Professional Negligence Networking Lunch Manchester
12th March 2026
12:30am - 2pm BST
Join us for an exclusive professional negligence networking lunch on Thursday 12th…
Legal 500
“A very good advocate, who is able to hammer home the strong points of a case.”
Paul Mitchell KC has a broad practice in professional liability and commercial disputes, with core expertise in lawyer conduct and misconduct, the use and abuse of the legal system itself, contract disputes, and commercial fraud. Clients describe Paul as being a “great advocate… even on a sticky wicket”, “great to deal with”, “extremely feisty”, “gets the ear of the court” and somebody who “really puts his back into it”, delivering “excellent quality of work”.
Paul’s work involving allegations of negligence or misconduct by solicitors or counsel sees him regularly instructed by claimants and defendants and he is often sought out for ethical and regulatory advice by solicitors and counsel on an urgent basis, including mid-trial. He regularly advises and represents members of various professions before their regulators, frequently regarding questions of conflicts of interest or privilege but also where allegations have been made of dishonesty, inappropriate behaviour or bullying.
In the commercial sphere, Paul is the leading practitioner in the new field of claims for damages involving malicious prosecution of earlier civil proceedings, acting in nearly all reported cases involving these issues and regularly advising or giving expert evidence on such claims in jurisdictions around the common-law world. His broader commercial practice often involves frauds with an international dimension and disputes within or concerning early-stage tech and fintech companies. He often acts in cases with clients or counterparties in France and Italy or cases with a connection to Russian-speaking countries; he is called to the Bar of the BVI and has appeared there and in the Cayman Islands in fraud and share valuation claims. He has strong experience of injunctive relief – WFOs, anti-suit and anti-anti-suit injunctions, springboard injunctions in particular.
Paul was appointed a Deputy High Court Judge of the King’s Bench Division in 2024. He sits regularly in the London Circuit Commercial Court.
Reported cases include:
Recent quotes from the Directories include:
“Paul Mitchell is very good with clients and at explaining strategy. His drafting is also really impressive.” “Paul is calm and authoritative.” “Extremely high quality in all aspects of drafting, advisory work and advocacy.” – Chambers & Partners
“A very skilled, knowledge and effective advocate. Very user friendly and pragmatic.” – Legal 500
“An outstanding advocate who is very intelligent and very easy to get on with. He’s very user-friendly, and has a good balance between tenacity and charm.” – Chambers & Partners
“My chosen counsel because of the depth of his experience – he’s a polymath, has excellent investigation skills and has an interest in legal history, which helped in this case.” “Incredibly easy to deal with, exceptionally bright and knowledgeable and a very effective negotiator.” – Chambers & Partners
“Utterly charming with the mind of an arch-strategist. Exceptionally good at dealing with a very complicated set of facts and issues and magically making the case look simple and straightforward.” – Legal 500
“Very personable, gets to the nub of the issue quickly and doesn’t faff around the edges. He’s incredibly calm and cool as an advocate.” “Very bright and becomes part of the team.” – Chambers & Partners
“A brilliant advocate. Very tenacious but clear thinking. He set out sensibly and clearly a technically secure, well-thought-out, compelling piece of advocacy. He gives very robust advice and is prepared to think out of the box.” – Chambers & Partners
“A very good advocate, who is able to hammer home the strong points of case.” – Legal 500
“Charming and incisive, with a real knack for thinking on his feet.” “Phenomenally bright and the advice that he provides is very commercial.” – Chambers & Partners
“He unfailingly gets the answer right and is incredibly easy to get on with.” – Legal 500
“He makes light work of hard cases and is excellent on his feet. He is a delight to work with and is very good at coming up with pragmatic solutions.” “His main strengths are his attention to detail, legal knowledge and interpersonal skills.” – Chambers & Partners
“He delivers clear advice, is commercially aware, and has strong personal and diplomatic skills.” – Legal 500
Paul lives in London with his partner and their blended family of 5 children. He is a member of the board of trustees of Alsama Project UK, a charity educating Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and Syria and developing the G12++, a refugee equivalent of the International Baccalaureate. He is also on the board of trustees of Developing Artists, a charity that raises and distributes funds to artists fleeing persecution or conflict zones to help them bring their work (plays, music, ballet, sculpture) to London.
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Transparency Statement
Click here for a Transparency Statement for Paul Mitchell KC.
Paul’s professional liability work involves allegations made against solicitors, barristers, accountants (especially tax advisers), fund managers and financial advisers (giving bespoke advice and recommending tax mitigation schemes). He is particularly experienced in questions of scope of duty, causation, the recoverability of losses claimed, and mitigation. In addition to his trial experience, Paul is frequently actively involved in assisting at mediations leading to settlement. He is instructed by both claimants and defendants and is often asked by both sides to provide a written opinion on the merits to assist with settlement negotiations. He is on the PNBA’s approved list of adjudicators authorised to adjudicate professional liability disputes pursuant to the current Pre-Action Protocol on Professional Negligence claims.
