New Podcast Episode: What is, or is not, a SLAPP? with Clare Dixon KC and Ben Smiley
We are pleased to announce the release of our latest podcast episode,…
Chambers & Partners
“Great to work with; responsive, engaged and very intelligent with an excellent grasp of the detail”
Clare Dixon KC practises in professional liability, insurance, disciplinary proceedings and commercial litigation. She believes in taking a tough but commercial approach to litigation and relishes advocacy in all its forms.
Clare has acted in four matters which have gone to the Supreme Court: three in insurance and one in professional liability. This reflects the high value, high stakes, litigation which is at the heart of her practice. In the regulatory and disciplinary context, she has particular experience in actions against solicitors and barristers and has dealt with a range of allegations including financial and sexual misconduct.
She was the winner of the ‘Professional Negligence Junior of the Year’ (2019) award and shortlisted for the ‘Insurance Junior of the Year’ (2020) award by Chambers & Partners UK. She is ranked in the legal directories for Professional Negligence, Insurance and Professional Disciplinary and Regulatory Law with recent comments in the directories including:
“ When you instruct Clare Dixon, she is instantly part of the team and provides direction. When you instruct her you know that you are in safe and very capable hands” (Chambers & Partners 2024)
“Not only is Clare Dixon gifted with a seriously sharp intellect, but she is commercially astute and provides pragmatic, robust advice” (Chambers & Partners 2024)
“She is a skilled, persuasive and thorough advocate. She leaves no stone unturned” (Legal 500, 2024)
“She’s one of the brightest barristers I’ve ever come across. She’s very good at handling personalities within the team.” (Chambers & Partners, 2023)
“Clare is an absolute standout individual in this field.” (Legal 500, 2023)
“She is fantastic – the first name we contact for anything difficult or complicated.” “Incredibly good. She’s very practical, pragmatic and commercial. She’s good on her feet and prepared to be robust when she needs to. Clare is a delight to work with.” (Chambers & Partners, 2022)
“She is quick to get to the real issues of the dispute, provides concise advice, and is very good with clients when difficult advice needs to be delivered.” (Legal 500, 2022)
Clare supports FreeBar, a forum focused on LGBT+ people and their allies working at and for the Bar.
Click here for a Privacy Policy for Clare Dixon KC.
Transparency Statement
Click here for a Transparency Statement for Clare Dixon KC.
Clare’s practice includes a broad spread of commercial work. She has acted in a wide variety of contractual disputes including claims arising under the sale of goods legislation and for breach of warranty following the sale of a business. She also has experience of obtaining urgent injunctive relief.
Featured Commercial Litigation cases include:
Clare regularly advises clients on ongoing regulatory difficulties and works with them to try and ensure that any issues which have emerged do not develop into disciplinary matters.
In the disciplinary context, Clare has particular experience of hearings before the Solicitors Disciplinary and Bar Tribunal. As a recent comment in Legal 500 noted ‘She is a skilled, persuasive and thorough advocate. She leaves no stone unturned.’
Featured Disciplinary cases
Clare’s practice includes a substantial insurance element. She has appeared three times in the Supreme Court in insurance cases including, most recently, in the FCA Test Litigation. In 2020 Clare was shortlisted by Chambers & Partners for “Insurance Junior of the Year”. Comments in this year’s directories on Clare’s insurance practice stated:
Professional Indemnity Insurance
With extensive experience in both professional liability and insurance matters, Clare is frequently instructed to advise in respect of non-disclosure, aggregation, successor practice and the interpretation of professional indemnity policies. Her instructions have ranged across a broad range of professions including solicitors, mortgage intermediaries and surveyors. Clare has a particular interest in, and experience of, dishonesty issues and has acted for both insurers and insureds in relation to such matters.
Further, given Clare’s experience in property damage and construction matters, she is often instructed to advise on insurance issues arising out of construction disputes.
Recent instructions include:
In 2016, Clare (led by the late Mark Cannon KC) appeared for the successful insurers in the Supreme Court case of Impact Funding Solutions Limited v AIG Europe Limited [2016] UKSC 57; [2017] AC 73. Impact considered the ambit of the “trade debts” exclusion in solicitors’ professional indemnity policies and whether it excluded a solicitor’s liability to a disbursement funding provider. The Supreme Court also gave important guidance on the construction of clauses which, while worded in terms of exclusion, do no more than to define the extent of the liability or duty to which one party of a contract is to be subject.
Other Forms of Insurance
Clare is frequently instructed to act for insurers/insureds in cases arising out of other types of policies and is familiar with the particular issues around other specialist areas of insurance such as D&O, Personal Accident, Employers’ Liability, Public Liability and Property policies.
In 2020, Clare (led by David Turner KC) acted for RSA both at first instance and in the Supreme Court in the FCA Test Case about the response of non-damage business interruption extensions to the COVID-19 pandemic (Financial Conduct Authority v Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd [2021] AC 649).
In 2012, the Supreme Court handed down judgment in the Employers’ Liability Policy Trigger Litigation. This was the successful culmination of several years’ work during which Clare (led by the then Jeremy Stuart-Smith KC and Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC) had represented Zurich Insurance Company at a 9 week trial in front of Burton J, a 3 week hearing before the Court of Appeal and a 2 week hearing in the Supreme Court. The case was concerned with the proper interpretation of employers’ liability policies which were written on an “injury sustained” or “disease contracted” basis and whether they would respond to mesothelioma claims at the time of inhalation or when the tumour developed. The Supreme Court found, by a majority, that such policies should respond at the date of inhalation.
