England - North • Insurance
1

Professional negligence

Weightmans

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Weightmans‘ Newcastle-based team ’is thorough, prompt and reliable and provides sensible advice’, clients feel that they are ‘in very capable hands.’ Led by mediator Richard Palmer, the team provides advice to a diverse client base, including the UK’s largest insurers, handling a myriad of complex high-volume multi-party claims, including post-Grenfell cladding matters. Amy Nesbitt is ’a shining star’, specialising in insurance coverage, professional liability and cyber. With great experience in advising traditional and emerging professionals in indemnity claims, Anne-Marie Knight has recently been instructed to defend a multi-party claim concerning defective foundations at a printing press, involving novel remedial schemes. She is supported by principal associate Tom Thurlow who is the go-to name for construction disputes.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The team has particular expertise in defending construction-related claims against professionals, including cladding claims. It offers better value for money that some other firms in the field paying particular attention to ensuring that costs are proportionate and offer value for money.’

  • ‘Richard Palmer: Highly experienced. Very incisive. Gives firm advice. Very effective in mediation. Anne-Marie Knight: Tenacious. Great with clients. Also very skilled in mediation. Tom Thurlow. Exceptional ability to analysis cases and plan strategies. A rising star.’

  • ‘The team I work with at Weightmans are highly cohesive. They seem to work in a very collaborative way. Where work can be carried out at a more junior level for a lower fee, the partners will ensure that those juniors are involved at the appropriate stages and I believe this means that costs are kept proportionate. Having said this, I like to see that there are no more than two or three fee-earners of different levels working on the file. Other firms often render bills where there are multiple fee-earners recording time on a file and i always think this leads to duplication. I think the strength of this team at Weightmans lies in the way they work collaboratively with one another and the end product, i.e. their reports / advice, are very high-quality / well-produced.’

  • ‘One of the stand-out partners for me is Richard Palmer. I have worked with him (and once upon a time, for him) for a long time. What I admire about Richard is his ability to understand what motivates the opposition and what it is they are most concerned about. More often than not, this is the key that unlocks the door to settlement. On top of this, while Richard gives a very thorough analysis of the legal issues, his advice is always pragmatic and commercial. I trust Richard as a safe pair of hands.'

  • 'Another stand-out partner is Anne-Marie Knight. I usually send Anne-Marie complicated construction professional negligence disputes. What I love about Anne-Marie is her ability to disarm any aggressive opponent with her calm composure. In difficult and sometimes heated disputes, Anne-Marie is unrattled. I admire her common-sense approach and also her ability to build up a constructive rapport with opponents at the same time as maintaining a robust position. She gets results.’

  • ‘Richard Palmer (partner) and Katy Ames (associate) make an excellent team. Both are immensely likeable, intelligent, considered, practical and prompt. They give thorough consideration to all aspects of a matter before providing their advice. What is particularly impressive, is that they are both thorough and prompt. They clearly allocate resources in a very effective way.’

  • ‘Approachable, knowledgeable, pragmatic, commercial, great legal advocates.’

  • ‘Amy Nesbitt - Partner - Absolute ownership of the relationship with our office, with an open and candid approach to all matters and detailed oversight of claims under the teams' purview. Lauren Whiting - Associate - A great asset to the team and key to the successful management of challenging cases!’

Key clients

  • Hiscox Underwriting Limited
  • Hamilton Management Agency Limited
  • Axis Speciality Europe (London Branch)
  • Star Stone Insurance SE
  • CNA Insurance Company Limited
  • Tokio Marine HCC
  • Nexus Claims Management Services Limited
  • Starr Underwriting Agents Limited

Work highlights

  • Acted for  National D&B Contractor in complex, multi-party dispute concerning allegedly defective foundations at a printing press for a national (and litigious) Newspaper.
  • Acted for a Specialist Acoustic Barrier and Security Fencing Specialist in relation to the partial collapse of an acoustic barrier at a commercial site in London.
  • Acted in a very complex post-Grenfell cladding claim where a national homebuilder and developer pursued the client as main contractor for recovery of remedial works costs incurred in remedying six high-rise residential properties on which a variety of contentious Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding and non-compliant insulation materials had been installed, causing various alleged breaches of building and fire-safety regulations.

