Professional Liability
William is developing a busy and varied professional liability practice. He regularly advises litigants, drafts pre-action correspondence and pleadings on their behalf, and represents them in court. His clients include solicitors, law firms, accountants, financial advisers, recruitment professionals, architects, property surveyors, property management professionals, and engineers; as well as their customers. During pupillage he gained experience of D&O claims and claims against auditors.
Experience includes:
Solicitors and Law Firms
- Representing the Claimant in a High Court claim for nearly a million pounds arising from the alleged unsettlement of a previous claim relating to a major industrial accident. The claim has been brought against a well-known firm of claimant personal injury solicitors.
- Representing a firm of solicitors facing a six-figure claim arising from the firm’s alleged failure to protect its client’s statutory entitlement to obtain a new lease on commercial premises. The matter is listed for a 4-day trial in 2026.
- Acting for a firm of conveyancing solicitors accused of negligent delays which caused a client’s mortgage offer to lapse, causing financial loss.
- Acting for a family law solicitor accused by a third party of negligently drafting a court order, which was then approved by a judge. The third party alleged that, as a direct consequence, he was arrested and became homeless.
- Acting for a solicitors’ firm accused by a deceased person’s estate of having negligently failed to renew the insurance on the deceased person’s house, in circumstances where it knew (or ought to have known) that the house had a long history of subsidence.
- Acting for a solicitor accused of having made errors during the negotiation of a commercial lease which caused six-figure consequential losses to their client.
- Acting for a solicitor alleged to have given incorrect advice on the law of Stamp Duty Land Tax and its effect on a substantial commercial property transaction.
- Acting for a solicitor accused of having negligently helped a client to alter their will, in circumstances where the solicitor allegedly ought to have suspected that the client lacked testamentary capacity.
- Acting for an employment solicitor accused of having negligently missed a filing deadline, with the alleged result that the solicitor’s client lost the chance of bringing an employment tribunal claim.
Accountants
- Acting for an accountant accused of having negligently failed to verify figures underlying a financial presentation to potential investors, with the alleged result that the potential deal collapsed.
- Acting for a firm of accountants alleged to have given incorrect advice to a company director in relation to a Director’s Loan Account.
Other Professionals
- Acting for a firm of property surveyors accused of having negligently failed to identify the presence of asbestos in the loft of a property which it surveyed.
- Acting for a recruitment agency accused of negligently placing an unqualified candidate in a new role, thereby causing financial loss to its client.
- Representing a property management company accused of having negligently failed to comply with the law concerning tenancy deposit protection. The claim settled after a number of interim hearings but before trial.
- Acting for a company that produces 3D Building Information Modelling of architectural designs, and which was accused of negligence and breach of contract by a former client.
William is a member of the Professional Negligence Bar Association.
Selected Cases
View full profile »Awards
• Lord Denning Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn, 2021)
• Senior Advocacy Scholarship (The University of Law, 2021)
• Lord Brougham Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn, 2020)
Articles
News
Qualifications
• Bar Practice Course (Outstanding); The University of Law
• GDL (Distinction); The University of Law
• MA Music (First Class); King’s College, Cambridge
Memberships
- BILA
- COMBAR
- PNBA
- SCL
- TECBAR
