Diarmuid Laffan

Diarmuid has a broad commercial practice encompassing insurance and general commercial disputes, professional liability, construction, and sports law.

He is ranked by the Legal 500 as a leading junior in insurance, professional liability and sports law. Recent quotes from Diarmuid’s instructing solicitors include:

• “Diarmuid has great insurance law knowledge and gives clear, practical, strategic advice – you want him in your corner.”
• “He is exceptionally diligent. He has an engaging and highly persuasive manner in court.”
• “Quick to pick up the key issues and facts, Diarmuid has strong cross-examination skills – firm and coherent oral submissions with an understated authority.”
• “He is an excellent advocate and thinks quickly on his feet. Excellent drafting skills, very thorough and always gets into the detail of the matter.”
• “Diarmuid is a hands-on operator who is not afraid to seize the narrative and craft effective strategy into which the client buys in from Day One.”
• “Diarmuid provides clear and strategic advice. His legwork while preparing for arguments is outstanding. Given the time restrictions in arbitrations, he ensures time is utilised wisely, focusing on the primary points. He is effective in his verbal presentations and gauges what the arbitrator sees as concerning issues, and deals with them in an entirely simple and cogent manner.”
• “His approach is incredibly professional and very strategic, distilling matters for lay clients.”

Diarmuid has a thriving insurance law practice and has acted led and unled in a variety of insurance and reinsurance matters. These have involved coverage disputes, issues of non-disclosure and misrepresentation, aggregation and other questions of construction, and issues relating to the 1930 and 2010 Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Acts and the Insurance Act 2015. Diarmuid’s recent work in this area includes:

• Acting (with David Turner KC) for property and business interruptions insurers in defending a £100m+ claim arising out of the destruction of a large industrial bakery after the performance of hot works (including issues as to the operation of the policy’s hot works condition precedent and non-invalidation clause, and a claim under s.13A of the Insurance Act 2015);
• Advising on the impact of COVID-19 on policies of various types including business interruption and event cancellation insurance; and acting in group actions brought against business interruption insurers following the Covid-19 pandemic;
• Advising Mumbai-based reinsurers regarding allegations of fraud against a firm of London cover-holders with whom reinsurers had concluded various binding authorities.

Diarmuid advises on a broad range of contractual and company disputes (including claims regarding directors’ duties and unfair prejudice petitions). Recent commercial cases that Diarmuid has acted in include the following:

• Acting (with Kendrah Potts) in an ongoing £140m+ confidential commercial arbitration regarding the termination of a long-term licensing contract between a sports governing body and its former partner;
• Acting (with Matt Bradley KC) for the claimant in an unfair prejudice petition in the context of a long-running family dispute;
• Acting (with Alison Padfield KC) on behalf of insurers in bringing subrogated recovery actions on behalf of insurers who paid out on event cancellation insurance policies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Diarmuid’s professional liability practice spans the full spectrum of professional liability disputes. He has particular experience of acting in claims involving solicitors and barristers, accountants, insurance intermediaries and surveyors. Recent examples of Diarmuid’s work in this area include the following:

• Diarmuid is currently instructed by a surveying company in responding to a £50m+ claim brought by a major insurer in respect of losses incurred by on latent defect property insurance which is alleged to have been written on the basis of negligent surveys;
• Spire Property Development LLP v Withers LLP [2023] 4 W.L.R. 56; Diarmuid was part of the counsel team both at first instance and before the Court of Appeal which successfully defended Withers against a claim based on allegations relating to the discovery of high-voltage cables on a property purchased by the claimant. The Court of Appeal’s judgment is a leading authority on the scope of lawyers’ obligations when responding to ad hoc queries outside the scope of any contract of retainer;
• Prime London Residential Development Jersey Master Holding Ltd v Withers LLP [2021] EWHC 2401 (Comm); Diarmuid was part of the counsel team which successfully defended Withers against a claim brought by a property development fund.

A significant part of Diarmuid’s practice involves disputes turning on the insurance and substantive legal issues arising in construction and engineering disputes. He has considerable experience of advising and acting for employers, contractors, and various construction professionals including architects, engineers, and quantity surveyors. Current or recent instructions in this area include:

• United Living (South) Limited v Dovista (UK) Limited & others; Diarmuid is currently acting (with Ben Patten KC) on behalf of the claimant design & build contractor in bringing a claim in respect of the defective installation of curtain-walling used as the façade of a large residential development in North London;
• United Living (South) Limited v Hawkins Brown Limited & others; Diarmuid acted (with Ben Patten KC) on behalf of the claimant design & build contractors in bringing a claim in respect of defective cladding against the property’s architect, specialist façade contractor and building control approved inspector;
• Advising a mechanical and electrical contractor on a multimillion pound claim against its professional indemnity insurer; the claim relates to designs for the extension of a London Underground line.

Diarmuid has a busy sports law practice in which he regularly acts both in commercial disputes arising in a sporting context and in regulatory / disciplinary matters, and on behalf of athletes, clubs, and national governing bodies. Recent highlights in this area include:

• Acting for the International Tennis Federation before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in its successful appeal against a first-tier tribunal’s finding that the respondent athlete had not committed a doping offence as a result of three whereabouts failings in a calendar year. The judgment of the CAS is a leading authority on the scope of an athlete’s obligations under the WADA Code’s whereabouts framework and the degree to which those obligations can be devolved to agents (CAS 2022/A/9033 ITFL v Ymer);
• Acting for the International Tennis Integrity Agency before a first-tier tribunal in ITIA v Brooksby;
• Acting for a sports governing body in a confidential arbitration in which it alleged that the president of a national association had brought the sport into disrepute through breaches of its code of ethics.

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