George Spalton

Education

MA Oxon; LLM Columbia University (New York)



Tel: 020 7822 2040
Email: g.spalton@4newsquare.com
Email Clerk: d.peck@4newsquare.com

Year of Call: 2004


Languages
Conversational French

Profile

George has a broad commercial practice which falls into three principal areas: commercial litigation and arbitration, financial services and professional liability claims (including disciplinary work).

George is rated in Chambers and Partners for International Arbitration and Professional Liability and in The Legal 500 for International Arbitration and Commercial Litigation. He is described as "one to watch", "clever and approachable", a "fast-rising junior" who picks up the "key legal issues very quickly" and a junior who is "well attuned to the client's commercial imperatives." 

In addition, in 2012 George was named as one of ten ‘Stars of the Bar’ in a survey by Legal Week, having previously been named in the 2010 version as a ‘Highly Commended’ Junior.

George is currently Chairman of Junior COMBAR (the Junior Commercial Bar Association).

Commercial: George’s experience of commercial litigation and arbitration encompasses a wide variety of domestic and international disputes. His experience ranges from construction related disputes, to conflicts of law/jurisdictional issues, insurance and reinsurance, commodities and civil fraud.

Financial Services: George is also developing a particular expertise in financial services claims – whether acting for or against financial institutions, banks, individual financial services practitioners or regulatory bodies. George has experience of financial markets having worked as an intern analyst at a major bank in the City and from his LLM in New York which included courses on corporate finance and accounting.

Professional Liability: George’s professional liability work involves claims for and against accountants and auditors, financial services professionals, insurance brokers & agents, lawyers – both barristers and solicitors - and surveyors.

Other core areas of practice: George is also building up a busy practice in the fields of costs, sports and disciplinary related work. In the disciplinary context, he has appeared before tribunals for the following professional bodies: the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the Association of Taxation Technicians, the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (in its previous form as the AIDB) and he has also appeared before the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal.

More detail on George’s practice can be found by following the links to relevant “areas of practice”.

Further Information

Before commencing practice George read history at Oriel College, Oxford where he was a scholar and won the John Shannon prize for Modern History. After converting to law, George obtained a Masters in Law (LL.M) from Columbia University, New York where he was a Stone Scholar.


George is a member of the following associations: COMBAR; LCIA; TECBAR; ChBA; PNBA and ADRL.

 

International Arbitration

'The "clever and approachable" George Spalton is a "fast-rising junior" at 4 New Square... Sources applaud his ability to "pick up the key legal issues very quickly," and note that he is "well attuned to the client's commercial imperatives."'

- Chambers and Partners 2013

George has been involved in a number of domestic and international arbitrations in a variety of contexts. He particularly enjoys working abroad whenever the opportunity arises – whether in respect of arbitral proceedings themselves or to assist a client who is dealing with an ongoing claim.

A flavour of George’s work and experience is provided by the following:

George is a member of the LCIA (and its young arbitration group, YIAG) and the AAA’s young arbitration group, ICDR and has also written on this subject and provides case law updates to various journals.

Commercial Dispute Resolution

A sizeable portion of George’s work is in the Commercial Court and he has experience of an extremely broad range of commercial disputes. George has recently been named as a ‘highly commended’ junior by Legal Week in their survey ‘Stars at the Bar’ and is a recommended junior in The Legal 500. He has recently appeared without a leader in a high-profile five week trial in the commercial court and also acted twice in the Court of Appeal without a leader.

As well as acting in trials and arbitrations (as to which please follow the link to ‘Arbitration’), George has also appeared in a number of pre-action and interlocutory hearings such as freezing and proprietary injunctions, pre-action disclosure applications, security for costs applications and jurisdictional disputes. 

A flavour of George’s work and experience can be provided by the following:

 

George is a member of the Commercial Bar Association and is Chairman of COMBAR’s Junior Committee.

Chancery

George appears in the Chancery Division on a regular basis – both in respect of professional liability claims and also pure chancery related matters such as disputes between mortgage lenders and borrowers, civil fraud and tracing claims, disputes involving insolvency or company law and tax related matters (such as film finance schemes).

Present/Recent Work:

Reported cases include:

George is member of the Chancery Bar Association.

