Gareth Vowles > Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP > Cardiff, United Kingdom > Lawyer Profile

Acting on its own, as well as being able to call upon the vast resources across the firm’s UK-wide network of offices, Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP is well-placed to represent clients in the firm’s core areas of industry strength, including transport, energy and education, across a wide range of high-stakes disputes. As well as his commercial litigation expertise, team head Richard Pitt is noted for his public procurement prowess, both on behalf of public entities defending the outcome of public procurement competitions and, challenging decisions of other public authorities. Luisa Gibbons assists Pitt with the day-to-day running of the team, focusing her work largely on matters with a public sector complexion, including public procurement and judicial review matters, as well as it relates to professional discipline and fitness to practise. Public law also forms a key component of senior associate Helen Rowland‘s practice, with her regularly working alongside Gibbons and Pitt on high-profile mandates, as well as handling her own caseload, defending and bringing challenges relating to public procurement awards. Public inquiry work also remains a cornerstone to the firm’s overarching litigation expertise, with the Cardiff office often engaged as part of multi-office teams covering many matters of public importance. In this regard, Angharad Haf Hurle is ‘super knowledgeable and vastly experienced’ and has been a lynchpin of the firm’s involvement in the long-running infected blood inquiry. Finally, the team is rounded out by a strong financial services litigation offering, an area that Gareth Vowles  and Tom Black , who was promoted to partner in May 2022 are particularly accomplished.

Making efficient use of legal technology and also often acting on a contingency basis, Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP provides a ‘responsive and cost-effective’ service to banks in professional negligence claims brought against solicitors and surveyors stemming primarily from secured commercial and residential lending. Nick Rundle is often at the forefront of this secured recoveries work arising from commercial lending, as is Wayne Davies , who is ‘easy to deal with and good at gathering together the correct information’, including in cases involving large portfolios both under commercial ownership or owned by individual buy-to-let landlords. Gareth Vowles has ‘a commercial approach which ensures the best result for clients’, including intermediaries, lenders and asset managers as defendants in claims arising from alleged negligent advice and/or the mis-selling of a myriad of financial products – instructions which account for some of his workload in his role as head of the office’s financial services disputes and investigations team. As well as handling claimant work for banks, including in the context of professional negligence allegations of mortgage fraud, James Coleman also regularly acts for financial institutions clients in internal and regulatory investigations.