England - South East • Dispute resolution

Freeths LLP

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Freeths LLP‘s Thames Valley-based contingent primarily acts on behalf of corporate clients, but also represents landed estates as well as educational and charitable institutions on a broad variety of disputes. Core pillars of the team’s commercial litigation offering include contractual disputes, fraud allegations, M&A-associated litigation, shareholder conflicts, and IT and cyber issues – to name a few. Caroline Watson leads the team out of the Oxford office, excelling on complicated technology-sector disputes. Director Will Richmond-Coggan is a seasoned litigator, well-known for his work on data protection issues. Managing associate Paul Brown is another key point of contact.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Will Richmond-Coggan is excellent on data law issues. Very knowledgable.’

  • ‘Caroline Watson has real depth and experience. Very pragmatic and approachable.’

  • ‘First-class legal. A firm which understands its clients and fosters an exceptional working relationship.’

  • 'Tom Holden is an incredibly hard working lawyer who fights hard to push for the best outcome for the client.’
  • ‘Caroline Watson is a go-to commercial litigator.'

Key clients

  • Cromwell Tools Limited
  • London Luton Airport Limited
  • Dawsongroup Plc
  • Amscan International Limited
  • Wells & Co Limited
  • Scania Limited
  • Triad Group Plc
  • Bristol Airport Limited
  • GEFCO
  • FedEx UK Limited

Work highlights

  • Acting for a provider of outsourced pensions and financial services in defence of data breach claims impacting approximately 1,200 public sector employees with pension schemes administered by our client.
  • Acting for a substantial provider of short-term consumer loans in defence of a series of claims brought by various firms, on behalf of claimants said to be affected by a cyber-security incident in 2021.
  • Acting for Triad Plc against the former CEO of Triad in respect of a ‘twitter war’ she had raged against Triad, its directors and advisors.

Lawyers

Next Generation Partners

Will Richmond-Coggan

Will Richmond-Coggan

Freeths LLP

Will is a Partner specialising in data protection advice, both contentious and non-contentious. Will advises a range of clients from large multi-nationals looking to ensure that their UK/EU operations are compliant with the requirements of GDPR while integrating with their worldwide activities, through to start ups particularly working in the deep tech fields like AI, facial recognition and big data applications.   As a nationally recognised expert on GDPR and data protection matters, Will has established a broad practice servicing clients across the UK, as well as having considerable experience in advising clients based in the US/Canada and in the Far East. He provides strategic advice to help clients to build products and services around the concepts of data protection by design, supports clients with their transformation or compliance audit activities, and represents clients in contentious matters up to and including at Court in appropriate circumstances.   Will’s broader disputes work encompasses a range of commercial technology disputes. He has acted for national and international hardware and software companies in litigating over misuse of their information; breaches of contract and diversion of business and for smaller clients in some ground-breaking litigation around social media litigation.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Caroline Watson

Other key lawyers

Will Richmond-Coggan, Paul Brown, Tom Holden