Construction & Engineering

George has acted in a variety of construction related matters at all levels – whether in the County Court, the TCC or in the context of international arbitration. For more details please refer to the Commercial Dispute Resolution and Arbitration tabs.

Examples of recent work:

George is a member of the Technology and Construction Bar Association.

Costs

George has been involved in a number of cases involving the assessment of costs both in the County Court and the Supreme Court Costs Office. His experience includes assessment of solicitor and client costs under the Solicitors Act 1974, detailed assessments of inter-party costs and issues relating to CFAs.

George has also recently acted for the solicitors in Weddall v Barchester Healthcare Limited; Germany v Flatman [2011] EWHC 2945 (QB), a decision of Mr Justice Eady concerning non-party cost orders against a firm of solicitors under section 51 of the Senior Courts Act 1981.

He has additionally dealt with a number of cases raising costs related issues – particularly in the context of solicitors’ professional liability work and claims for fees.

George has also appeared before the First Tier Tax Tribunal on an appeal arising in respect of costs issues, on behalf of the taxpayer against HMRC (in British Sky Broadcasting Plc; Pace Plc v HMRC (2012) (First Tier Tax Tribunal) [LON/2008/7164] and [MAN/2007/7008]).

Disciplinary

George enjoys disciplinary and regulatory work and has acted on a regular basis as prosecutor and defendant before a number of different tribunals. For example, he has appeared before the Taxation and Disciplinary Board as Prosecutor for the Chartered Institute of Taxation and also the Association of Taxation Technicians and he has also appeared before the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal on behalf of defendant solicitors solicitors and also before the ICAEW on behalf of defendant accountants.

George has also acted in disciplinary proceedings brought by the Accountancy Investigation and Discipline Board (now the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board) against PriceWaterhouseCoopers and a former director of Mayflower Plc led by Patrick Lawrence QC.

George is a member of the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers.

Financial Services Regulation

George is developing a particular expertise in financial services claims – whether acting for or against financial institutions, companies, individual financial services practitioners or regulatory bodies. His interest in and familiarity with financial markets stems from time spent working as an intern analyst at a major bank in the City and his LLM in New York which included courses on corporate finance and accounting (taught in conjunction with Columbia’s highly respected MBA course).

As a result he has been instructed both on his own account and in large scale financial services litigation as part of a team. For example he has acted as junior for a major international bank in respect of the bank’s alleged involvement in pensions mis-selling and prior to that, led by Patrick Lawrence QC, he acted for the Accountancy Investigation and Discipline Board (now the AADB) in proceedings against PriceWaterhouseCoopers and a former director of Mayflower Plc.

George is one of the four co-editors of Sweet & Maxwell’s ”Encyclopedia of Financial Services Law"

A flavour of George’s recent work and experience is provided by the following:

Insurance & Reinsurance

George has acted in a number of cases involving an insurance element, including advising on questions of policy construction and coverage; non-disclosure and avoidance issues.

In the context of professional indemnity insurance, George has experience of issues relating to the Minimum Terms and Conditions for solicitors and has acted for insurers in arbitrations seeking claims for reimbursement and in arbitrations seeking declarations that insurers are entitled to refuse indemnity on the grounds of dishonesty.

Professional Liability

George has a broad range of experience in the professional liability context, both in terms of claims involving different professions and in respect of the value and type of claims. George is recommended by Chambers and Partners 2013 and is noted as the "one to watch".

In particular, George has acted for and against accountants and auditors, financial services professionals, insurance brokers & agents, barrister, solicitors and surveyors. He also has good experience of disciplinary claims and tribunals.

George is an Editor of “Jackson & Powell on Professional Liability”  and is one of the four co-editors of Sweet & Maxwell’s ”Encyclopedia of Financial Services Law”.

Reported decisions include:

Further examples of George’s recent work in this context are as follows:

Sports Law

George’s sports practice focuses on the following areas (i) disciplinary and regulatory work and (ii) commercial work – whether general contractual advice or, more broadly, litigation or potential disputes between players/agents/clubs/professional bodies.

George is rated in the directories (Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners) for commercial litigation and international arbitration - an area of work which ties in well with international disputes in the sporting context.