Vicarious Liability

Harry Steinberg KC

Harry Steinberg is a “widely acclaimed practitioner”, “brilliantly knowledgeable”, with a “standout practice”. His practice spans serious injury, sports law and environmental damage. His work often involves an international dimension and he specialises in large-scale group actions for claimants and defendants. He is renowned for innovative thinking, challenging legal orthodoxy, and winning difficult cases. Accordingly, he is regularly instructed in test litigation. The directories recognise him as a leading silk in personal injury, industrial disease, product liability, group litigation and international litigation.

Jeremy McKeown

Jeremy accepts instructions across all of 12KBW’s core areas. He has particular experience in claims involving employment and discrimination (with expertise in post-termination restrictions), costs, public / occupiers’ / employers’ liability, insurance, credit hire and fundamental dishonesty.

His practice encompasses advisory work, drafting and advocacy in fast track and multi-track claims, both in the High Court and County Courts.

Owing to previous employment at a City law firm, he has a detailed knowledge of civil procedure and experience across a broad range of commercial and arbitration, regulatory and fraud work.

He is a contributor to several blogs and publications in his specialist areas.

Tim Goodwin

2019: Called to the Bar |  2012: Admitted to the Solicitors’ Roll

Tim is recognised as a leading employment junior who is described in the current edition of Legal 500 as “first-rate” and "quick on his feet". His employment work is complemented by a personal injury practice that is focused on psychiatric injuries arising from workplace stress, harassment and bullying. Tim is currently Head of 12KBW’s Employment Practice Group and was a finalist for the Legal 500's Employment Junior of the Year 2023 award.

Tim qualified as a solicitor in 2012 and, before being called to the Bar, practiced as a Senior Associate in a Tier 1 rated City employment firm. In that role he was responsible for cases at all levels and across the broad spectrum of employment disputes. Tim’s considerable experience of employment disputes and civil litigation has furnished him with a level of expertise and knowledge that is well beyond his year of call, meaning that he is frequently instructed on complex, difficult and high-value cases.

Tim has considerable advocacy experience, appearing in tribunals and county courts on a near-daily basis. He also appears in the High Court and Employment Appeal Tribunal, often unled. Tim combines his court work with advisory and drafting work, and can be depended on to deliver results consistently, quickly and commercially. Additionally, Tim has extensive experience of alternative dispute resolution, including formal, informal and judicial mediations, settlement negotiations and arbitration.

Cressida Mawdesley-Thomas

Cressida specialises in all aspects of Personal Injury law. She has a thorough and collaborative approach and is recognised by The Legal 500 as a Rising Star who “has already amassed an extremely impressive caseload, far beyond that of many barristers much more senior”.

In disease litigation Cressida acts for Claimants suffering from mesothelioma, lung cancer, diffuse pleural thickening and asbestosis. She is also experienced in VWF/ HAVS claims. She regularly appears in the Masters’ corridor and is well versed in limitation arguments and complex issues of causation. As second junior in Mather v MOD she helped obtain a settlement of over £3 million for a former RAF painter & finisher who developed MS following exposure to organic solvents in breach of the COSHH Regulations.

Cressida has particular interest in equine claims brought under The Animals Act 1971.  She is currently junior counsel in a high value, complex CRPS claim following a military riding accident. Cressida is adept at drafting schedules of loss in cases involving the loss of a military career.

In clinical negligence Cressida has experience in a range of different cases, including delayed diagnosis, as well as unnecessary and negligent surgery. This compliments her coronial practice where she is instructed in inquests involving multiple expert jurisdictions. She successfully obtained a regulation 28 prevention of future death report in a case arising out of the police’s treatment of head injuries and questioned experts in pathology, neuropathology, and toxicology.

Cressida is adept at handling complex motor insurance indemnity points. She successfully acted as Junior Counsel for the Second Defendant in Covea Insurance Plc v Greenaway [2021] 3 WLUK 379, considering the meaning of the ‘stolen or unlawfully taken’ exception under s. 151 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Greenaway was the first case to practically consider how the domestic court is to interpret retained EU law under section 6(3) of the EU Withdrawal Act 2018. Unled she successfully acted for the Second Defendant in Kelec v (1) Kotwal (2) Nelson Insurance (HHJ Dight CBE, central London County Court, 18 August 2022). The case concerned the limits of a direct action under The European Communities (Rights against Insurers) Regulations 2002 (‘the 2002 Regulations’).

Cressida acts and advises in costs litigation, including detailed assessment hearings, where she is an effective advocate. She co-edits 12 King’s Bench Walk’s Costs blog with Deputy Costs Judge Andrew Roy.

Prior to coming to the Bar Cressida worked at a top American investment bank. She is highly numerate and drafts living and fatal schedules of loss beyond her year of call.