Trinity Chambers

Business & Property, Employment 

Business and Property
Simon was appointed King’s Counsel in March 2022. He is one of only three specialist Business and Property silks on Circuit and has been described by a member of the senior judiciary as a "standard setter and standard bearer for the North-East."

Simon is head of Chambers’ Business and Property team and is well established as one of the region’s leading commercial litigators. He regularly appears in the Commercial Court, Circuit Commercial Court and the Business List as well as in the First Tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal in respect of his Property work.

Simon has for many years been recognised nationally by the professional directories as a leading barrister in Business and Property work, where his intellectual ability and willingness to fight his client’s corner is regularly praised.

Simon’s principal areas of practice include:

• Contractual disputes
• Commercial fraud
• Directors’ duties (including director’s disqualification proceedings)
• Shareholder disputes
• Real Property
• Contentious probate (including 1975 Act claims)
• Partnership
• Landlord & tenant (commercial and residential)
• Insolvency (corporate and personal)
• Professional negligence

Employment
Simon was appointed King's Counsel in March 2022. He is the first and only specialist employment silk based in the North-East.

Simon is usually instructed to advise and represent clients in employment disputes involving issues of significant factual or legal complexity and/or those with high value. Simon appears across the UK in the Employment Tribunal, the EAT and the High Court. He advises and represents employers and employees, and has over a number of years developed a particular expertise in employment litigation in the High Court including applications for urgent injunctive relief in the business protection context. His principal practice areas include:

• Business Protection
• Post termination restrictions
• Discrimination
• Equal pay
• Whistleblowing

Local Government
Simon is often instructed by Local Authorities in matters involving his core practice areas, in particular in high value commercial contract disputes and in employment litigation. However, his commercial and Chancery background means he is also regularly instructed to advise and represent Local Authorities in the following areas:

• Care funding
• Court of Protection (property and affairs)
• Procurement
• Housing

APPOINTMENTS

• Queen's (now King's) Counsel (2022)
• Recorder (Crime, Civil & Chancery) (since 2018)
• Attorney General’s Regional Panel of Counsel (2007 - 2018)
• Chair of the Association of International Accountants Disciplinary Appeals Committee (since 2020)

MEMBERSHIPS

• Northern Business and Property Bar Association (executive committee member)
• Chancery Bar Association
• Property Bar Association
• Employment Law Bar Association
• Employment Lawyers Association

LECTURES & SEMINARS
Regularly lectures to barristers, solicitors and other professionals on all aspects of Business and Property litigation and Employment law.
EDUCATION & AWARDS

• BA in Jurisprudence: Trinity College, Oxford
• Queen Mother’s Scholar, Harmsworth Scholar and Exhibitioner, Middle Temple

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Lives in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. Educated RGS Newcastle.

Called 1999; Middle Temple; junior counsel to the Crown 2007; registered lawyer under the Football Association Football Agents Regulations; external examiner for Bar Professional Training Course. Recorder Crime & Civil (since 2018) Attorney General’s Regional Panel of Counsel (2007 - 2018)

Employment Law Bar Association; Employment Law Association; Bar Pro Bono Unit.

Trinity College, Oxford (BA).