Examples of recent work include:
Paul acts in a very wide variety of commercial disputes, both in England and offshore. His experience covers injunctive relief of all kinds (particularly freezing orders, anti-suit and anti-anti suit injunctions), shareholder disputes (including derivative claims and unfair prejudice claims), company valuation disputes, fraud (trusted person misappropriations, alleged Ponzi schemes, SDLT avoidance schemes, money laundering and sanctions avoidance schemes), class actions (offshore life insurance bonds), and arbitration claims in the High Court.
In recent years, Paul has been engaged regularly by both French and English financial institutions in connection with litigation taking place simultaneously in both jurisdictions; by a Luxembourg financial institution in connection with claims against ATE insurers in Gibraltar and the Isle of Man; by a Canadian person in connection with complex fraud and related claims against companies and people in the BVI, Greece and Liberia; and by a former precious metals trader suing his former employer, a global bank, for training him to trade in a way that exposed him to criminal liability in the United States. He advises very frequently on commercial contract disputes, often in the fintech sector and often involving start-ups (early and late stage). He has a particular grasp of the pressures facing early stage start-ups, having acted over the Covid years as director and board chairman of a legal-sector fintech.
He speaks good Italian and French and working Spanish, Russian and Farsi and has a particular interest in cases with connections to countries where those languages are spoken.
Further examples of recent work include:
Malicious Prosecution of Civil Proceedings/ Abuse of Process/ Contempt of Court
Paul is the leading practitioner in England & Wales for these new claims, having appeared in Willers v Joyce, the long-running litigation that gave extended the tort of malicious prosecution to civil claims; advising the winning party in the equivalent case in the Singaporean Supreme Court, Lee Tat Development Pte Ltd v MCSTP No 381 [2018] SGCA 50; representing the wife in CXZ v ZXC [2020] EWHC 1684 (QB), the first case arising from bitterly contested Child Arrangement Order proceedings; acting for the claimant in Mosley v Associated News Limited [2020] EWHC 3545 (QB), the case arising from The Daily Mail’s submitting a “dossier” about Max Mosley to the Crown Prosecution Service; acting for the claimant in Monks v East Northamptonshire Council, the successfully settled case arising from the travails of Private Eye’s “Lowick One”; and giving expert evidence in Australia regarding the application of the new law in the Cayman Islands. Paul is frequently instructed to advise parties facing claims they consider abusive – “lawfare” – regarding the potential to bring a subsequent action for damages against the perceived malicious prosecutor.
Paul has often acted to bring and defend applications to commit parties to proceeding for alleged contempt in failing to comply with penal orders and making false statements in witness statements. He also has experience in the relatively rare jurisdiction to commit for “scandalising the Court”, no longer actionable in England but still an important tool in smaller offshore jurisdictions.
Paul is a current member in good standing of the BVI Bar and has appeared frequently in the commercial court of the BVI, most recently in DUK v UGX BVIHC(COM) 2024/0358 (standing of beneficiary of will; freezing injunctions; fraud; derivative actions).
In the Cayman Islands, Paul recently appeared in Re New Frontier Health Corporation [2026] CIGC (FSD) 4 (s 238 “fair value” application; recusal).
In the Isle of Man, Paul most recently represented the claimant policy holders in the class action of Kells & Ors v Friends Provident International and Utmost (judgment awaited) (misrepresentation and reliance; assumption of responsibility; offshore life insurance bonds). Paul has frequently advised on Isle of Man matters (Russia sanctions, malicious prosecution, insurance questions, professional negligence) and on similar matters in Guernsey.
Paul is a registered practitioner at the Dubai International Financial Centre Court and has rights to practice there.
Paul frequently acts – often on very urgent instructions – for professionals facing potential regulatory problems or ethical dilemmas. He has in recent years advised accountants (including from the big four firms) facing allegations of forming inappropriate relationships with colleagues; solicitors with a variety of potential or actual conflict of interest problems; barristers facing ethical questions mid-trial; and solicitors, barristers and other professionals facing investigation from their regulators. In the recent case of Cork v Smith [2026] EWHC 1199 (Ch), Paul acted for solicitors whose use of AI had resulted in hallucinated legal propositions being put before the Court.
Paul has particular interest in succession disputes, where exploding long-suppressed family tensions can result in misguided self-help remedies: misappropriation and other frauds. He has frequently lectured on this topic, most recently at the 42nd Annual Symposium of Economic Crime at Jesus College, Cambridge in September 2025 where he spoke on a panel of experts; and at the International Chamber of Commercial FraudNet 42nd International Conference in Toronto in October 2025. He has acted in several disputes between members of very wealthy families at inflexion points: the death or retirement of a senior member, the appointment to positions of authority of a sibling, etc.
Before coming to the Bar, Paul read Oriental Studies at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating with a First in 1990. He then studied for an MA in Middle Eastern politics, law and economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies before returning to Cambridge for his PhD in the life and works of a twentieth-century Iranian poet.
Languages: Farsi, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish. In 2010 he was editor and co-translator into English of the Catalan novel “Stone in a Landslide”, one of Peirene Press’s first publications.
Paul has two daughters.
Paul is a trustee of Alsama Project, a charity offering new horizons to refugee teenagers and women in Lebanon.
12th March 2026
12:30am - 2pm BST
Join us for an exclusive professional negligence networking lunch on Thursday 12th…
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