Biography
Tom is a partner in our Commercial Disputes Team, specialising in commercial disputes, injunctive relief, and contentious data protection matters.
Tom focusses on the financial services, tech, TMT and energy sectors.
Tom regularly acts on matters relating to outsourced services contracts, IT contracts, distribution agreements, warranty claims, shareholder disputes, insurance disputes and professional negligence claims.
Tom has a particular specialism in injunctive relief, regularly obtaining search and seizure orders, recovering and preventing the misuse of confidential information, and enforcing restrictive covenants.
Tom also advises clients on regulatory and contentious data protection matters. He defends claims arising from data breaches, advises on responses to data breaches and cyber security incidents, and advises on preventative steps.
In addition, whilst Tom typically acts on complex litigation, he has set up and run multiple managed service arrangements to provide a cost efficient solutions for in-house legal teams seeking to manage low value disputes.
Relevant experience
Tom's notable cases include:
- Acting on a high profile breach of confidence claim for a leading insurance broker, seeking injunctive relief and damages. This case was reported and set a hihg-watermark for the interim deletion of misappropriated confidential information. (Arthur J. Gallagher Service UK ltd v Skriptchenkov and others [2016] EWHC 603);
- Obtaining a freezing order following the misappropriation of over £1m by a senior claims manager for a financial services firm, and successfully recovering the majority of the funds taken;
- Acting for a HNW individual in relation to a complex £5m dispute arising from the provision of funding for a business acquisition, dealing with issues relating to insolvency and accusations of fraud;
- Acting for a property developer in a £7m dispute with a debt platform lender arising from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the development;
- Acting on a high value dispute between two gas exploration companies concerning the breach of a joint venture gas exploration agreement for offshore Ghana;
- Acting on a dispute between an international health provider and an insurance broker in relation to the repudiatory breach of an exclusive distribution agreement;
- Acting on a dispute between a major pensions services provider and an IT developer in relation to the termination (for material breach) of an agreement to build a new pension administration platform;
- Acting on a £15m shareholder dispute/unfair prejudice claim following the passing of a 50% shareholder.
- Advising a pensions services provider on liability under legacy service agreements;
- Acting for an international insurance broker in a dispute as to the correct calculation of deferred consideration under an SPA following an acquisition;
- Acting for a private equity fund in relation to a warranty claim following the purchase of a telecare services provider;
- Acting for an international medical insurer in respect of various disputes with suppliers, including medical services suppliers and outsourced services suppliers (in particular the supplier of business critical IT services);
- Acting for an international franchise based in Canada bringing a claim against one of its former UK franchisees regarding breach of contract, breach of confidence, copyright infringement, passing off and trademark infringement; and
- Defending various high-profile misselling claims against financial advice firms in relation to tax avoidance schemes, tax deferral schemes, and overseas property schemes.
