Harriet Jones-Fenleigh
Call date
2007
Practice Areas
Harriet is developing a broad commercial and civil practice in line with Chambers’ profile. She is particularly interested in the following areas:
- Arbitration
- Aviation
- Banking and Financial Services
- Chancery
- Civil Fraud
- Commercial Litigation
- Commodities
- Company Law
- Conflict of Laws and Jurisdiction
- Consumer Credit Law
- Insurance and Reinsurance
- Professional Negligence
- Sale of Goods and International Trade
Summary of Practice
Harriet is instructed in relation to a wide range of commercial matters. She regularly appears as sole advocate in High Court applications and in arbitrations and County Court trials. She has experience of witness handling via video link and through an interpreter. A summary of her recent practice is set out below.
Arbitration
Currently acting (as sole counsel) in an LCIA Arbitration worth in excess of £750,000 concerning the alleged breach of restrictive covenants in a shareholders’ agreement. This has included an issue as to the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.
Currently acting in an LCIA Arbitration for a steel supplier against an industrial buyer concerning the alleged breach of a contract on ISTA Terms.
Instructed in six FOSFA arbitrations arising out of the alleged contamination of cargoes of sunflower seed oil. These proceedings all involve questions of limitation, as well as liability and quantum.
Aviation
Harriet is regularly instructed by airlines to defend claims brought by passengers under the Montreal Convention 1999/Carriage by Air Act 1961, Regulation EC 261/2004 and at common law.
Banking and Financial Services
Regularly instructed to advise and represent high street banks and lenders in matters concerning:
- mortgage repossessions;
- mortgage fraud;
- the enforcement of loans and guarantees;
- the alleged misselling of Payment Protection Insurance;
- the ongoing litigation in the County Courts concerning the lawfulness of unauthorised overdraft charges.
Instructed by a major high street bank in respect of a potential claim arising out of the collapse of an Icelandic bank. Through this Harriet has acquired a detailed understanding of payments and settlements systems (SWIFT and CHAPS).
Chancery and Company Law
Currently acting (as sole counsel) in an LCIA Arbitration worth in excess of £750,000 brought by shareholders against former directors and shareholders concerning the alleged breach of restrictive covenants in a shareholders’ agreement. The dispute raises issues of reflective loss (see Arbitration above).
Regularly instructed by creditors to make winding up petitions.
Civil Fraud
Regularly instructed by major lenders in mortgage repossession actions, including where mortgagors allege fraud by co-mortgagors.
Acting for a property developer in a debt claim by a contractor who had fraudulently submitted forged invoices.
Commodities, Sale and Supply of Goods and Services and International Trade
Regularly instructed to advise and draft submissions in respect of claims for cargo contamination (see Arbitration above).
Regularly instructed to advise and settle pleadings in various contractual disputes including allegations of misrepresentation, breach of terms implied by the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and Supply of Goods of Services Act 1982 and industry standard terms, such as the ISTA Standard Terms & Conditions of Sale and ASTM International Standards. Recent examples include:
- Acting for a steel trader in a contractual claim against a supplier worth in excess of £400,000;
- Acting for steel supplier in a contractual claim against an industrial buyer concerning the alleged breach of a contract on ISTA Terms;
- Acting for a property developer in a debt claim brought by the provider of security services to various construction sites;
- Advising and settling pleadings for the seller of a business in a claim by a sole selling agent for remuneration following the sale of the business.
Consumer Credit Law
Harriet has experience advising on and defending claims under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, including:
- acting for a bank defending a claim by a passenger under s. 75 for damages for loss of enjoyment after the flights he purchased on his credit card were cancelled after the airline went into administration;
- acting for a bank defending a claim brought by a travel agent challenging its right to "charge back" (ie claw back) sums paid to the credit card provider and supplier on receipt of a claim under the CCA 1974.
Insurance
Instructed to advise independent financial advisors on coverage issues in a dispute with their professional indemnity insurers over potential claims arising out of an FSA investigation into the misselling of geared traded endowment policies (GTEPs).
Instructed to advise traders on coverage issues in two disputes with their insurers regarding claims arising from the contamination of cargo.
Instructed to advise an insured car owner in respect of disclosure and notification issues.
Regularly instructed by a major insurance broker to review its clients’ collateral warranties in light of their professional indemnity insurance.
Professional Negligence
Instructed to advise an individual as to the merits of a substantial potential claim against a firm of solicitors in respect of their conduct of a clinical negligence claim.
Education
BA History, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (Double First)
CPE, City University (Distinction)
BVC, Inns of Court School of Law (Outstanding)
Prizes & Scholarships:
- Pupillage Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn)
- Buchanan Prize for outstanding performance on the Bar Vocational Course (Lincoln’s Inn)
- Lord Mansfield Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn)
- Lord Bowen Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn)
- Hardwicke Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn)
- Senior Scholar, Gonville and Caius Collage, Cambridge
- College Prize for best performance in History Tripos, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
- Winner, John Smith Memorial (formerly Observer) Mace Debating Competition (2004)
- Champion, Oxford Union International Inter-Varsity Debating Tournament (2004)
- World Debating Championship, Quarter-Finalist (2005)
Memberships
COMBAR
Young International Arbitrators Group (YIAG)
Other Experience
Secondment to the International Trade and Energy group of Clyde & Co. LLP (September-December 2008), during which Harriet gained experience of arbitrations under the ICSID, LCIA, ICC and FOSFA rules, as well as international sale of goods and insurance disputes.
Languages
Working knowledge of French