The Legal 500

Position

Tom specialises in employment and personal injury law including credit hire as well as acting in relation to commercial contractual disputes. He has appeared in the Employment Tribunal, the EAT, the County Court and the High Court. His range of employment work includes multi-day and multi-party cases, and encompasses all forms of discrimination as well as the operation of the TUPE regulations, unfair dismissal, whistleblowing, claims for wages and breach of contract (including bonus schemes), and the protective awards regime under TULRA 1992. Recently Tom has acted for the successful parties in cases including: a 4-day hearing of claims for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination following a dismissal from the London ambulance service for ill-health; the defence of a solicitors' firm against claims for unfair dismissal for gross misconduct and race discrimination; a claim for a redundancy payment from an employer to whom the claimant's employment transferred from the NHS under TUPE; and the defence of a retirement home against claims of unfair dismissal and age discrimination under the (repealed) Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006. Tom also acts for claimants and defendants in personal injury and/or credit hire claims allocated to the fast and multi-track, ranging from pre-action advice to drafting, conducting interim applications, and appearing at trial. Recent PI cases have involved: determining the claimant's 'employer' and applying the tests for the alternative bases of liability for the purposes of the 'six pack' of employer's liability regulations; a local authority's liability for a dangerous defect on the highway; an employer's liability for an unsafe system of maintenance work; an occupier's liability for spillages in a nightclub; and the assessment of general and special damages arising from burn, dog-bite and complex dental in cases involving child claimants. In credit hire cases Tom has particular experience of the operation of the Cancellation of Contracts made in a Consumer's Home or Place of Work etc. Regulations 2008 and analysing rates evidence (including cross-examination of the authors of rates reports). Commercial cases in which Tom has been instructed have dealt with issues including: implied terms as to reasonable notice and repudiatory breach in a contract for services; reliance on retention of title clauses in interpleader proceedings in the High Court; defence of debt recovery proceedings on the basis of breach of an 'entire obligation' under the contract and/or a collateral contract; and the liability of a defendant company for an introduction fee to the claimant employment business. Finally, Tom has also been instructed to advise in two major pieces of government litigation.

Career

Called 2007, Lincoln's Inn.

Member

ELBA; PIBA.

Education

Magdalen College, Oxford (BA Hons); Graduate Diploma in Law, City University (Distinction), Lord Brougham Scholar; Bar Vocational Course, Inns of Court School of Law {Outstanding, 4th overall), Lord Mansfield Scholar, Barstow Scholar, Buchanan Prize.

Practice Areas

Employment; Personal injury - either side