Tiernan Fitzgibbon > Chambers of Rachel Sleeman > London, England > Barrister Profile

Tiernan Fitzgibbon

Position

Tiernan joined Five Paper in 2019 following completion of a 12 month pupillage.  During pupillage, Tiernan was supervised by Simon Mills and Roger Laville (Commercial Team) and Ben Maltz, Sam Phillips and Nick Grundy QC (Property Team).

Before joining the Bar, Tiernan was a Solicitor-Advocate (Civil) specialising in commercial litigation and arbitration. He trained at Allen & Overy LLP and on qualification joined Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP where he spent the next four years in practice.

Tiernan spent his first two years in practice in the Dubai office of Gibson Dunn where he gained considerable exposure to both DIFC and English Commercial Court litigation, international arbitration and also undertook a three month secondment in-house as General Counsel for a Saudi stock market listed firm.

On returning to Gibson Dunn’s London office, his practice focused more on English law governed disputes such as the equal value pay claim brought by shop staff against ASDA; Asda Stores Ltd v Brierley and other [2019] EWCA Civ 44.

Commercial & Insolvency

Building on his prior experience as a commercial litigation solicitor, Tiernan has a thriving commercial practice encompassing claims related to:

• Sale of goods, and supply of goods and services;
• Breach of contract, and all matters involving interpretation of contracts;
• Assignment of debts, and any other chose in action; and
• Corporate and Personal Insolvency.

Recent instructions have included:

• Acted, as junior to Roger Laville, on behalf of the liquidators of a company in successfully obtaining a freezing injunction relying on evidence contained in “without prejudice” correspondence using the “unambiguous impropriety” exception recently expanded upon by the Court of Appeal in Motorola Solutions, Inc & Anor v Hytera Communications Corporation Ltd & Anor (Rev 1) [2021] EWCA Civ 11.
• Instructed to advise on and draft the pleadings involved in a case of repudiatory breach in circumstances where both frustration and force majeure were argued as defences arising out of the Covid-19 Pandemic resulting in a successful settlement in favour of the client.
• Successfully appealed a first instance decision on damages arising from a breach of contract resulting in the reduction of the sum awarded by a third.
• Instructed from the Junior Junior panel to advise the Institute of Apprenticeships on a potential contractual dispute.
• Advising on the validity of a potential Part 36 settlement offer and drafting the Particulars of Claim for breach of the settlement offer;

Property Litigation

Tiernan has extensive experience in property disputes and is regularly instructed by both private and public landlords to appear in the County Courts and the First-Tier Tribunal on cases including:

• Possession claims;
• Disrepair claims;
• Service charge disputes; and
• Housing related injunctions (both with and without notice).

Recent instructions have included:

• Instructed to resist an application to set aside an access injunction brought on grounds that the claim had not been validly served on a Defendant who had failed to update their address for correspondence.
• Instructed, as junior to Nicholas Grundy QC, to review a multimillion purchase of land with a view to potentially bringing a claim in respect of sales overage against real estate developers.
• Successfully representing a public authority in a Fast Track trial related to a possession claim involving consideration of both public law issues and defences under the ECHR;
• Appearing before the First Tier Tribunal for a landlord in a service charge matter relating to the recovery of sums falling due for major construction works;

Career

Called 2018