Barrister Profile

Main Areas of Practice

Commercial Law
Insolvency
Land Law
Professional Negligence

Biography

I have a commercial/chancery practice that involves providing advice in contentious and non-contentious matters, drafting legal instruments and providing written and oral advocacy in courts and tribunals. I have recent experience in acting for solicitors, engineers and architects in professional negligence actions, on behalf of companies and individuals in a wide range of contractual disputes including disputes involving a conflict of laws and questions of jurisdiction, on behalf of tenderers in public procurement challenges, on behalf of newspapers in misuse of private information claims, on behalf of a borough council in the vindication of a public right of way, and on behalf of the Church of Ireland in the prosecution of disciplinary proceedings.

Qualifications

MA, Philosophy and English Literature, University of Edinburgh

Bachelor of Legal Science (first class), Queen’s University, Belfast

Certificate of Professional Legal Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast

Experience

Odyssey Cinemas Limited v Village Theatres Three Limited & another [2010] NICA 25; [2011] NIJB 67: landlord and tenant; negligent/fraudulent misrepresentation; defence of a claim to rescind a 25 year lease of cinema premises.

Titanic Quarter Limited v Rowe, Neil [2010] NICh 14; [2011] NIJB 103: contract for the sale of land; apartment litigation; application for specific performance of a contract for the sale of an apartment resisted on the basis of the impecuniosity of the purchaser.

Lowry Brothers Ltd & another v Northern Ireland Water Ltd [2012] NIQB 105: -public procurement; statutory interpretation; application for an order that a plaintiff in a procurement challenge provide a cross undertaking in damages upon the issue of the writ resisted on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction under the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2006 to require the same until the consideration of the merits of an application to set aside the statutory bar on contract formation.

Hindes, Robert v Northern Ireland Housing Executive R/32/2012: Lands Tribunal; compulsory purchase; statutory interpretation; principle upheld that disturbance costs will not be awarded where the market value of compulsorily purchased land is based on development value.