John Williams

John acts for claimants and defendants across a wide range of professional negligence disputes. His work spans a variety of professional fields: solicitors and barristers, IT consultants, accountants, auditors, insurance brokers, surveyors, construction professionals, and others.

John’s instructions have included:

Legal Professionals

• Acting led and unled in numerous High Court claims against solicitors and barristers, including claims in negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of warranty of authority, breach of trust, and claims for misrepresentation and negligent misstatement.
• Acting in claims against legal professionals relating to work in a wide variety of underlying subject-matter areas, including conveyancing and property work, corporate transactional work (including the negotiation of share purchase agreements), lending transactions, costs advice, and claims for the mishandling of contentious proceedings (including missed limitation periods).

Auditors and Accountants

• Instructed to act as junior counsel for a Big Four firm, in complex and high value proceedings concerning alleged breaches of auditing standards during annual audits, in the context of suspected fraudulent misappropriations and the manipulation of accounting records.
• Acting as junior counsel in claims against accountants, including claims relating to failures to identify and prevent misappropriations by company officers, and claims arising out of breaches of the Solicitors’ Accounts Rules.

IT Professionals

• Acting (as junior and sole counsel) in a range of disputes concerning the allegedly negligent provision of IT services (in litigation and arbitration). Recent work has included acting for the successful Claimant in a dispute arising out of the provision, tailoring, and deployment of business management software modules.
• Instructions to give strategic legal advice outside the litigation context. This has included (recently) being instructed as sole counsel by a large multi-national to advise in the context of disaster recovery efforts following an IT systems failure.

Insurance Brokers

• John has experience of claims made against insurance brokers, including (recently) acting as sole counsel in High Court proceedings involving allegations of negligent advice and breaches of ICOBS following advised insurance sales.
• John is also instructed to act in a range of pure insurance matters, and draws on this expertise when acting and advising on insurance-related professional negligence claims, and when acting in insurer-funded litigation.

Construction Professionals and Valuers 

• Instructions to act across a book of claims relating to the allegedly defective installation of cavity wall insulation (including TCC claims). Issues included disputes concerning coverage, limitation and date of damage, and claims under the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010.
• Acting in a claim following the provision of allegedly negligent design and construction services, including claims under the Defective Premises Act 1972.
• Instructions to provide merits advice on claims or potential claims, including advising on limitation in the context of allegedly negligent property valuation

‘Novel’ Claims

• John is also instructed in claims where novel professional duties are alleged. Work has included allegations of negligence against will writers, product developers, interior designers and recruitment consultants.

John also writes and delivers training on topics relating to professional negligence claims, including limitation, settlement, and loss of a chance.

• Read John’s article on the recent loss of chance case of Barrowfen Properties, co-authored with Shail Patel KC.
• Listen to John’s podcast on recent developments in limitation.