Brick Court Chambers is well-regarded for its handling of complex and high profile professional liability cases, typically but not exclusively involving professional services. Appearing in the jurisdiction on a temporary admission, Simon Salzedo KC represented the defendant auditors in Sino-Forest Litigation Trust v BDO Limited in Hong Kong concerning the collapse of what was claimed to one of the largest tree product companies in the jurisdiction, which was alleged to be a Ponzi scheme by short-sellers in 2011. Mark Howard KC and Tom Pascoe were instructed appeared for the respondents in URS Corporation v BDW Trading, an appeal which went to the Supreme Court and explored issues relating to duties of care in construction defect cases. Kyle Lawson acts for the defendants in HSBC Bank (Middle East) Limited & Others v Clifford Chance LLP, a high-value claim relating to legal advice on a syndicated loan transaction in the Middle East. Thomas Plewman KC is instructed on behalf of the defendant auditors in Ozner Water International Holdings Limited v Ernst & Young, a complex claim concerning audit issues in China, the case also deals with implicit allegations of fraud. Edward Harrison KC took silk in 2025.
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Profile
Position
Thomas Plewman is a senior commercial silk in England (as well as South Africa). He is first and foremost a trial advocate, with a heavy commercial practice across a wide front, including leading cases in commercial fraud, financial services and auditors’ professional negligence. He has acted in Lawyer’s top 20 cases of the year for each of 2025 (NMC v Ernst & Young), 2023 (PJSC Bank v Kolomoisky), 2017 (Holyoake v Candy ), 2015 (Cattles Group v PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP), 2013 (Deutsche Bank AG v Sebastian Holdings Inc) and 2011 (British Sky Broadcasting Limited v Office of Communications).
Thomas has for 30 years acted in audit negligence cases, and won Legal 500’s Professional Negligence Silk of the year award for 2025. He acted in 2025 for Ernst & Young in defence of the multi-billion dollar claims arising out of the collapse of NMC plc, as the lead counsel on the audit issues; and is leading the defence for Deloitte in Hong of the claims by the Pacific Andes Group. Current and recent finance and fraud cases include the Ukrainian Bank fraud claims in PJSC Privatbank v Kolomoisky; the internet hacking claims in Azima v RAKIA, Dechert and others; and the Ugandan Bank fraud claims in Crane Bank Limited v DFCU Bank Limited and others. He has recently and is acting in a number or ongoing insurance and commercial arbitrations.
Education
B Com (UCT, cum laude); LLB (Wits, cum laude); BCL (Oxon). Graduated as top LLB student in his year and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for South Africa in 1990.
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