Hill Dickinson LLP

Commercial Dispute Resolution and Construction

Partner.

Sarah is a commercial (and construction) disputes specialist. Her practice spans UK and international disputes and crisis management. She works across a number of sectors including construction, energy & infrastructure, manufacturing, building safety and also financial products.

Sarah regularly advises on complex, strategic or high-value disputes and often involving matters of fraud, conspiracy or regulatory breaches. She is also a group action expert, with more than 15 years' experience supporting clients facing multi-party claims as well as having expertise bringing group actions.

Clients value the strategic insight Sarah provides and her role regularly involves advising clients at executive level and including pre-litigation.

Her expertise spans contractual disputes, commercial fraud, asset recovery, jurisdiction challenges, urgent court applications and she acts in proceedings brought in various divisions of the high court and in proceedings guided by various arbitral institutional rules including ICC and LCIA.

Sarah also has extensive ADR experience and excellent links to litigation funders. She has experience of co-ordinating group litigation claims and shareholder actions, allowing corporate entities to leverage claims as a potential asset.

Construction, infrastructure, engineering, energy and utilities all form part of Sarah’s key sector focus. These are collectively best described as disputes emanating from the as-built environment whether that’s a fire, an explosion, a dispute between developers and contractors or an engineering claim.

Sarah is quick and able to understand technically complex construction, infrastructure, engineering and related disputes but she also understands the sector and many of her disputes are for clients in this sector, but not always pure construction disputes. For example, she is currently acting in the high court for a number of large clients on fraudulent misrepresentation and conspiracy claims.

During the course of her career, she has acted on a diverse range of projects including windfarms, airports, sports stadiums, luxury homes and all manner of mixed-use developments; and has represented employers, developers, contractors, architects, engineers, surveyors, PLCs, developers, plant owners and more.

Sarah has also acted for a wide range of commercial clients in relation to various company disputes, including claims arising out of breach of director duties, corporate fraud, fraudulent trading and unfair prejudice petitions and in relation to a number of disputes and regulatory matters

With regard to her financial services sector expertise, Sarah has advised banks, lending institutions and also acted against such large organisations in respect of a range of financial product claims.

English, Basic French

Sarah is a member of the SCL (Society of Construction Law) and of the Female Lawyers Club which is not professional membership as such but is worth mentioning because it was set up as a support group for (predominantly) women in the profession to provide a forum for those looking to inspire and support others. Sarah is a firm believer in giving back by nurturing and supporting junior talent.

Degree: Political Science (BSc) from Bristol University (2001 – 2004)

Sarah is passionate about resolving disputes for clients and, as her client testimonials support, she is excellent in a crisis. She cares very much about her team and takes great pleasure in seeing juniors thrive. She is also excellent at putting a team together on a case and managing that team (lawyers, barristers and experts alike) to ensure maximum performance. Sarah mentors a number of lawyers both at Hill Dickinson, and outside the firm.

Sarah works full time, is married and has two children aged 8 & 10.

All sports but in particular long-distance challenges: quadrathlons, triathlons and running. Other sports enjoyed: tennis, cricket, netball.