Date of Birth: 1972
General Information
St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, 1991to 1995: BA (First Class) Sweet & Maxwell Prize for best overall performance in university law examinations; ECS Wade university prize for constitutional law; Arthur Anderson college law prize; Adderley college law prize; Rebecca Flower university law scholarship; Gostlin college scholarship; Hobbes college scholarship.
Universite de Poitiers, France, 1993 to 1994: Diplome de Droit Francais
Gray’s Inn / ICSL, 1996
Reid senior scholarship; Prince of Wales scholarship
St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, 1991to 1995: BA (First Class) Sweet & Maxwell Prize for best overall performance in university law examinations; ECS Wade university prize for constitutional law; Arthur Anderson college law prize; Adderley college law prize; Rebecca Flower university law scholarship; Gostlin college scholarship; Hobbes college scholarship.
Universite de Poitiers, France, 1993 to 1994: Diplome de Droit Francais
Gray’s Inn / ICSL, 1996
Reid senior scholarship; Prince of Wales scholarship
Practice
Tim joined 7KBW in 1997, following the completion of his pupillage, and has been practising as a commercial litigator ever since. His experience includes an 18-month stint at the award-winning Reinsurance and International Risk team at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert in 2006/2007, where he gained invaluable experience of life at a leading commercial litigation solicitors’ firm.
Tim specialises in all areas of commercial law, with an emphasis on insurance and reinsurance, shipping, professional negligence and general contractual disputes. He acts both in an advisory capacity and as an advocate, and has regularly been instructed on his own and as junior counsel in major Commercial Court actions and arbitrations.
Selected Cases
Insurance and Reinsurance
Since his return to Chambers in September 2007, Tim has acted in a number of cases in this area, including American Reliable Insurance Company and Bankers Insurance Company Ltd v. Willis Limited, a substantial Commercial Court action arising out of the PA LMX reinsurance market in the 1990s. He has also acted in a number of reinsurance arbitrations, including several PA LMX arbitrations and an arbitration involving claims under a programme of catastrophe reinsurance contracts for losses resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
During his time at BLG, Tim worked on a wide variety of contentious and non-contentious insurance and reinsurance matters. His work included: acting for liability insurers in a Bermuda Form arbitration involving a US$50 million claim by a US pharmaceutical company relating to a diabetes drug; representing insurers in a Commercial Court action against a French insurance intermediary concerning an Italian sports insurance programme (Terra Nova v, Reass Sarl); and advising on policy wordings and various other non-contentious matters.
Before joining BLG, Tim acted as a barrister in a wide variety of insurance and reinsurance disputes, both in Court and in arbitration. Details can be provided on request.
General commercial disputes
The largest example of a case in this varied area is MAN A.G and ERF v Freightliner Ltd and Ernst & Young [2005] EWHC 2347 (Comm). Tim acted, as Dominic Kendrick QC’s junior, for the truck manufacturer MAN in a £350 million fraud claim under a share purchase agreement against Freightliner Ltd, from whom MAN had purchased ERF, the last British truck manufacturer. There were also consequential claims against ERF’s and Freightliner’s auditors for professional negligence. Following a six-month Commercial Court trial on liability, which concluded in June 2005, MAN succeeded on liability and on virtually all points of principle on damages, resulting in an interim payment of £250 million being ordered.
Shipping, transport and international trade
Tim has acted in a wide range of cases in this area, and has recently been heavily involved in an arbitration concerning various construction issues arising from the early termination of a long-term charterparty for a luxury cruise liner, which settled following a successful mediation.
Before moving to BLG in 2005, Tim also acted in a variety of Court cases and arbitrations in this area, details of which can be provided on request.
Publications
Professional Liability: Law and Practice (Lloyd’s of London Press): between 2000 and 2005, Tim was co-author, together with Julian Flaux QC and Christopher Butcher QC, of the auditors’ negligence section of this practitioner text on professional negligence.
Tim has also written a number of articles for Insurance Day and other insurance and reinsurance publications.
Interests
Outside work, Tim is a keen windsurfer, golfer and skier - although he currently spends most of his spare time running around after his young children.
