Practice Overview

Tom has developed a practice that matches the breadth of Chambers’ practice areas, including international commercial disputes, shipping, conflicts of laws, commodities, aviation, commercial chancery and company work. He has acted, both as sole counsel and as a junior, on claims varying in value from hundreds of pounds to multiple billions. He enjoys difficult cases, and prides himself on being responsive and easy to work with.

Highlights include:

• Appearing, led by Joseph Sullivan, for the Respondent in the Supreme Court in Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd, in which a seven-Judge panel is to decide the test for setting aside a judgment on the basis that it was procured by fraud. This raised a wide variety of issues, involving the fundamental principles of res judicata, the public policies surrounding fraud, and a detailed examination of the powers that courts have to manage the conduct of litigation generally. The Judgment of the Supreme Court is expected to be handed down in early 2019.
• Advising and drafting as a junior in a multi-billion dollar dispute between a Southeast Asian government and a sovereign wealth fund.
• Challenging jurisdiction of a claim worth €36 million on the basis of res judicata by merger (led by Robert-Jan Temmink QC)
• Arguing in a wide variety of claims under bills of lading and charterparties, including for damage to cargo and vessels, speed and performance claims, and demurrage, raising issues of expert evidence, quantum, mitigation and unjust enrichment.
• Acting in relation to a complex dispute between shareholders of a private company, involving freezing injunctions, allegations of fraud and the principles of agency, unjust enrichment, winding up and unfair prejudice.
• Advising in relation to the damage caused to the stock when a warehouse was flooded by extreme weather, raising issues of act of god, force majeure and the fundamental principles of bailment.
• Appearing on an application for summary judgment in a debt recovery claim in the Admiralty Court under a loan agreement secured by a mortgage over a registered yacht, involving a dispute as to the method used by the mortgagee to procure a sale.
• Advising in respect of appealing arbitration awards, pursuant to s69 of the Arbitration Act 1996.
• Advising in relation to the maintenance costs of the HMS President, an aging World War I decoy vessel.
• Advising and pleading for a hotel in relation to a refusal to pay consultancy fees following a failure to obtain planning permission for a series of proposed developments.
• Appearing in CMCs and Costs CMCs
• Arguing claims for detention in FOSFA Arbitrations.
• Pleading and advising in respect of aviation matters, including “extraordinary circumstances” under Regulation 261/04, and personal injury and baggage claims under the Montreal Convention.
• Appearing in respect of various insolvency matters, including obtaining validation orders, company restoration orders, and in the winding-up court.
• Pleading and advising in respect of claims pertaining to carriage of goods by road, under the RHA terms, BIFA terms and the CMR.