The Legal 500

Work Department

Common law (general); health and safety; public inquiries; regulatory and disciplinary.

Position

Adrian Brunner has a predominantly common law and commercial practice. In the field of public law, he represented the Stock Exchange in R v International Stock Exchange of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Limited ex parte Else (1982) Limited and Another [1993] QB 534 CA, a case involving an application for judicial review grounded upon the impact of an EC Directive on the decision of the Quotations Panel to cancel the official listing of shares in a company in which the applicants were shareholders. He advised the Stock Exchange upon disciplinary proceedings instituted by it in the wake of the Blue Arrow affair. His commercial cases include the Lloyd’s litigation; considerable experience of professional negligence litigation, both building-related and medical; was retained in the asbestos, whooping-cough vaccine and Benzodiazepine litigation; undertakes all types of personal injury work; in the field of private international law, his cases include Adams v Cape Industries Plc [1990] 2 Ch 433 (CA), which involved an attempt to enforce in the UK numerous asbestos judgments obtained in the US; many years’ experience in actions involving liability in construction cases including those with technical engineering issues; cases include Murphy v Brentwood District Council [1991] AC 398, in which the House of Lords greatly reduced the exposure of potential defendants to negligence actions; junior counsel at the Clapham Rail Disaster inquiry 1989: counsel for British Rail and London Underground in parliament 1993-94, seeking powers for construction of the Jubilee and Cross Rail underground lines; retained in relation to the Ladbroke Grove Rail Accident Inquiry; other reported cases include: Law v National Greyhound Racing Club Ltd [1983] 1WRL 1302, judicial review – domestic tribunal – declaratory relief; Ketteman v Hansel Properties Ltd [1984] 1 WLR 1274, limitation of action – negligence – accrual of cause of action; Investors in Industry Commercial Properties Ltd v South Bedfordshire District Council [1986] 2WLR 937, negligence – duty of care – local authority; Bankamerica Finance Ltd v Nock [1987] 3 WLR 1191, costs, Court of Appeal – jurisdiction; Gardner v Marsh & Parsons [1997] 1 WLR 489, measure of damages – surveyor’s report; Collins and Others v Union Bank of Switzerland and Others (CA 25/05/2000) – application for permission to appeal against summary judgment – further evidence on appeal – applicable principles. More recent experience includes: Product liability: Mirage Inks v Rexham – claim arising from defective industrial inks; health, safety and the environment – leading counsel for the Strategic Rail Authority – Lord Cullen’s Inquiries – this included consideration of the statutory framework relating to railways; leading counsel for the defendant in agricultural environmental pollution action: Savage v Fairclough, CA 30/07/1999; leading counsel in sports law actions: Watson v Gray and Huddersfield Town FC; Pitcher v Huddersfield Town FC; Casper v Carpenter; technology and construction: leading counsel high-value action arising from boiler explosion – Union Camp Chemicals Limited v GRL TCL Limited and Others; fire claim: Citibank v Lebihan Contract and Others; personal injury: recent cases include those involving issues of private international law – Roberts v Iberotravel – catastrophic injury to English claimant arising from accident in a Spanish swimming pool; also several other catastrophic brain injury cases; Casper v Cardiff City Football Club; Naylor v Douard (£2.7m damages); jurisdiction issues. He has increasingly been involved in regulatory and disciplinary work. In the financial sector, he has for some years been chairman of the Appeals Tribunal of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and has been chairman of the Accountants’ Joint Disciplinary Committees, dealing with the hearings arising out of the collapses of Barings Bank, Atlantic Computers, TransTec plc, and the Independent Insurance Group. He was the legal assessor to the Institute of Actuaries’ disciplinary proceedings arising out of the Equitable Life Assurance Society failures.

Career

Called 1968; QC 1994; recorder; Bencher of the Inner Temple; has sat as a member of the ICC Court of Arbitration and presently chairman of The Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Appeal Committee.

Practice Areas

Common law (general); Health and safety; Public inquiries