4 New Square Chambers: In Brief

This podcast is a recording of the 4 New Square Chambers panel discussion, ‘Choosing Your Arbitration Tribunal’ , from London Arbitration Week 2025. The panel discuss the practical and strategic considerations involved in constituting an arbitral tribunal. The session combined recent case examples with institutional perspectives and reform initiatives, offering both technical guidance and strategi...

Thirty years on from the landmark decision in Allied Maples v Simmons & Simmons, Sir Rupert Jackson , Roger Stewart KC , and Hugh Evans reflect on its lasting impact on professional negligence law and the application of its principles in modern litigation. They discuss the development of the loss of a chance doctrine, its use across different legal contexts, and the ongoing challenges it prese...

Key Topics Discussed: Funding Challenges: Issues related to funding agreements and privity of contract among class members. Early Court Decisions: The potential for courts to provide early clarity on funding arrangements. Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs): Insights into CFAs, including success fees and cost recovery for class representatives. Damages-Based Agreements (DBAs): Limitations and challe...

In this latest episode in our costs and litigation funding mini-series, 4 New Square Chambers’ Nicholas Bacon KC, George McDonald, and Ben Smiley provide an authoritative analysis of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) and the key cost-related issues that are arising in CAT proceedings. This episode will cover: - The CAT’s approach to litigation funding arrangements, including the scrutiny of fu...

In this episode of our costs and litigation funding mini-series, Roger Mallalieu KC , Hugh Evans , and Ben Smiley examine security for costs. They discuss the fundamental principles and offer top tips for successfully making a security for costs application. The episode also explores the use of after the event insurance (ATE Insurance) and Anti-Avoidance Endorsements (AAE) as forms of security for...

In the second episode of our costs and litigation funding mini-series, 4 New Square Chambers’ Benjamin Williams KC and Theo Barclay discuss the complexities of costs in group litigation. They discuss the distinction between individual and common costs, examining the mechanisms designed to simplify the allocation of common costs and offering insights into how these systems can be effectively...

Join 4 New Square Chambers’ Robert Marven KC , Pippa Manby , and Theo Barclay as they launch our mini-series on costs and litigation funding . In this opening episode, the team delves into the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s unexpected ruling in Paccar, which sent shockwaves through the industry. They recount a tumultuous year marked by this landmark decision, which many feared co...

In this podcast episode, 4 New Square Chambers Barristers Clare Dixon KC and Ben Smiley   explore the SRA’s guidance on SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), the implications for litigation conduct and the challenges it presents to solicitors, COLPs and GCs. With the publication on 31 May 2024 of the SRA’s updated Warning Notice on SLAPPs, this podcast couldn’t have come...

In this latest episode of our back to basics Conversations in Professional Liability series, Helen Evans KC , Marie-Claire O’Kane and Will Cook explain all you need to know about audit, discuss key judgments and legal developments and consider what might lie ahead in auditor’s negligence.

In this latest episode of our back to basics Conversations in Professional Liability series, barristers Amanda Savage KC , Paul Parker and Ben Smiley discuss all you need to know about applications for wasted costs; what they are, how you go about making them and what hurdles there might be .

In this latest episode of our Conversations in Professional Liability series, barristers Hugh Evans , Stephen Innes and Matt Waszak look at some of the key points and topics related to costs from the perspective of a professional liability practitioner including pre-action costs, part 36, assessment of costs and the civil justice council costs review.

In this first episode of our new series, Conversations in Professional Liability, barristers Jamie Smith KC , Clare Dixon KC and Anthony Jones explain the insurance cover solicitors are required to obtain (minimum term insurance) and look at the types of claim are covered and which are not.  They explain how claims attach to a policy, whether multiple claims can be aggregated and the conseque...

4 New Square Chambers’ Tim Chelmick and Hannah Daly will join Andrew James of PCB Byrne in a webinar hosted by ThoughtLeaders4 Disputes on 4th November 2022. The October 2022 amendments to the Civil Procedure rules have brought about significant change to the service of claims out of the jurisdiction. The ‘gateways’ included in Practice Direction 6B have undergone no fewer than 20 substantiv...

In this podcast episode, barristers Paul Mitchell QC and Ben Smiley focus on the position of professionals who recommend tax avoidance or mitigation schemes or who adapt the contractual documentation necessary to give effect to these schemes. They will also be touching on a very recent claim against the architect of one such scheme, a tax Silk.

In this podcast episode, barristers David Halpern QC and Ben Elkington QC address aggregation clauses, when two or more claims are treated as a single claim, in professional liability insurance policies including solicitor’s insurance and other types of professional indemnity insurance.

The litigation of civil fraud claims is on the rise, with the Commercial Court consistently reporting this as an area of growth over the last three years. In this podcast, Tim Chelmick and Hannah Daly examine recent developments in the case-law concerning allegations of dishonesty against professionals, including insights into how dishonesty is defined, how it is proved, the causes of action it un...

In this podcast episode on limitation, barristers Helen Evans QC and John Williams will cover four core topics; section 32 of the Limitation Act, the law on repeated breaches by professionals, the niche but important issue of when time starts to run for limitation purposes during the course of the day and making amendments after the expiry of the limitation period.

Euro Pools v RSA is the first case in 10 years in which the Court of Appeal has considered the important topic of notifications and attachment of claims in professional indemnity insurance. The speakers for this podcast include counsel who appeared in the case at trial and in the Court of Appeal. They will discuss the judgment, its ramifications and broader issues of notification, attachment and a...

Where a wrong is caused to a company, do its shareholders also suffer a loss? Can a shareholder sue for his own loss, where it “reflects” the company’s loss? What if the company can’t or won’t sue? These thorny issues have led to much litigation for nearly 200 years. Reflective loss has now been given a major overhaul by the Supreme Court.

Barristers Tim Chelmick and Lucy Colter discuss practical completion post-Mears v Costplan and other critical events in the life of a construction project, by reference to the role and responsibilities of key construction professionals.  They will provide an overview of claims in this area, and also discuss the latest cases with particular focus on the responsibilities of architects including duti...

On 11th April 2017, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Swynson v Lowick Rose [2018] AC 313, a case that sought to push the boundaries of equitable subrogation beyond breaking point. The Claimants were very firmly knocked back and it was made entirely clear that equity cannot be used as a modern day palm tree. Equity is based on legal principle, not discretion, or an amorphous concept of...

A podcast bringing you up to date with the key professional negligence developments in 2019 and 2020. The talk will include: (i) asking whether the approach to vicarious liability has become more sophisticated; (ii) considering how courts are implementing the Patel v Mirza​ 'policy-based' approach to the doctrine of illegality; (iii) reviewing where we are on the 'loss of a chance' doctrine, and h...

Murray Rosen QC, an arbitrator and mediator at the new Court of Arbitration for Art at The Hague, discusses the special features of dispute resolution in Art disputes, including a comparison between recent court cases and ADR methods, and the impact of the COVID-19 virus on procedures, especially remote hearings and meetings.

A look at how discontinuity of insurance coverage may arise for insurance policies written on a ‘claims made’ basis. This has particular resonance for professional persons who may believe they have seamless cover so long as they take out back-to-back yearly policies. Discontinuity problems are analysed in relation to both the ‘claims’ and ‘circumstances’ attachment mechanisms typically written int...