Crown Office Chambers advises on professional negligence cases across a broad range of sectors including legal, insurance, IT and financial services. The set has members involved in the Grenfell Tower civil litigation, Andrew Rigney KC leads the team representing Rydon, the main design and build contractor, in relation to several claims, alongside Michael Harper and Toby Chandler. Ivor Collett acts for the defendant solicitors in Kagbara and others v Leigh Day, a case in which Nigerians who secured damages from Shell in an English court after leaks from an oil pipeline allege that the proceeds of their settlement were mishandled by the solicitors. Carlo Taczalski represents the defendant brokers in CPH Holdings v Generali v Aon UK Limited, a high value claim that centres around the arrangement of appropriate insurance cover. Henk Soede joined from Deka Chambers in 2024.
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Profile
Position
Andrew Rigney KC has an extensive domestic and international practice, which encompasses a wide range of civil and commercial work. He specialises in large-scale disputes arising out of very substantial projects involving complex factual and technical evidence, leading large multi-disciplinary (and often multi-national) teams of lawyers and experts.
Andrew’s areas of expertise include (i) construction and engineering disputes (both in the TCC and in domestic and international arbitration) including, amongst other things, large infrastructure projects, ports, shipbuilding, a number of international airports, the de-commissioning of a nuclear power station, a naval base, a co-location headquarters for the Ministry of Defence, hotels, roads, rail, process plants, water treatment plants, de-salination plants, sewerage plants, (ii) energy and natural resources (both onshore and offshore) including waste energy plants, CHP and the largest renewables plant of its kind in the world (iii) international arbitration (iv) insurance and reinsurance (v) professional indemnity work (in particular engineers, architects, surveyors, solicitors and accountants) (vi) property damage and (vii) commercial litigation including sale of goods, financial instruments, aviation leasing agreements and product liability.
He is familiar with a wide range of standard forms (including JCT, ICE, NEC, FIDIC, IChemE, PPC, TPC, ACE, RIBA etc) and PFI contracts, and a wide range of arbitral rules (ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, EDF and LMAA etc); and he has acted in relation to claims concerning projects in the United States, the Caribbean, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Indian sub-continent, Africa, Turkey, Hong Kong and the Middle East (including the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia) as well as in the United Kingdom.
So far as coverage work is concerned, he has wide experience of disputes involving CAR/EAR policies (including, in particular, the operation of DE and LEG clauses (and clauses based on them)) and Public Liability, Product Liability and Employers’ Liability policies (including Business Interruption); and he has acted in relation to some of the largest domestic and international losses. He has advised in relation to the effect of COVID-19 in the context of a number of worldwide Business Interruption and Material Damage wordings, and was instructed by Zurich in the FCA coronavirus test case (FCA v Arch et al), a landmark insurance claim to determine whether certain non-damage BI wordings provide cover in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first instance judgment of Flaux LJ and Butcher J is at [2020] EWHC 2448 (Comm) and [2020] Lloyds Rep IR 527, and the judgment of the Supreme Court is at [2021] UKSC 1.
Andrew also has substantial experience of conflicts of laws and jurisdictional challenges (including cases involving the Brussels Regulation and Rome Regulations), and of civil law systems in the Middle East, including issues of Egyptian, UAE, Qatari, Kuwaiti, Saudi and Omani law.
Career
Called 1992; Gray’s Inn (Uthwatt Scholar).
Memberships
- Commercial Bar Association
- Technology and Construction Bar Association (former Committee member)
- Society of Construction Law
- Society of Construction Law (Gulf)
- London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association
- Professional Negligence Bar Association
- LCIA
Education
Hulme Grammar School, Oldham; Christ’s College, Cambridge; City University (MA Cantab; Diploma in Law, Distinction).
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Clerks are efficient and easy to deal with. Rob Frankish and Lauren Whiston have been particularly helpful.'
- 'Steve Purse is impeccable in terms of both service and relationship ;he knows what we need and ensures that we get it.'
- ''Steve Purse is excellent and always finds a way to find someone when needed.'
- 'The clerking team are excellent - Steve Purse is one of the best in the business and does an unparalleled job in getting us the right team for the case. Joe Shepherd and Lauren Whiston have both been great in supporting Steve in recent years.'
- 'The clerks are strong, particularly Steve Purse, who really looks after solicitors and makes sure to deliver the right barrister for them and their client, and the new senior clerk, James Wilkinson.'
- 'Crown Office Chambers is one of the go to sets for professional indemnity work. Their silks are well respected and they have great depth of juniors.'
- 'Crown Office Chambers is rightly regarded at the top of professional negligence.'
- 'Crown Office is a top-tier construction and professional negligence set.'