Alice Sims

Alice is a leading senior junior specialising in construction, insurance, engineering, energy, infrastructure and utilities. Her practice focuses on high-value, and often multi-party disputes, that are factually, technically and legally complex. She is regularly instructed against Silks and is in demand for her persuasive advocacy and commercial acumen. She balances an air of authority with a down-to-earth approach. Alice also gets stuck into the technical detail of a case and is a fearless cross examiner. Clients praise her for being accessible, practical and commercial. She is ranked in the Legal 500, Chambers & Partner UK Guide and the Chambers & Partners Global Guide. She is described in the directories as “a great mind”, “forthright and very precise”, a “whizz on cladding”, “meticulous and patient”, and “bring[ing] an air of common sense”. Alice has a wealth of experience in cladding cases. She has been instructed in the Grenfell Litigation and has advised on the Government’s White Paper concerning proposed changes to the Building Safety Act. In the past 24 months she has been instructed in over 10 multi-million-pound cladding disputes for parties at all levels of the contractual chain including insurers, architects, D&B contractors, owners and cladding consultants. She is familiar with all of the technical issues concerning fire safety arising out of the Building Regulations, ADB and the Building Safety Act and has a number of cases concerning Building Liability Orders, including those with a cross-jurisdictional element. She also has particular expertise in energy-related disputes (both onshore and offshore) and has acted for clients in a wide range of litigation concerning ships, renewables, nuclear, oil and gas projects. She also regularly acts in cases relating to the sale and supply of chemicals and the construction of chemical processing plants. She is familiar with all of the major standard forms and standard terms of appointment including NEC, JCT, RIBA, LOGIC, RICS, FIDIC, ICC, ICE and IChemE. Alice divides her practice between TCC litigation and arbitrations (both domestic and international). She is familiar with all of the main arbitration rules (ICC, CIArb, LCIA, SIAC, UNCITRAL). She also acts as an arbitrator and has a number of current appointments. She successfully completed the CIArb Accelerated Route to Fellowship in 2023. Alice is a CEDR trained and incredibly popular mediator. She has an outstanding success rate of settling cases, whether as sole or co-mediator, which clients attribute to her calm but commercial focus. She has conducted in excess of 25 mediations since completing her CEDR training and has an outstanding success rate of over 95%. She most commonly mediates construction disputes (including multi-party disputes) but has also successfully resolved cases involving planning issues, nuisance, lettings and partnership agreements. Alice has held judicial appointments since 2013 (including sitting in the Upper Administrative Appeal Tribunal which hears appeals from certain first-tier tribunals and also applications for judicial review) and currently sits at as Recorder in the Crown Court. She has sat for more than 550 days and has written hundreds of judgments so she brings extensive judicial experience to her work as a barrister, mediator and arbitrator, both in terms of managing complex hearings but also writing directions. None of her judgments which have been appealed to the Court of Appeal have been overturned. For mediation enquiries, please contact the ADR Practice Manager Oliver Goldsmith.