Lawyers

Leading associates
Rising stars with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Tom Thurlow
Weightmans
Tom is an established member of Weightmans' professional negligence and insurance disputes team based in Newcastle. Although based in Newcastle, Tom acts for clients across the country. In the last five publications of the Legal 500, Tom has been ranked as a Tier 1 "rising star" and described as a "calm and methodical" solicitor with "excellent client care" and "wise beyond his years – a very good lawyer who is prepared to put in all the hours to get to the final article". Considered "very attuned to his clients' needs" and “the go-to name for construction disputes”, Tom is considered by his clients to have “exceptional ability to analyse cases and plan strategies. For the last 2 years, he is also listed in Tier 1 National for Professional Discipline work and described as “very competent in managing a diverse team and keeping the clients focused on the issues”. The mainstay of Tom's current practice involves complex professional negligence construction disputes, with a particular focus on cladding and related façade claims arising in the wake of the Grenfell Tower Disaster. As well as being instructed on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry itself for one of the Core Participants, Tom has also assisted various professionals involved in disputes concerning allegedly defective cladding/façade products, including one of the ‘top-20 cases to watch for 2024’ as well as acting on associated recovery actions. In the Legal 500 2022, Tom was described as "the name to note for this type of work". Alongside this, Tom has a burgeoning practice in disciplinary/regulatory and alternative forums work, and is currently acting on various matters before disciplinary bodies, public inquiries, appeal panels and the Bullock Independent Fire Review. Tom has also recently taken a regulatory prosecution to trial on a previously untested point of law, obtaining a favourable result for the client, and has been instructed on a number of novel, construction-based Judicial Reviews. Tom also continues to be instructed on a broader range of disputes spanning the traditional and emerging professions and is regularly instructed by a wide range of insurers, and other clients.
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Anne-Marie Knight
Weightmans
   Anne-Marie is a Partner based at Weightmans’ Newcastle office, who specialises in defending professional indemnity claims against a range of professionals. She has 30 years of experience of advising both insurers and their insured professional clients in this field.  Anne-Marie is regularly instructed in relation to claims against traditional professionals, such as architects, engineers, design and build contractors, approved inspectors, cladding designers, asbestos surveyors, building surveyors, solicitors and accountants.  She has also advised in relation to claims against emerging professions, such as process servers and recruitment consultants and has experience of professional disciplinary proceedings, as well as criminal proceedings brought against a professional client.  In addition to defending claims brought against professionals, Anne-Marie is regularly instructed by insurers to advise on policy coverage matters.  Anne-Marie is recommended by the Legal 500 as one of only three Leading Individuals in the North and as one of only five practitioners in Chambers and Partners for the North East and Yorkshire region. She has acquired a reputation for hard work, attention to detail, and excellent client service delivery.  She is an accredited Mediator and has successfully conducted many mediations.
Richard Palmer
Weightmans
   Richard is recognised for his expertise having been highlighted as a leader in the field of professional indemnity and “highly recommended” by Legal 500 for several years. A Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and an accredited mediator for the last 13 years, Richard is a skilled negotiator who uses a wide range of dispute resolution tactics to achieve the best results for his clients in complex and high value disputes.  He is viewed in The Legal 500 as standing out for his "straightforward professional advice that is always well researched". In Chambers UK 2010 Richard is described as "an extremely good communicator with an excellent ability to analyse problems and get to the heart of the issue".  Richard has chaired several Professional Indemnity Seminars in the City of London, hosted by the Professions & Insurance Group, as well as speaking to insurers and brokers on a wide range of professional indemnity related subjects. Richard was also a guest speaker for the Institute of Money Laundering Prevention Officers (IMPLO) at one of their annual conferences and has appeared in a DVD produced by the North East Fraud Forum on the subject of money laundering.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Richard Palmer

Other key lawyers

Anne-Marie Knight, Amy Nesbitt, Katy Ames, Tom Thurlow, Lauren Whiting

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