12KBW Annual Costs & Litigation Funding Seminar 2025

Simon Browne KC

“Always brilliant, he’s polished and prepared and is someone who has a great manner with clients. His advice is spot on.”

Simon is consistently recognised by The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners as a leading silk in the fields of commercial costs and litigation funding, catastrophic brain and spinal injury, and related areas of sports law, clinical negligence, insurance, and professional negligence and professional regulation.

In addition, Simon is at the forefront of the development of law and civil procedure in the Court of Appeal and High Court in cases such as:

• Part 36 regime in F & C Alternative Investments (2012) CA, Walker Construction v Quayside Homes (2014) CA, Yentob v MGN (2015) CA, Seabrook v Adam (2021) CA, and FKJ v RVT (2022) HC.
• Relief from sanctions/abuse of process in Mitchell v NGN (2014) CA, Cable v LV Insurance (2020) CA and CS LLP v HMRC (2024) Upper Tier Tax Tribunal.
• Costs budgets, the drafting of e-bills of costs, and QOCS in Henry v NGN (2013) CA, Bowman v Norfram and Ors. (2018) HC, and AKC v Barking and Havering Health Authority (2022) CA.

Simon is a qualified mediator and arbitrator. He is registered with the Bar Council to accept direct access instructions and at the higher level of conducting litigation.

Andrew Roy KC

Andrew has extensive experience and expertise in contentious costs litigation, in particular with respect to QOCS, wasted costs, CFAs and fixed costs of all types.

He was appointed a Deputy Costs Judge in 2021.

He regularly attends detailed assessments and is often instructed to deal with technical costs and procedural issues, especially on appeal. As per Chambers & Partners, he is “routinely called upon to advise clients on cost appeals and has significant experience of appearing before the Court of Appeal” and is “particularly adept at handling CFAs and detailed assessments”. The Legal 500 describes him as “A leading light on costs who gets terrific results, [who] has a total mastery of the rules and the case law. A match for any costs silk” and as possessing “Encyclopaedic knowledge of costs principles and case law; Andrew is highly persuasive and a formidable advocate.”

The directories also note that Andrew “Brings an impressive expertise to these cases and deals with them in a forensic and impressive manner. He gets outstanding results“. They describe him as “fiercely intelligent and constructs great skeleton arguments”, “a ferocious advocate”, “A very tenacious and determined advocate who’s your man for a tough fight”, and is “always very well prepared, fights extremely hard for his client (in a fair way) and takes all the best points”, that “His skeleton arguments are detailed and insightful, such that he’s almost won the battle before he pitches up at court” and that “His advocacy is well paced and always well received.”

Andrew’s reported costs cases include Ho v Adelekun (No. 2), Mathieu v Hinds, Green v Generali, Deepchand v Sooben, Finsbury Food Group Plc v Dover, Ho v Adelekun (No. 1), NJL v PTE, Page v RGC Restaurants Ltd, GL v PM and Marsh v Ministry of Justice (Costs).

Andrew Lyons

Andrew specialises in cases involving costs, personal injury (all areas including, clinical negligence and disease work), fraudulent claims and employment law.

For the last three years Andrew has been a leading Junior in the Legal 500 and is rated as a leading junior in personal injury, clinical negligence and costs.

Andrew was appointed to the Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel in 2015.

He was appointed to the Education and Training Committee of the Bar Standards Board from 2010 until the end of 2015. From 2014 until the end of 2015 he was appointed to the Bar Standards Board Pupillage Committee.

Away from the Bar, his interests include wine, squash and travelling.

Farhana Mukith

Farhana accepts instructions in most areas of chambers’ work with a particular interest in costs, fraud, personal injury, and credit hire. Farhana has a varied practice representing Claimants and Defendants across many areas of chambers’ expertise.

Farhana has a growing reputation as a fraud specialist and is often instructed to advise insurers on high value claims involving exaggerated injury and loss to staged accidents.

Her unparalleled knowledge of fundamental dishonesty law makes her a go-to junior in this area. She is regularly instructed at early stages of litigation to shape the case and lead it to a successful resolution.

Farhana’s expertise in dishonesty cases overlaps with her interest in costs law. Her knowledge in this area allows her to robustly pursue a finding of fundamental dishonesty at trial and seamlessly transition to costs law by disapplying QOCS, obtaining a costs order against the Claimant, and assessing those costs in a detailed assessment or oral review hearing following a provisional assessment.

Farhana’s costs practice also crosses over with her specialism in credit hire cases as she is regularly instructed to advise on applications for non-party costs orders against a credit hire companies.

Jake Loomes

Jake is frequently instructed in a wide range of complex cases. Jake has an established practice across all of Chambers’ areas of expertise. He specialises in personal injury, insurance, international and travel law, property damage, costs, commercial disputes, and sport.

Before joining chambers, Jake completed his LLM at UCL in international commercial law. Jake has a wide array of experience having worked for several leading national law firms, working on complex personal injury, property damage, and consumer rights claims. Prior to joining chambers, he worked for the Infected Blood Inquiry.

Jake is currently instructed as a second junior to Steven Snowden KC and Dr Achas Burin on the Lampard Inquiry into mental health provision in Essex.

Outside of Chambers, Jake is a keen hockey player and enjoys running, cycling, golf, and climbing.