Milberg London > London, England > Firm Profile

Milberg London Offices

Milberg London
7th Floor, 75 Farringdon Road
London
EC1M 3JY
England
Visit website 020 3824 6541

Milberg London > The Legal 500 Rankings

Dispute resolution > Group litigation: Claimant Tier 2

Milberg London plays a leading role in the Pan-NOx Emissions Group Litigation against major car manufacturers. The team boasts extensive court experience and is regularly called upon to lead in the handling of expert evidence and technical issues. Noting a particular increase in claims within the gaming space, the practice is also active in group litigation in the competition sector. With an established track record in commercial litigation, James Oldnall specialises in claims against significant institutional defendants. Natasha Pearman leads the firm’s competition litigation team and focuses her practice on consumer protection, particularly related to data dominance. Noted for his background in environmental matters, head of the group litigation practice Edward Cardington is leading the firm’s work in the diesel emissions cases. Polly Blenkin is another key contact on the team, along with Nicola Vinovrski, who spearheads the firm’s work on the Vauxhall emissions case. Nicola Little plays an active role in claimant group actions and commercial litigation.

Practice head(s):

James Oldnall; Edward Cardington; Natasha Pearman

Other key lawyers:

Polly Blenkin; Nicola Vinovrški; Nicola Little; Oliver Lawson; Hadley Zielonka; Harry Jacques; Grace Panter; Steen Cooper; Katharine Silverleaf; Gavin Lubczanski; James Taylor

Testimonials

‘Natasha Pearman – Superb strategic thinker, excellent client handling skills, thrives under pressure.’

‘James Oldnall: excellent lawyer and tactician. Oliver Lawson: extremely good on technical and engineering issues. Ed Cardington: always on top of the detail and responsive.’

‘At the forefront of seemingly every major group litigation taking place at the moment. Commercially savvy, knowledgeable but also a pleasure to work with. Take their practice and their opponents very seriously, but not themselves.’

‘James Oldnall – commercially savvy and a great strategist. Polly Blenkin – on top of everything and shown herself to be particularly adept at handling huge complex disputes and difficult defendants.’

‘Fantastic team, able to effectively run complex consumer class actions with a proven track record.’

‘Natasha Pearman knows her stuff and was an early first mover in the area. Hadley Zielonka is also highly regarded, bright and incredibly lovely to deal with.’

‘The firm has a young and technically literate team lead by James Oldnall who have built a significant capability in being able to onboard and manage large volumes of claimants where they not only represent them in class actions, but also keep them involved in the twists and turns the of journey the action takes.’

‘James Oldnall is the managing partner who has a clear vision of where he wants the firm to go that is built on a history of complex claims commercial litigation. In Edward Cardington he has not just a partner who is an excellent lawyer but also a ridiculously intelligent man who can grasp any matter in an instant. Polly Blenkin and James Taylor are partners in the team that have a human touch that when wedded to their dedication mean the clients have a real feeling of mattering and that their position is recognised.’

Key clients

Group of tens of thousands claimants v Mercedes (NOx emissions claim)

Group of tens of thousands claimants v Vauxhall (NOx emissions claim)

Group of tens of thousands claimants v BMW (NOx emissions claim)

All GLO Claimants v Mercedes and 15 Car Manufacturers (the “Pan-NOx” GLO proceedings)

Group of tens of thousands claimants v Jaguar Land Rover (engine defect claim)

Alex Neill Class Representative v Sony

Vicki Shotbolt Class Representative v Valve

Work highlights

  • Advising 70,000 consumers in a claim against Mercedes for diesel emissions cheating, the lead case amongst the 15 car manufacturer cases being case-managed together by the Court in the Pan-NOx Proceedings.
  • Acting on behalf of 36,000 motorists in a claim against Jaguar Land Rover for defective components in a range of popular diesel models, including Range Rover and Land Rover Discovery.
  • Acting on behalf of the class representative, Alex Neill Class Representative Limited, commenced opt-out collective proceedings against Sony on behalf of 8.9 million UK consumers in relation to alleged abusive conduct concerning the distribution of digital PlayStation games and in-game content.

Milberg London > Firm Profile

Milberg London LLP is a claimant-focused litigation boutique. Milberg London’s partners spent more than 15 years litigating in London’s powerhouses across the City before establishing their own firm in 2020. The team is best known for acting for claimants in group actions, competition claims and commercial litigation. The team’s commercial pedigree was forged in the biggest cases at the biggest firms in London. The firm undertakes a broad range of disputes work and have a track record of resolving complex, high-value disputes for clients.

