Thomas More Chambers

Areas of Practice:

• Arbitration
• Commercial
• Family
• Direct Public Access
• Insolvency
• Personal Injury
• Property

Experience:

Jacob is an experienced barrister and mediator with a broad practice in chancery, family and general civil & commercial litigation. He particularly welcomes cases that are factually or legally complex or which require the creative use of law to resolve.

As a lawyer, his strengths are providing clear, practical advice together with fearless advocacy in court, whether he is working on his own or in a team leading or being led by others.

In recent years, he has become more interested in resolving disputes by agreement rather than determination. As a result, he is now developing a practice as a mediator, where his ability to build rapport and help parties find creative solutions to their problems is particularly important.

In addition to this brief summary, Jacob also maintains a website at http://www.giffordhead.co.uk which includes fuller profile, details of significant cases, and articles about various areas of law.

Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution:

Jacob is a CEDR Accredited and a Civil Mediation Council Associate Mediator. He welcomes instructions as a mediator in all areas of civil law, including under the CMC Fixed Fee scheme where appropriate. For clients who prefer or require a more evaluative approach, he also welcomes instructions as an early neutral evaluator and, in financial remedy cases, as a private financial dispute resolution “judge” or evaluator.

Chancery & Property:

Jacob accepts instructions in all areas of chancery practice, with a particular emphasis on "traditional" chancery and real property disputes. He has experience as acting both as a lawyer and a mediator in these areas.

Property Disputes

Jacob is regularly instructed to provide advice and representation in disputes about the ownership of property whether under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (“TOLATA” / “TLATA”) or otherwise.

Many of these cases are cohabitation disputes where an unmarried couple disagree about the beneficial ownership or property in one or both of their names. However, he has also represented clients in purely commercial disputes involving failed partnership or joint venture agreements and in cases which arise from insolvency proceedings.

Often the dispute concerns implied or imputed common intention constructive trusts or related areas, such as promissory estoppel. However, Jacob also has experience of cases where the primary dispute is over written documents, including allegations of fraud and counterfeiting.

Beyond ownership disputes, Jacob has experience of the majority of other forms of property dispute, including boundary disputes; disputes about easements and covenants; mortgages and other charges; and other trusts of land.

Although most of this litigation takes place in the High or County Courts, Jacob also has experience of and welcomes instructions in representing clients in “intervention” cases in the Family Court; the Land Registration Tribunal; and even the Crown Court.

Inheritance, Wills, Probate & Trusts

Jacob provides advice and representation to clients in all major areas that touch on the administration of estates. He also has experience in mediating these disputes to resolution.

Most inheritance cases involve disputes about the validity, interpretation or rectification of wills; allegations of misfeasance in the administration of the estate; and applications under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. His experience ranges from advisory work for cases proceeding under the Non-Contentious Probate Rules to representing clients in court in high value cases involving allegations of counterfeiting, fraud or theft.

Insolvency

Jacob welcomes instructions in all areas of corporate and personal insolvency.

His experience includes a very wide range of proceeding, including: disputes about solvency; preference claims; applications relating to the conduct of trustees, administrators and other insolvency professionals; misfeasance claims; and director disqualification proceedings.

He welcomes instructions from both insolvency practitioners and also individuals or companies (whether facing or bringing proceedings).

Summary of notable cases in 2023 and 2024:

• High value dispute under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, successfully mediated.
• Complex dispute to overturn a will for lack of capacity, want of knowledge and approval and undue influence by a trustee in bankruptcy.
• Long running international corporate insolvency dispute including allegations of avoidable transactions and misconduct by administrators.
• Advisory work as to the interaction of the Court and Land Registration Tribunal Jurisdiction in ToLATA proceedings.
• Dispute about a will’s validity where a vexatious litigant obtained permission to bring the claim.
• Property access dispute including a complex question of the interaction between private law rights and the public law rights to limit access.
• High court freezing injunction connected to property sales.
• Numerous cohabitation disputes.

Family and Court of Protection:

Jacob accepts instructions in all areas of family law.

Financial Remedies & Divorce
Jacob has represented numerous clients in their applications for financial remedy. Clients appreciate his willingness to give clear and practical advice. His cases have included almost every conceivable area of dispute including third-party ownership, fraud, international assets and substantial familial trust funds. Here there is much overlap with his chancery work: he is often instructed in cases involving a third-party intervention into matrimonial finance proceedings.

He also has experience of the rarer financial remedy applications, such as those under Schedule 1, Children Act 1989 and s.17 Married Women’s Property Act 1882 as well as those cases with overlap with civil disputes. He has also been instructed in contested divorce proceedings and has provided advisory work on the solemnisation of marriage under the Marriage Act 1949.

Private Law
Jacob welcomes private law children cases, ranging from ‘straight-forward’ contact disputes to international cases; Hague Convention proceedings; and wardship cases. Many of his cases involve serious allegations made by one parent against another such as serious domestic abuse, including sexual violence against parents and children, or allegations that one parent has psychologically manipulated a child to be hostile to the other.

