12KBW Travel Law Seminar 2024

Michael Rawlinson KC

Michael is regularly instructed by overseas insurers and much of his litigation contains elements of foreign jurisdictional issues.

Corinne Novell

Corinne has been instructed both for and against the major tour operators in claims relating to breach of contract for cancellation or postponement of holidays, tours and cruises, as well as having experience in matters arising from illness and injury abroad, brought under the Package Travel Regulations.

Corinne has also acted in claims related to flight cancellation and delay cases, including having recently represented the successful respondents in Lipton v BA Cityflyer Ltd [2024] UKSC 24, a claim concerning compensation under EC Regulation 261/2004 following a pilot’s illness.

John-Paul Swoboda

His private international law expertise spans jurisdiction (pre and post-Brexit), applicable law (pre and post-Brexit), forum non conveniens cases and service out of the jurisdiction in both injury and non-injury commercial work. John-Paul also has expertise in Aviation, having worked on cases arising from high profile air disasters. He regularly appears in Package Holidays claims, Admiralty matters, Athens and Montreal Convention cases and clinical negligence cases with a foreign element. John-Paul is ranked in the Legal 500 for Travel Law including Jurisdictional issues.

John-Paul is a fluent Spanish speaker which is often helpful where the litigation has a Spanish element. John-Paul is often instructed in Spanish cases and has appeared as an expert in English law in the Spanish Courts.

Recent reported cases include:

• Maddison v TUI [2023] EWHC (to be heard by the Court of Appeal in 2025).
• Chouza v Martins & Ors [2021] EWHC 1669 (QB) (Spanish law);
• Haggerty-Garton v ICI [2021] EWHC 2924 (QB) (Scots law)

Charley Turton

Charley accepts instructions arising from illness and injury abroad, including under the Package Travel Regulations, and acts both for and against the major tour operators. She has extensive experience dealing with flight delay and cancellation claims pursuant to Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004.

Charley is able to advise on jurisdiction and applicable law and is experienced in handling Rome I, Rome II and the Brussels Regulations. Her special interests lie in claims involving the EU Motor Insurance Directives, and issues surrounding pleading and proving foreign law post-Brownlie.

Charley co-edited the Accidents Abroad chapter of the Butterworths Personal Injury Litigation Service, along with fellow members of the 12KBW International and Travel team.

When only two years’ call, Charley joined a team of counsel instructed to plead one of the highest value mass tort cases being litigated in Europe.

Recent experience includes successfully defending at trial a claim under the Montreal Convention brought by a passenger alleging that a hot drink was spilt on him by airplane staff.

Rebecca Henshaw-Keene

Rebecca joined Chambers in October 2023 following the successful completion of her pupillage.

Rebecca accepts instructions in all of Chambers’ practice areas. She is instructed in fast track and small claims personal injury matters, applications and interim hearings. Rebecca is also developing a growing paperwork practice across Chambers’ core areas.

Peter Hale

As a result of his previous work within the International & Travel sector, Peter has a great deal of experience in claims brought under the Brussels IA Recast Regulation and claims where the applicable law under Rome II is not English law. He has worked on claims involving accidents in France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Dubai, Bermuda and the United States. He is no stranger to jurisdiction challenges, including Forum Non Conveniens and is well-versed in interpreting expert evidence on foreign law. He has also worked on maritime claims within the Admiralty Court involving the application of the Athens Convention and the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims.

Peter has recently been instructed to act in claims involving the Package Travel Regulations, holiday sickness and foreign Road Traffic Accidents, acting for injured claimants as well as tour operators and travel agents.

Peter studied European Union law at a postgraduate level in France, speaks fluent French and is able to work with evidence in other European languages, including German and Spanish.

James Pickering

The legal directories recommend James as an “excellent” cross-border lawyer who is “very good on the law and legal analysis.” Jurisdictional issues are highlighted as “a particular forte of his.”

He has expertise in all of the complex legal issues that arise in international claims and regularly advises clients on service of process and the conflict of laws. His solicitors value him for his ability to provide pragmatic cross-border advice in the most difficult and sensitive of claims, such as to bereaved families in the aftermath of the tragic 2018 Leicester City Helicopter Crash.

He is ranked in the directories as a leading practitioner in international travel law and frequently acts for tour operators, airlines, cruise ship operators, and foreign insurance companies. He has successfully represented catastrophically injured clients in cases arising out of overseas road traffic, skiing, and workplace accidents. Much of his group litigation practice involves international elements and he enjoys working as part of a team.

Recent examples of his cases (led and unled) include:

• Representing clients with severe brain and spinal injuries suffered in an overseas road traffic accident: settled for £2.25 million.
• Defending a foreign wine bottle manufacturer in a jurisdictional dispute relating to serious injuries caused by the shattering of one of their bottles.
• Representing a client with serious psychological injuries following an accident at an overseas work event: settled for a global sum over £2 million.
• Representing an airline pilot in an ongoing claim for severe tinnitus after his flight headset malfunctioned.

He has a keen academic interest in private international law and is regularly invited to speak on cross-border legal issues at conferences, such as those organised by APIL and the Pan-European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers. He is the editor of Butterworths Personal Injury Litigation Service (Accidents Abroad).

Rachit Buch

Rachit is instructed in cross-jurisdictional personal injury claims and aims to provide practical advice and advocacy when considering international aspects of personal injury and other claims.

He is regularly instructed in claims involving jurisdictional challenges and high value issues involving foreign law on liability and quantum.

Rachit acted in a pre-trial review hearing in the Mau Mau litigation for intervening charity the Redress Trust and is developing his practice in cross-border claims.

Mary Newnham

Mary practises predominantly in personal injury and clinical negligence. She acts for both claimants and defendants in a wide range of multi-track cases.  Mary is regularly instructed in cases involving fatal accidents, brain injuries and serious and multiple injuries. She is also very familiar with cases where there is an interplay between physical and psychological injuries or a diagnosis of functional or somatoform disorders.  She is comfortable with cases involving multiple experts, causation problems and complex calculations of loss, whether they conclude at trial or at JSM.