Call: 1987 QC: 2003
With the latest Legal 500 again placing Sue at the top of the top band of silks in professional negligence, Chambers and Partners 2012 also makes the following entry for her : she is a “fantastic silk who is seen as “a big gun to have on the larger cases.” Her skills are myriad; she is an “excellent advocate with powerful analytical skills” and is also an “enthusiastic and hard-working team player.” As one impressed barrister stated : “She is the one that you would want to represent you”.
Sue has a “fully deserved” reputation as “one of the very best professional negligence counsel”, “an absolutely fantastic silk” and “an exceptional trial lawyer”, a "splendid performer and excellent cross-examiner.". She “has great presence in court, is deeply incisive and very client-friendly”. Her “commitment, determination and thorough hard working nature enables clients to feel that she is fighting your corner”.
Sue's principal areas of practice lie in the field of professional liability and general commercial law, including insurance work. She was recently chairman of the Professional Negligence Bar Association and was the chairman of the Bar Standards Board’s Complaints Committee, responsible for the handling of disciplinary matters against all barristers, until December 2010.
In the field of professional liability Sue has experience of claims at all levels involving the full range of professionals. Her practice extends to disciplinary and wasted costs work and related judicial review claims. She handles a broad range of general commercial litigation (with particular expertise in civil fraud and accessory liability) and frequently acts in insurance disputes involving repudiation of cover and construction/policy points. Her practice also covers directors’duties claims Her clients range from major insurers, banks, trusts and financial institutions to private individuals.
She has wide interlocutory, trial and Court of Appeal experience as well as having considerable arbitration and mediation expertise. She appeared in the House of Lords (in the now leading case on constructive trusts and solicitors' dishonesty) and has appeared as leading counsel in many high profile cases, including by way of example AXA v Darby Solicitors (limitation in economic loss), Persimmon v Great Lakes Reinsurance (ATE insurers’ rights to avoid), Football League v Edge Ellison and another (alleged negligence in relation to the sale of licensing rights to ONDigital), Daniels v Thompson (solicitors’ duties to executors), and the Cable & Wireless litigation (alleged re-insurance fraud). She has acted in several leading group litigation actions, including MMR, lenders' claims arising out of shared ownership schemes, film financing and The Accident Group Litigation.
Sue is also available for appointment as arbitrator and is a formally accredited and experienced mediator. She is a regular lecturer.
The Directories
The 2010 edition of Legal 500 says that Sue Carr QC's "reputation as one of the very best professional negligence counsel is fully deserved". Sue has been consistently listed in Chambers & Partners Directory and the Legal 500 as a leading professional negligence practitioner. Chambers UK 2010 say that Sue is "the whole package - she has great presence in court, is deeply incisive and is very client-friendly." Chambers & Partners 2009 comment that she is "involved in everything going". In 2008 Legal 500 describe her promotion to the first tier for the quality of her work as "much deserved". In 2008 Chambers & Partners quoted peers describing her as a broad-based professional negligence specialist “who can turn her hand to anything”. Chambers & Partners 2007 described Sue as, despite only taking Silk in 2003 "an absolutely fantastic Silk" she is an "exceptional trial lawyer" with a "sixth sense as to how the court is reading a case". "Her commitment, determination and thorough hard working nature enables clients to feel she is fighting your corner". She also has "some of the best client skills at the Bar". The 2006 edition of Chambers & Partners describes her as the "very impressive" Sue Carr QC who has "rapidly grown into the best of silks". They commended this "charming litigator" for her "exceptional intellectual abilities".
Further Information
Member of the Bar Standards Board 2008-2011 Crown Court Recorder 2009.
Sue is a member of the Chancery Bar Association, COMBAR and LCLBA and Trinity Lawyers’ Association. Governing Bencher of the Inner Temple.
In April 2011 Sue was appointed Complaints Commissioner for the International Criminal Court for a four year term. Sue remains in full time practice.
Education
Wycombe Abbey School, Trinity College Cambridge, MA Cantab.
Languages
Fluent in French and German