Our Expertise

Winners of Professional Negligence Set of the Year (2023) at the Who’s Who Legal Awards and Professional Negligence Set of the Year (2022) at the Chambers & Partners UK Bar Awards, 4 New Square are renowned for being the top set in this field.

“4 New Square offers unparalleled capabilities in the area of professional negligence, regularly attracting key instructions for and against professionals in the legal, financial and insurance sectors. The set excels in any case involving advice on financial planning, investments, tax liability, property or the conduct of litigation. It is notable for its deft handling of the high-value and the legally complex, including a number of recent cases on limitation, or causation, or successor practices in claims against solicitors. “ – Chambers & Partners

‘A stand out performer in this area’, 4 New Square is a ‘pre-eminent set for defendant professional negligence work’ with ‘great strength in depth’ – ‘the quality of the barristers is second to none‘.’ – Legal 500

Chambers regularly win the Chambers & Partners ‘Professional Negligence Set of the Year’ and Members of Chambers frequently win silk or junior of the year in this area and individuals have been recognised as ‘stars’ in the directories. Moreover, we have more individuals ranked in the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners for professional negligence than any other set. In short we boast not only star individuals but unrivalled strength in depth.

Members of chambers appear in many of the most prominent and high value professional negligence cases.

Jackson & Powell on Professional Liability, the leading practitioner book on this area of law, continues to be edited in house.

Cases range from multi-million pound claims in a wide variety of commercial contexts to claims by private individuals who feel they have been let down by their professional advisers. We act in cases involving the full range of professions and are experienced in cases with an international element.

Whatever the claim, whatever the profession and whether acting for the claimant or the defendant, we bring to it both an understanding of the underlying circumstances and experience of similar cases.

Our work in this area extends to issues of professional indemnity insurance, including disputes as to avoidance or denial of cover and as to the meaning and effect of policy terms.

Recent cases involving members of chambers include:

• McLean and Others v Andrew Thornhill: an important claim which assessed whether a leading KC owed a duty of care to participators who lost a £40m failed film tax avoidance scheme in which he had provided counsel’s opinion. 4NS successfully obtained permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal in March 2023. The case is an important one for professional liability generally as well as the Bar in particular.
• Spire LLP v Withers LLP (Court of Appeal) [2022] EWCA 970: acting at both First Instance and in the Court of Appeal on the important issue as to the scope of a professional’s obligation in respect of an informal and unremunerated enquiry.
• Percy v Merriman White [2022] EWCA Civ 493 – a claim for contribution pursuant to 1978 act by a solicitor against counsel, following the settlement of claim by the solicitor.
• Re One Blackfriars Ltd [2021] EWHC 684 (Ch) – 4NS successfully defended the former administrators of One Blackfriars in a £250m claim by the liquidators of the company who claimed the former administrators allegedly sold off a company asset at a substantial undervalue. Trial took place in Summer 2020 and was (at the time) the longest remote trial in the Business & Property Courts.
• Skatteforvaltningen v Solo Capital Partners LLP [2020] EWHC 1624 (Comm), a £1.5billion claim in the Commercial Court arising from allegedly fraudulent withhold tax reclaims submitted on behalf of pension funds and custodians purportedly engaged in dividend arbitrage trading.
• Various Claimants v Giambrone & Law – claims totalling c£20m against solicitors instructed in respect of proposed purchases of off-plan properties in Italy which collapsed.  A key issue in the case concerns the aggregation of claims.  After various hearings in the case in the High Court and following two appeals to the Court of Appeal, proceedings in the aggregation dispute are due to be issued in 2021.
• BPE Solicitors v Hughes-Holland [2017] UKSC 21, a seminal decision of the Supreme Court relating to the scope of professionals’ liability for damages where members of Chambers appears on both sides.
• Lowick Rose LLP v. Swynson Ltd and another [2017] UKSC 32, a leading Supreme Court decision on the scope of the doctrine of collateral benefit (otherwise known as res inter alios acta) alongside the concepts of transferred loss and equitable subrogation based on unjust enrichment.