Ben Daniels

Ben specialises in complex litigation and injunctions (especially freezing orders, search orders and injunctions dealing with the misuse of confidential information, restrictive covenants and data loss).

He has over 23 years’ experience advising clients across a range of sectors including financial services (especially wealth management and insurance), telecoms and health. His key clients include the in-house legal teams of Zurich and AXA, and he acts as the firm’s Client Relationship Partner for clients such as Quilter, EE, Cornerstone, Dyson, Openwork, Lowell Financial and Sika AG.

As well as assisting with complex and large disputes, Ben’s team also helps in-house legal teams with managing their caseload of lower value disputes and complaints (which often require pragmatic and efficient solutions).

Ben regularly provides training to lawyers across the profession on search orders and injunctions and is a recognised expert in the field.

Relevant experience includes:

• Acting as an independent Supervising Solicitor appointed by the Court in respect of search orders, having acted in that capacity on more than 15 searches of residential and business premises in the past few years. Ben has obtained more than 100 injunctions over the years in support of claims for fraud, misuse of confidential information and breach of restrictive covenants.
• Acting for one of the world’s largest insurance brokers, Gallagher, in the reported case of Arthur J. Gallagher Services (UK) Limited and others v Skriptchenckov and others [2016] EWHC 603, involving the misappropriation and misuse of confidential information by a competitor. This was the first reported case in the UK in which an order for destruction of confidential information on a defendant company’s computer systems has been granted as interim relief.
• Successfully defending Hiscox Insurance in the first ever prosecution of an insurance company by the Information Commissioner (the alleged offence was breach of section 56(2) of the Data Protection Act 1988). The prosecution was widely reported in the national press. Had Hiscox been successfully prosecuted, it would have faced an unlimited fine.
• Defending proceedings brought in connection with a joint venture company 50/50 owned by an international based plc client. Both sides sought remedies which would trigger the buyout of the other joint venturers' shares in the business (which distributes £3 billion of healthcare products per annum). The case was successfully resolved after mediation.
• Representing AXA PPP in AXA PPP Healthcare Limited v A La Carte Healthcare Ltd, a £multi-million claim for loss of profits brought against a large US owned broking practice. The claim alleged illegal termination of a broker agreement and hinged on the interpretation of a change of control clause in the agreement.

Ben is recognised by Chambers and Partners as a “Band 1 Partner” for Bristol and the south west and his commercial dispute resolution team is recognised in Band 1 by Legal 500.

In addition, Ben is one of five elected members on DAC Beachcroft’s group board.