Joanne Thompson > Blake Morgan LLP > Cardiff, United Kingdom > Lawyer Profile

Blake Morgan LLP provides ‘well-informed and responsive’ advice across a range of high-profile litigation. As well as being able to leverage his overarching IP credentials to good effect on litigation involving, inter alia, copyright, trade mark and misuse of confidential information, team head Lee Fisher is also noted for his aptitude at handling shareholder and unfair prejudice claims for private sector clients. Drawing upon a ‘wealth of experience and excellent judgement’, Joanne Thompson is best-known for her public sector expertise (including for central and local government, as well as health authorities), including in relation to the defence of public procurement challenges, as well as public inquiry-related work. Recently promoted to legal director, Sarah Whittle is also a key resource to defendants seeking to defend public procurement decisions as well as in the context of judicial review challenges. Whittle has also taken a new role in spearheading the firm’s Court of Protection work for local authorities.

Public sector concerns inform a significant amount of work handled by the majority of Blake Morgan LLP‘s practice area offerings, from both a contentious and non-contentious perspective. As well as this multidisciplinary approach, the firm also has a core knowledge of pure public law and regulatory matters, enabling it to provide a tailored service addressing issues unique to entities in the space, including at local and central government level. Team head Eve Piffaretti provides ‘expert and sensible advice’ to Welsh public sector and UK regulators across a range of health and social care matters, including on safeguarding issues, mental health and mental capacity law, areas which have an added layer of complexity due to their adherence to secondary legislation which is Welsh specific. Graham Miles ‘ professional regulatory specialism also regularly seems him involved in the health and social care setting, particularly in the context of advising regulatory bodies investigating and presenting fitness to cases involving practitioners in the space. The firm also has vast experience advising public sector bodies on public procurement tenders, as well as in any subsequent judicial review challenges to the process. In this regard, Penri Desscan  and Simon McCann  are very well-known on the contractual side, while Joanne Thompson is recognised as ‘a first-rate procurement litigator with a wealth of experience and excellent judgement’. At a non-partner level, Sarah Whittle is particularly adept at defending health sector clients against challenges to decisions and processes, while Trish D’Souza, who joined from Capital Law Limited in October 2022, has a flourishing reputation advising clients in the education sector.