Clare is the current editor of the “Members and Managing Agents at Lloyd’s” chapter in Jackson & Powell. She regularly gives talks and seminars on insurance law.
Clare is a formally accredited mediator. She has attended numerous mediations as an advocate and is a great believer in the power of mediation to settle even those cases which, on the face of it, appear to be intractable. As a mediator, she is able to combine her professional expertise with an understanding of the realities of litigation to help parties resolve their disputes.
Clare specialises in all areas of professional liability with particular emphasis on lawyers, valuers, accountants and auditors, and insurance brokers. She is an experienced advocate who gets to grips quickly with what is really at issue and takes a tough line to achieve the best outcome for her client. In 2019 she received the Chambers & Partners award for “Professional Negligence Junior of the Year”.
Recent comments in the directories include:
Clare has acted both for and against accountants and auditors on numerous occasions. She has particular experience of claims involving tax schemes and against auditors arising out of their alleged failure to identify fraud.
Featured cases
Clare has frequently been instructed to act in claims involving professional negligence allegations against engineers and architects. She is currently instructed as part of a team of Counsel (including David Turner KC and Isabel Barter) to act for the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, and the Tenant Management Organisation, in relation to recovery actions arising out of the Grenfell Tower fire.
Given her considerable insurance experience Clare is well placed to act on claims for and against brokers and, consequently, is regularly instructed in relation to such claims both on a standalone basis and where insurers are also being sued.
Featured cases
Clare is the editor of the “Members and Managing Agents at Lloyd’s” chapter in the 7th edition of Jackson & Powell.
Clare has acted in claims both for and against IFAs; in particular, in claims involving advice given on mortgages, pension schemes and investment vehicles.
Featured cases
Clare has acted in a numerous claims both for and against solicitors and barristers and has broad experience in this area. Set out below are examples of cases grouped by their underlying subject matter.
Clare is often instructed in claims where the underlying matter involves a property, commercial or chancery dispute. Examples of such cases include:
Clare has particular experience of “lost litigation” claims particularly in the personal injury and employment fields (having herself acted in such cases in her early years as a barrister). Instructions in this area include:
Clare is also experienced in actions where the underlying subject has been instructed on a number of cases involving claims by lenders. A number of these claims involved allegations of breach of undertaking, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of trust and/or fraud. Notable examples of such cases include:
Clare is frequently instructed in cases arising from matrimonial matters including cases arising from the drafting of consent orders, the alleged under/over settlement of financial proceedings and concerning children. Examples of such cases include:
Clare also has considerable experience of wasted costs having advised and acted for both solicitors and Counsel in relation to such applications. She also has experience acting for solicitors in actions for contempt of Court and against litigants in person in order to obtain civil restraint orders. Notable examples include:
Clare has considerable experience of claims involving valuers and surveyors involving, in particular, large scale lending for the purpose of purchasing and then developing commercial sites.
Featured cases
Clare has substantial experience in property damage claims involving such things as floods, fires, subsidence and construction works.
She is currently instructed as part of a team of Counsel (including David Turner KC and Isabel Barter) to act for the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, and the Tenant Management Organisation, in relation to recovery actions arising out of the Grenfell Tower fire.
She was previously instructed in a number of cases (led by David Turner KC) which arose from the supply of allegedly defective concrete for use in a variety of major construction projects. These cases included a claim (Costain Limited v Tarmac Holdings Limited [2017] 2 All ER (Comm) 645) which was concerned with the use of aggregate in the construction of motorway concrete safety barriers. The case raised issues as to the extent of the remedial works necessary to address contamination of the aggregate, the incorporation and application of the ADR provisions contained within Clause 93 of the NEC 3 Supply Short Contract, the effect of the duty of mutual trust and co-operation imposed by Clause 10.1 of the NEC 3 suite of contracts and whether the parties’ arbitration agreement was “null and void, inoperative or incapable of being performed” within the meaning of s.9(4) of the Arbitration Act 1996.
In addition Clare has substantial expertise in nuisance claims, particularly involving multiple parties. Recent examples of cases of this nature are:
We are delighted to announce that members of 4 New Square Chambers…
We are pleased to announce the release of our latest podcast episode,…
Professional Liability and Regulatory Conference 2024
Clare Dixon KC and William Harman acted for Tiffin Green Limited in…
4 New Square’s Alison Padfield KC and Clare Dixon KC feature in…
Clare Dixon KC was instructed by Simmons & Simmons LLP to represent…
63 members of 4 New Square Chambers have been ranked in the…
In this podcast episode, 4 New Square Chambers Barristers Clare Dixon KC…
Prior to being called to the Bar, Clare read law at St Anne’s College, Oxford University. Whilst at University she was elected as the President of the Oxford Union, Hilary Term 1998.
Clare is an accredited mediator and member of the PNBA Adjudication Panel.
We are pleased to announce the release of our latest podcast episode,…
When Dinah Washington sang “What a difference a day makes” it seems…
4 New Square
Lincoln's Inn
London, WC2A 3RJ
BARRISTERS REGULATED BY
THE BAR STANDARDS BOARD
Accessibility | Cookies | Disclaimer | Equality & Diversity | Privacy Policy | © 4 New Square Chambers – All Rights Reserved | Site by Tela.
