Professional Negligence
Professional negligence is a core area of expertise at Fountain Court. Members of Chambers act and advise regularly over the whole range of professional advisers, including claims against accountants and auditors, actuaries, solicitors, barristers, insurance brokers, banks, valuers and surveyors, financial advisers, trustees and stockbrokers.
Members have been involved in many of the leading cases in this field including Caparo v Dickman (in which all counsel involved were from Fountain Court) and Henderson v Merrett. Other recent House of Lords cases in which members have acted include cases on advocates' immunity (Hall v Simons), damages for distress (Farley v Skinner), the vicarious liability of partners for the fraud of a co-partner (Dubai Aluminium v Salaam), the fiduciary duties of solicitors (Hilton v Barker Booth) and the Limitation Act (Law Society v Sephton).
Fountain Court has played, and continues to play, a major role in large-scale recent litigation relating to various professions. Examples include Independent Insurance v Watson Wyatt (actuaries), the claims by Formula One teams against their City firms of solicitors, Stone & Rolls v Moore Stephens (auditors), the JDS enquiry into the auditing of Equitable Life, The Accident Group litiation (solicitors), and the Stax litigation (financial advisers).
Mark Simpson QC is the General Editor of the three volume looseleaf Professional Negligence and Liability (LLP), which is the most comprehensive practitioner work in this field of law, to which five other members contribute. He is also associate Editor of Tottel's Professional Negligence and chairs the annual IBC conference on professional liability at which various members of chambers have spoken. Three members co-author the chapter on professional negligence in Bullen & Leake & Jacob’s Precedents of Pleadings (16th edition).
Our Publications in this Practice Area
- Professional Negligence and Liability
- Expert Witnesses: Professionally Immune?
- The Professional Negligence section in Bullen Leake & Jacob’s Precedents of Pleadings
Our People in this Practice Area
- Anthony Boswood QC
- Michael Brindle QC
- Michael Crane QC
- David Railton QC
- Timothy Dutton QC
- Brian Doctor QC
- Stephen Moriarty QC
- Stephen Rubin QC
- Michael McLaren QC
- Simon Browne-Wilkinson QC
- Philip Brook Smith QC
- Raymond Cox QC
- Guy Philipps QC
- Bankim Thanki QC
- Craig Orr QC
- Patricia Robertson QC
- Timothy Howe QC
- Mark Simpson QC
- Michael Green QC
- Richard Handyside QC
- Jeffrey Chapman QC
- Bridget Lucas
- Derrick Dale QC
- Akhil Shah QC
- Marcus Smith QC
- Veronique Buehrlen QC
- Andrew Mitchell
- John Taylor
- Richard Coleman
- Adam Tolley
- Paul Sinclair
- Patrick Goodall
- Deepak Nambisan
- Giles Wheeler
- Henry King
- Rosalind Phelps
- Edward Levey
- James Cutress
- Nik Yeo
- Adam Zellick
- Chloe Carpenter
- Paul Casey
- Katherine Watt
- Tamara Oppenheimer
- Marianne Butler
- David Murray
- Sebastian Said
- James McClelland
- Simon Atrill
- James Duffy
- Rupert Allen
- Alexander Milner
- Harriet Jones-Fenleigh
- Adam Sher
- Richard Power