James Oldnall, Polly Blenkin, Edward Cardington and James Taylor worked together for many years at Mishcon de Reya. Their impressive work was recognised in a cover shoot for The Lawyer when two of their cases were featured in the Top 20 Cases of 2016. They developed a reputation for acting in technically complex and legally significant cases, often against large institutional defendants. James and Nicola Vinovrški first met at Clyde & Co in 2007 and worked on some of the biggest commercial disputes of the decade such as acting for former owners of Liverpool Football Club in their high-profile claim against former directors and the Royal Bank of Scotland. They were reunited at Mishcon before Nicola was invited to join the partnership at Milberg London in 2021. Natasha Pearman’s sterling reputation in the competition litigation space was well known and she joined Milberg London to launch its competition practice.

From the outset, the partners were keen to build a small, exceptional group of lawyers. Through a combination of former colleagues and strategic recruitment of impressive litigators from other London practices, Milberg London has made huge strides as a firm and on behalf of their clients in their early years.

Areas of practice
Group actions: Milberg London is at the forefront of group action law and practice and are instructed in some of the most significant multi-party cases ever to be heard before the courts in this jurisdiction.

Milberg London represents over 100,000 claimants as part of ‘opt-in’ group litigations against various car manufacturers in relation to ‘Dieselgate’. Claims have been brought in numerous jurisdictions on behalf of millions of claimants and are amongst the largest pieces of litigation in England & Wales.

A founding firm of the Collective Redress Lawyers Association (CORLA) and involved on its committees, Milberg London is a market leader in the practice, procedure, legal knowledge and commercial imperatives involved in pursuing litigation on a collective basis for large groups of clients.

Competition litigation: The firm’s competition litigation practice focuses on consumer redress and holding companies that have infringed competition law to account.

The team is headed by Natasha Pearman, a highly regarded competition lawyer, Natasha was responsible for the ground-breaking Justin Le Patourel v BT claim, which was the second ever collective action to be certified by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

In 2022, Milberg’s competition team filed a claim on behalf of millions of people against Sony PlayStation.

Commercial litigation: As a conflict-free litigation boutique, Milberg London is well-placed to resolve complex, high-value commercial disputes for corporate and individual clients. With an in-depth understanding of disputes involving financial markets and products, private equity, hedge funds, shareholder and companies’ issues, fraud, and mis-selling, the lawyers in Milberg London commercial litigation team have acted for and against global financial institutions, major European banks, private equity houses, hedge funds, FTSE-100 listed retailers and international players in a range of sectors including manufacturing and natural resource extraction.

Expertise includes:

  • Due diligence and investigations
  • Banking and finance disputes
  • Commercial litigation
  • Contractual disputes
  • Commercial arbitration
  • Mediation
  • Fraud
  • Shareholder and company disputes

The partner team has extensive experience of some of the largest, most complex and high-profile disputes before the London courts. The team also has significant experience in obtaining and defending interim injunctive relief in civil fraud claims, such as freezing orders, search orders and disclosure orders.

Litigation funding The Milberg London team is well acquainted with the litigation funding market which operates hand in hand with collective redress and many other forms of litigation. The partnership has strong relationships with the main players in the litigation funding market, including members of the Association of Litigation Funders (ALF). They are highly experienced in negotiating and obtaining ATE insurance policies, sourcing funding to support claims, negotiating funding agreements and setting up and leading group action steering committees to ensure claims are run cost effectively and with appropriate downside protection.

Main Contacts

Department Name Email Telephone
Managing Partner James Oldnall [email protected]
Competition Litigation Natasha Pearman [email protected]
Group Actions, Commercial Litigation Edward Cardington [email protected]
Group Actions, Commercial Litigation, Litigation Funding Polly Blenkin [email protected]
Group Actions, Commercial Litigation Nicola Vinovrski [email protected]
Group Actions, Commercial Litigation James Taylor [email protected]

Lawyer Profiles

Photo Name Position Profile
Polly Blenkin photo Ms Polly Blenkin Partner View Profile
Edward Cardington photo Dr Edward Cardington Partner Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP) Compliance Officer for Finance and… View Profile
James Oldnall photo Mr James Oldnall Managing Partner View Profile
Natasha Pearman photo Ms Natasha Pearman Partner and Head of Competition Litigation View Profile

Staff Figures

Partners : 4
Other fee earners : 15

Languages

English
French
German
Arabic

Memberships

Collective Redress Lawyers Association (founding firm)
Greener Litigation Pledge
Commercial Litigators Forum