Simon Thomas

Simon specialises in complex litigation, contractual disputes and advising clients who have been the victims of fraud of their civil remedies (securing assets and valuable information by obtaining injunctions arising from the misuse of confidential information, breaches of restrictive covenants and the loss of data).

He has over 16 years’ experience advising clients across a range of sectors including financial services, telecoms and health. His key clients include Equifax (for whom he acts as the firm’s Client Relationship Partner), Quilter, Western Union and Zurich.

Simon works closely with clients to help them achieve a commercial resolution to any given dispute. Having spent time on various secondments, Simon appreciates both the demands on in-house counsel and the importance of providing clients with commercial, succinct and practical advice.

Relevant experience includes:

• Acting many times as an independent supervising solicitor, appointed by the Court to explain to the respondent of a Search Order what it means in everyday language (usually having received the Order the previous day), supervising the applicant’s search of the premises and dealing with issues arising on the day. In TBD (Owen Holland) Limited v Andrew Simons & Ors [2020] EWHC 30 (Ch), the High Court Judge endorsed Simon’s actions as the Supervising Solicitor of a Search Order, describing his conduct as “sensible”, “pragmatic” and “appropriate”, faced with an "unworkable” key provision of the Search Order.
• Successfully acting for Equifax in litigation in which the Court of Appeal – Keith Smeaton v Equifax Plc [2013] EWCA Civ 108 - agreed that a credit reference agency, such as Equifax, does not owe a common law duty to members of the public simply by choosing to operate a business by which they maintain and amend a credit file on virtually every adult in the UK.
• Successfully acting for AXA on the preliminary issue of limitation, such that the High Court agreed that the claim was time-barred: Matthew Carroll v AXA Sun Life Services Pl [2010]EWHC 2233.
• Advising a telecoms business facing a claim for damages of £7 million and the threat of injunctive relief. He successfully turned the situation around into a positive commercial settlement for the client by which it obtained further licence fees of £2 million and the smooth transition to an orderly termination of the contract involving many end users.
• Regularly defending IFAs, appointed representatives and their principal firms in complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service and in court proceedings, including on behalf of insurers.