His particular expertise is in applications for removal from the jurisdiction or relocation, either permanently or temporarily, together with cases where there is a dispute between UK jurisdictions.

Care
Jacob has considerable experience in care and public law children cases, particularly acting for the parents, where a willingness to challenge and push for a favourable resolution is of particular importance. Here, he finds having a background in criminal law is an invaluable advantage. He is particularly interested in international care cases and the interaction between the Children Act 1989 and Wardship proceedings.

He also welcomes instructions as a sole or leading counsel in complex fact-finding hearings such as allegations of “non-accidental injury” or other abuse.

Court of Protection
Finally, Jacob has experience in all major jurisdictions within the Court of Protection, representing applicants, respondents and interested parties. He is particularly interested in the overlap between civil and Court of Protection actions.

Summary of Notable Cases in 2023 and 2024:

• Re V: Long-running application for contact under Article 21 Hague Convention (partly reported at [2023] EWHC 2983 (Fam)). Included a lengthy fact-finding hearing, final hearing and disputes about costs.
• Leading brief in complex care proceedings including a separate lengthy fact-finding hearing (including allegations of sexual abuse by the parents of the children).
• Private law intra-UK jurisdictional dispute, including deemed habitual residence under the Family Law Act 1986.
• Unusual & complex FR third-party intervention case where a consent order lay unapproved for a decade.
• Claim under the MWPA between a formerly engaged couple, including applications to show cause and the interaction of the MWPA and Schedule 1, Children Act 1989.
• Successful application for a parental order arising from a foreign surrogacy arrangement.
• Numerous internal and external relocation cases, at first instance and appeal.
• Several financial remedy final hearings, including complex ones involving numerous contested factual and legal issues.
• Court of Protection dispute concerning dissipation of P’s property.

General Civil & Commercial:

Commercial
Jacob is regularly instructed in commercial and contractual disputes, representing companies large and small. This work includes litigation, arbitration, other ADR and non-contentious work.

The areas of dispute can be extremely wide-ranging. They have included:

• The interpretation and performance of contracts both in the UK and abroad.
• Intellectual property including trademarks, copyright and patents.
• Regulatory disputes.
• Building, Party Wall, and other construction disputes
• Consumer protection, such as PPI claims.

Landlord & Tenant
Jacob is often instructed in commercial and residential property disputes, such as applications for possession, disputes about forfeiture, dilapidations and disrepairs.

General & Other Civil Areas
Jacob has regular experience in personal injury, having carried out numerous EL, OL & RTA trials trials for both Claimants and Defendants. He is familiar with all of the usual issues which arise in these cases including allegations of fundamental dishonesty and disputes about credit hire.

He has experience in cases involving allegations of professional negligence, particularly against lawyers, where his wide-ranging practice area is particularly helpful.

He also welcomes instructions in actions against the police and similar state bodies.

Finally, Jacob welcomes less-common civil actions ranging as widely as bailment; conversion; or civil applications under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

Summary of Notable Cases in 2023 and 2024:

• High-value commercial dispute about a film funding agreement.
• Professional negligence claim against firm of solicitors involving a large number of procedural points.
• Advisory work in a complex action against the police, arising from a decade-long failed prosecution for fraud.
• Complex civil harassment action.
• Advisory work concerning a frustrated international supply of goods contract due to civil war.
• Advisory work concerning the interaction of change of use clause within a commercial lease and the 2020 changes to planning permission use class regulations.

Reported Cases:

Throughout his career, a number of Jacob’s cases have been reported or are available through the legal databases. Some of them are in areas in which he no longer practises but are included here as they may be of interest to his current and future clients:

• Re V [2023] EWHC 2983 (Fam): Fact-finding hearing concerning serious allegations made in the context of Hague Convention proceedings.
• (A Child), Re [2020] EWHC 2784 (Fam): Hague Convention proceedings concerning the meaning of “actually exercising” rights of custody.
• N v N (Afghanistan: Validity of an overseas marriage: Procedure) (Rev 1) [2020] EWFC B55: Contentious divorce and the family procedure rules. This reported judgment was overturned on an unreported appeal.
• R v Ospina [2017] EWCA Crim 1509: successful appeal against sentence for firearm offences.
• NCA v Dong & Fang [2017] EWHC 3116 (Ch); [2018] 1 P.&C.R. DG20: Trial concerning presumptions relating from gratuitous transfers of property.
• Chikweze v SSHO (2017) IA/20327/2015: Resisting an immigration appeal in the Upper Tribunal.
• Re: EE (Children) (Habitual Residence) [2016] EWHC 3363 (Fam); [2017] 1 F.C.R. 500: Habitual residence of children who had spent extensive time in Latvia.
• Re M: [2016] EWCOP 42: Committal proceedings within the Court of Protection.
• R. (on the application of Wilus) v Poland [2014] EWHC 2718 (Admin): Whether the non-availability of an interpretor for an appellant in the High Court violated Article 6 ECHR.

• Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, MA (History and Archæology of Mesopotamia, the Near East and Ægean) • College of Law, London, LLB (Graduate Diploma in Law and Bar Vocational Course) • Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, Accredited Mediator