Mr Roger Thomas > Chambers of Elizabeth Isaacs KC > Birmingham, England > Barrister Profile

Mr Roger Thomas

0121 236 0863 roger.thomas@stiveschambers.co.uk

Work Department

Roger Thomas is a Barrister specialising in Family (Finance), Business & Property and Personal Injury law.

Position

Roger enjoys a thriving family finance practice, representing litigants under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and cohabiting couples under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996.

For his Business & Property practice, Roger is regularly instructed by both Claimants and Defendants to advise upon a range of business and property matters and he appears in all levels of court to represent his clients’ interests. Having spent more than 20 years in commerce and industry before coming to the Bar, Roger brings to his work a wealth of first-hand experience at the ‘coal face’ which enables him to quickly understand the relevant issues in the case and to communicate with both professional and lay clients in the language of their business.

For Personal Injury, Roger Thomas is regularly instructed by both Claimants and Defendants to advise upon, and appear in, personal injury matters. He has an excellent grasp of injury mechanisms and the medical sequelae.

Career

Year of Call: 2001

Family – Finance

He is regularly instructed in cases of high net worth, particularly where the valuation of businesses and farms is concerned and in which his previous experience as a Chartered Management Accountant can provide useful insights. His professional and lay clients also benefit considerably from the additional expertise Roger brings to this area from his commercial and chancery work in which he deals with:

• Companies
• Wills
• Trusts etc.

Roger is a skilled advisor and negotiator and is adept at putting even the most nervous client at their ease and instilling confidence in them. In aiming to obtain the best possible outcome for his lay clients, Roger strives to find a negotiated solution thereby saving time, money and trouble for them. However, if a final hearing becomes inevitable, he is an incisive and tenacious advocate in his client’s cause.

Prior to coming to the Bar in 2001, Roger qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant and enjoyed a 20-year career in the manufacturing and commercial sectors. Much of his career was at Board level and a significant proportion of his work was of an international nature.

Business and Property

More specifically, Roger accepts instructions in the following areas company law, contractual disputes, product licensing agreements, employment and labour relations, commercial property disputes, wills and probate,  the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, professional liability and sports law.

In his advisory work Roger is astute to get to the heart of the factual issues and to explain clearly and concisely the application of the relevant law to the factual matrix. Wherever possible, he will suggest a pragmatic solution to the problem at hand and he is a skilled negotiator. In court, Roger is a resourceful and tenacious advocate in his client’s cause.

A key feature of Roger’s employment practice is that he has held a number of board-level appointments in industrial and commercial enterprises in both unionised and non-unionised environments. In his various posts as Finance Director, Commercial Director and Managing Director, he held budget and line responsibility for the Human Resource function within the businesses in which he worked. As such, Roger was routinely involved in the formulation and implementation of HR policies and procedures as well as day to day decisions in respect of recruitment, training, safety, performance appraisal, grievance management, dismissal and redundancy programmes. As a consequence, he has a wealth of insight and experience of the workplace from both the employer’s perspective and the employee’s. This has made him an extremely effective advocate in Employment Tribunals up and down the country.

Personal Injury

In his advisory work Roger is astute to get to the heart of the factual issues and to explain clearly and concisely the application of the relevant law to the factual matrix. Notable issues that he has recently advised upon include:

• Claims against holiday tour operators for injuries sustained by claimants on holiday
• Syringomyelia caused by the activation of a Chiari malformation brought on by a car accident
• Catastrophic cervical spinal injury caused on a trampoline

Roger is a skilled negotiator and, wherever possible, he will suggest a pragmatic solution to the problem at hand. In court, he is a resourceful and tenacious advocate in his client’s cause.

Languages

English

Memberships

Family Law Bar Association 

Midland Chancery and Commercial Bar Association

British Affiliation for Sports and Law

Education

LL.B. (Hons), A.C.M.A.