrative law, vires, decision making and judicial review. Victoria is a specialist environmental lawyer who advises statutory nature conservation bodies, local planning authorities, other public bodies, registered providers, and developers on their environmental and planning obligations.
Having worked in the Civil Service for more than a decade before joining Browne Jacobson, Victoria is deeply committed to and a passionate advocate for the public sector. Her public sector clients benefit from Victoria’s unique insight into the sector’s priorities, ways of working and culture and her ability to provide pragmatic advice that reflects the particular challenges they face.
Victoria has a particular specialism in environmental law, including environmental assessment, the Habitats Regulations, and SSSIs. Her clients include statutory nature conservation bodies, local planning authorities, arm’s length bodies and NDPBs as well as developers, registered providers of social housing and corporates.
Victoria is a natural litigator, and her broad contentious practice includes judicial review, procurement challenges, public inquiries, and statutory appeals. She has acted for clients in the High Court, County Court, Technology and Construction Court and the Court of Appeal, and she has an appeal pending in the UK Supreme Court.
Victoria is recognised as a key planning lawyer in the West Midlands by The Legal 500.
Victoria Hatton
Business Services
Victoria Hustler
Business Services
Victoria Hemsell
Victoria specialises in defendant public liability work including employers’, occupiers’ and highways liability cases from initial instruction to trial. Including fast and multi track work. Her work primarily involves advising local authority and other public sector clients on public and employers' liability fast-track and multi-track claims. Victoria works at both the pre- and post- litigation stage and also handles investigatory work.
Victoria Thourgood
Real Estate
Victoria Curran
Victoria is a Partner with management responsibilities across the large loss and Technical Claims Teams. She specialises in Defendant insurance litigation with particular expertise in the areas of sport and catastrophic injury claims, workplace violence and high value and technical product liability claims. Victoria also manages sub-teams specialising in pursuing recovery actions and housing litigation. Victoria is adept at understanding her client’s concerns be they financial, reputational or commercial and clients value Victoria’s insight, commercial awareness and understanding of their needs and preferred methods of achieving their desired outcomes. Her dedication to delivering results for her clients saw her awarded Leicestershire Law Society Solicitor of the Year in 2011 and a shortlisting in the Law Society Excellence Awards 2011. Victoria is often asked to provide training to clients on risk prevention and strategic claims handling and is a member of the FOIL Product Liability SFT. Victoria recently appeared on the insurance expert panel at the Law in Sport Annual Conference, providing insights on vicarious liability in a sporting context.
Wenna Thompson
Wenna is a member of STEP with over 30 years’ experience as a private client lawyer. She specialises in all aspects of private client work, forging long-standing relationships with her clients and their families, in some cases spanning several generations. She has extensive experience of advising clients on all aspects of succession planning, in particular on the use of trusts in the context of the devolution of family wealth and the preservation of family owned estates and businesses. She advises the trustees of significant family trusts, often acting as a trustee through her directorship of the firm’s trust company. She has extensive experience advising on Wills, powers of attorney and also acts as the executor of many estates and advises on post-death tax planning.
William Colacicchi
William has over 30 years’ experience as a trust, tax and charities lawyer, specialising in high value trust and estate planning work. Acting particularly for business owners, trust companies and landowners, his early experience in industry and his time as a corporate lawyer gave him an understanding of the commercial imperatives of his clients, and this need to provide a commercial service to its clients characterises the team’s work. Much of his work involves ownership planning in relation to companies and estates, for both tax and succession purposes. His clients include some of the country’s wealthiest families, accountancy firms, corporate trustees and charities. His commercial experience and approach to trust and tax issues results in a steady stream of new high value instructions. He also advises boards of charity trustees.
William Reynolds
William is a Partner who specialises in clinical negligence defence work, acting on behalf of NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts, and other private insurers and commercial organisations. He runs a mixed high value, complex case portfolio dealing with complex spinal injury, brain injury, birth injury, wrongful birth, and amputation claims. In addition to running his case load William is also a Team Leader for the NHS Resolution team and a specialist in complex quantum. He regularly delivers training on the topic and others both internally, training junior fee earners, and externally to clients. William also contributes to national risk management initiatives for the NHS. One such example is the ‘Getting it right First Time’ (GIRFT) initiative, for which he provides claims and risk management data analysis and advice on draft guidelines.
Zo Hoida
Zo has over 20 years' experience in real estate and projects, working on a full range of commercial property matters. Her specialism is development within the public sector and Zo has acted on several major high profile regeneration projects for local and central government. Clients welcome her collaborative nature, project management skills and sector knowledge. Zo also sits on the firm's International Group with responsibility for APAC & CIS.
