John Williams

John Williams’s practice encompasses commercial litigation, professional negligence, insurance work, commercial arbitration, and sports law.

John’s work has included:

• Acting for both claimants and defendants in complex and high-value professional negligence disputes: with a focus on claims against lawyers, IT professionals, accountants and auditors.
• Claims of professional negligence arising out of alleged corporate fraud, including defending a claim against auditors valued in excess of $300 million, and advising on a claim against auditors following the fraudulent misappropriation of assets by company officers (led by King’s Counsel).
• Instructions on complex commercial disputes, including (recently) disputes relating to property developments (against professional advisors, and contractual counterparties) and claims relating to the implementation of IT contracts and commercial software.
• Acting in commercial arbitrations from the pre-action stage onward, including drafting arbitration pleadings, conducting interim hearings, advising on procedural matters, and drafting arbitration claims in the Commercial Court.
• Insurance disputes, including recent work on behalf of a consortium of claimant businesses claiming for business interruption losses (led by George Spalton KC), and instructions to act on direct claims against insurers under the Third Party (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010.
• Acting in a wide range of costs proceedings, including consequential hearings concerning the application of contractual costs clauses, the effect of Part 36 offers, and giving advice or acting on other matters relating to costs: including costs budgeting, issues relating to assessment and billing under the terms of the Solicitors Act 1974, and in the context of allegations of legal professional negligence.
• Acting as sole counsel (in County Court and High Court proceedings) in a wide range of claims involving gambling operators, including claims alleging negligence and breach of contract, cases involving the offence of “cheating”, disputes concerning mistaken odds and the calculation of winnings, and alleged breaches of duty relating to self-exclusion agreements.

Prior to taking tenancy, John was called to the bar by the Middle Temple and received a Queen Mother Scholarship. John was also awarded a Harmsworth Entrance Exhibition, and a BPTC Excellence Award.

Before coming to the bar, John graduated with a first in Law from University College London, following a degree in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Oxford. He went on to read for the Bachelor of Civil Law at Oxford, graduating with one of the highest Distinctions in his year.

Prior to pupillage, John spent a year at the Law Commission, where he was involved in preparing the Commission’s proposed reforms to the Bills of Sale Acts. John is also on the Steering Committee of the Northern Legal History Group.

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