Berry Smith has carved out a very successful practice for private individuals and business clients bringing negligence claims against a myriad different professional services providers. Team head Iwan Doull is at the forefront of much of this work, including in claims brought against legal professionals and accountancy firms. As part of his practice, Doull continues to represent legal expenses insurer ARAG in actions brought against solicitors who negligently advised their insureds. Leveraging his extensive property law knowledge, Simon Care regularly handles claims brought against property professionals, including against surveyors for failing to recognise structural defects.

Acting alone as well as working within a national team, DAC Beachcroft LLP‘s ‘pragmatic and user-friendly’ Newport-based team has a core focus on defending claims brought against solicitors. This includes civil claims brought by former clients, as well as with regard to defending individual lawyers and law firms subject to investigations by the regulatory body, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and professional disciplinary proceedings brought before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT). ‘Calm and unflappable’ team head Clare Hughes-Williams excels at guiding clients throughout the process, from providing advice at the self-reporting phase and support during the investigation stage, through to representing clients in the event of the case being heard before the SDT. Catrin Davies joined the Bristol office of RPC in January 2025.

Forming a core part of the firm’s overarching financial services disputes and investigation team, which is led from Cardiff by Gareth Vowles, Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP handles a huge volume and variety of work for clients in the sector, on both the claimant and defendant front. On the claimant side, aided by a very efficient case management system and frequently acting for clients on a contingency basis, the team handles work of varying value/complexity for lenders primarily arising from secured commercial and residential property lending. The ‘knowledgeable and effective’ Wayne Davies is key to this work and has also developed niche expertise in international recovery claims linked to scam pension investment structures. Vowles also handles claimant matters, but is perhaps better known for a thriving defendant practice where he provides holistic solutions to financial services entities subject to litigation and regulatory probes into, inter alia, alleged mis-selling of financial products. James Coleman is skilled at handling defendant and claimant work, including investigating and pursuing significant mortgage fraud claims. Nick Rundle retired in May 2024.

Spearheaded by Abigail Flanagan, Hugh James has a particularly strong reputation in the market on behalf of clients bringing complex, often high-value professional negligence claims against legal professionals. A good deal of this work is in the context of catastrophic injury under-settlement claims, oftentimes involving a high degree of sensitivity and the involvement of court deputies. Although she is also active in claims brought against other professional service providers, Flanagan is pivotal to this work, including her ongoing advice to a number of former military service personnel. Commercial litigation head Richard Locke is very adept at handling complex professional negligence claimant work, including in the context of group litigation, and is a key member of the team that also includes Kevin O’Brien, who excels at representing lenders in claims against solicitors and valuers arising out of defects in security, mortgage fraud and negligent valuations.

Forming part of the firm’s overarching commercial litigation offering that is led by Ben Jenkins, Harding Evans LLP regularly handles claimant professional negligence matters brought against solicitors, accountants and property professionals. William Watkins takes the lead on much of this work and continues to carve out a niche, bringing claims against managing agents for a failure to advise landlords on the implications of the newly enacted Renting Home (Wales) Act 2016. Watkins is also very skilled at enforcing judgments, in part due to his bailiff qualifications.