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Professional negligence
In each of our specialist groups, members are experienced in dealing with professional negligence disputes involving accountants, architects, barristers, brokers, financial advisers, solicitors, surveyors and valuers. Each requires not only a thorough knowledge of the underlying field of practice but also a sound grasp of litigation strategy.
In addition to advising claimants we frequently act for professional indemnity insurers, either through panel solicitors or directly, at the protocol stage and indeed earlier. Our experience is that detailed and carefully drafted letters at an early stage, highlighting deficiencies in law, method and/or evidence, often help to achieve settlement at a fraction of the initial claim and a fraction of the usual costs. Even when settlement is not achieved, such letters usually prove to be invaluable at the taxation stage. Experience and judgement are equally valuable in the majority of professional negligence cases which go to ADR.
Our expertise in this area is increasingly recognised with, for example, the Legal 500 doubling up the rankings from recommending one leading silk and one leading junior in 2011 to two silks and two juniors in 2012.
Our recognised expertise as a leader in the insolvency area gives us a great insight in the way this industry operates and as a result we regularly get instructed in professional discipline cases within this particular sector.
What others say
Leading silk for Professional Negligence - Chambers UK 2013
Jeremy Cousins QC of 11 Stone Buildings has developed a specialist practice dealing with claims relating to solicitors. The past year has seen him acting on a number of claims involving alleged solicitors' breach of fiduciary duty, breach of trust and negligence. (Professional Negligence, Chambers UK 2013)
Leading silk and junior for Professional Negligence - Legal 500 2012
Legal 500 2012 recommends Jeremy Cousins QC and Lexa Hilliard QC as a leading silk and James Barnard and Gary Lidington as leading juniors.
Legal 500 2012 also recommends Marcia Shekerdemian as a leading junior for professional discipline and regulatory law.
Our professional negligence barristers are: