Browne Jacobson LLP

Adam Culy

Adam is a professional liability partner known for his expertise across various professions, notably accountancy, where he acts for individuals and firms in claims and regulatory investigations. Ranked as a leader by Legal 500 and Chambers, Adam is praised by his clients for his prowess, sector expertise, and pragmatism. His approach has been shaped by his diverse experience as a criminal prosecutor, general counsel of an accountancy firm, and captive insurance director. Clients rely on Adam to protect their reputations in their most challenging cases due to his advocacy, his deep sector knowledge and insurance expertise. Adam’s extensive network in accountancy, legal, expert witness, insurance and professional services enables him to connect clients with top experts and collaborate effectively with clients’ in-house expertise to tailor solutions for the most complex challenges. Recently Adam has successfully defended professional negligence cases in the High Court and responded to investigations including by the ICAEW, Financial Reporting Council and Insolvency Practitioner’s Association. His litigation achievements include victories in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. More often Adam can resolve his matters in negotiation and at mediation. · Professional Negligence

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. · Litigation

Alex Kynoch

Subsidy Control

Alex Mason

Technology

Amanda Callaghan

Amanda joined Browne Jacobson in 2013 to start the Health and Clinical Negligence team in our Manchester office. Amanda specialises in clinical negligence claims and complaints, risk management, confidentiality and disclosure of medical records, consent to treatment issues and inquests. Amanda is head of the Browne Jacobson Manchester office. · Clinical Negligence

Amba Griffin-Booth

Commercial Litigation

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. · Healthcare

Amy Keogh

Restructuring & Insolvency

Andrew Douglas

Technology

Andrew Hopkin

Criminal

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. · Employer Liability

Anthony Nagle

Technology

Barry Sully

Real Estate

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. · Litigation

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. · Litigation

Ben Standing

Planning

Bethan Parry

Clinical Negligence

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. · Higher Education

Bradley Martin

Public Procurement

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. · Employment

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. · Personal Injury

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. · Regulatory

Carly Caton

Healthcare

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. · Regulatory

Cat Driscoll

Commercial / Contracts

Charlotte Antoniou

Education

Charlotte Butler

Charlotte Harpin

Healthcare

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. · Health

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. · Health

Christian Farrow

Christian leads our corporate practice in Wales from our Cardiff office as part of our wider corporate team. With a career spanning more than 20 years, Christian regularly advises listed and private companies on acquisitions, disposals, mergers, IPOs, EOTs, fundraisings and joint ventures, frequently with cross-border aspects. His track record in leading on multi-million pound landmark transactions across a range of sectors, most notably in financial services and CleanTech and Renewables, means that he his highly regarded by both clients and peers alike. In addition to his technical ability, Christian brings his innovative thinking and personality to deals. Clients particularly rate his enthusiasm and sound commerciality. Christian’s contribution to the deal market has been consistently recognised in the business community: he has been nominated twice as Insider Wales Dealmaker of the Year and was named Young Dealmaker of the Year. His esteemed ranking as a leading individual by the Legal 500 underscores his role as a trusted advisor for businesses in Wales and beyond. · Corporate / M&A

Ciaran Markey

Dispute Resolution

Clare Hanna

Corporate / M&A

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. · Health

Colin Peck

Insurance & Reinsurance

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. · Government

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. · Litigation

Dai Durbridge

Education

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. · Education

Daniel O’Brien

Government & Public Sector

Daniella Glynn

Employment

Danielle De Val

Insurance

Darragh Killeen

Litigation

Darren Ashworth

Darren has considerable experience of advising on a broad range of real estate matters. During his career, he has spent time in house working with an international developer and in a management role at a local authority. Darren also has project management qualifications. Darren advises a variety of clients, including property investors and developers, government bodies, local authorities and other public sector organisations, registered providers, business owners and sporting organisations. Darren acts on development and regeneration schemes, property acquisitions and disposals and landlord and tenant work. He has experience of dealing with the real estate aspects of corporate work and acting for both borrowers and lenders on bespoke lending transactions. His career highlights include working on real estate aspects of the London 2012 Olympics project, assisting a football club with a large development and acting for both public and private sector bodies on a number of major development and regeneration schemes. · Real Estate

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. · Real Estate

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. · Financial Services

David Hill

Technology

David Toulmin Van Sittert

David specialises in complex and high value defendant clinical negligence claims representing both general practitioners and consultants. · Clinical Negligence

Declan Cushley

Intellectual Property

Derek Bambury

Insolvency & Restructuring

Derek Bambury

Derek specialises in all aspects of professional and institutional default, management liability, insurance coverage and contentious insolvency. · Insolvency & Restructuring

Dominic Buckley

Real Estate

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. · Real Estate

Dominic Swift

Real Estate

Ed Anderson

Professional Negligence

Emma Marshall

Litigation

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. · Clinical Negligence

Emma Roake

Emma specialises in drafting, negotiating and advising on a wide range of commercial contracts, with a particular focus on the retail, fashion, logistics and tech sectors. Emma has particular expertise in advising clients on agency, distribution, franchising, e-commerce and marketplace agreements, including their termination and early-stage disputes. As co-head of our retail and supply chain group, Emma has a deep understanding of the issues affecting clients in those sectors. She has extensive experience of advising on supply chain contracts including manufacturing agreements, supply of goods and services agreements, warehousing and logistics agreements, distribution agreements (including selective distribution), agency agreements, e-commerce and marketplace arrangements and consumer terms. Emma is an expert in commercial agency matters, having advised principals and agents for over 15 years on how to manage issues arising during the lifecycle of the agency relationship, from putting in place agency agreements, to advising on performance issues, to termination and handling claims for compensation or indemnity arising under the Commercial Agents Regulations. With several years spent as a litigator before specialising in commercial contracts, Emma helps clients to maximise the value from their commercial relationships whilst also anticipating potential disputes and drafting to protect her clients’ interests on termination. · Commercial Contracts

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. · Insolvency & Restructuring