Jessica has been involved in a number of arbitrations arising out of commercial disputes.

Her arbitration experience includes:

• the breakdown of a joint venture concerning the operation of a mobile telephone network in Africa.  Arbitrations took place in Nigeria, England and Denmark, and included appeals to the court.  Jessica was led by Stephen Moverley Smith QC and Philip Shepherd QC. 

• a partnership dispute in Kazakhstan where Jessica worked alongside juniors and silks from other chambers. 

• an arbitration between two Indian airlines which took place in Mumbai

• satellite litigation relating to a number of arbitrations in Stockholm

Jessica has been involved for many years in some significant cases with leading silks.  A few cases have dominated her early years in practice giving her excellent experience of all the interlocutory applications associated with fraud claims and asset tracing. 

Her cases include:

• the widely reported Phillips v Symes litigation involving the recovery of a deceased's estate from his former business partner consisting of valuable antiques secreted around the world
• a confidential arbitration relating to the rollout of a mobile telephone network in Africa which involved serious allegations of breach of fiduciary duty
• a confidential arbitration involving allegations of breach of fiduciary duty within a solicitors’ partnership in Kazahkstan
• a confidential arbitration regarding a joint venture between a French company and the leading beverage company in China

Jessica has extensive experience of commercial disputes. She is frequently involved in both interlocutory applications and trials and has good knowledge of procedure for injunction applications, jurisdiction challenges, disclosure applications against parties and non-parties, contempt proceedings, all deployed in aid of asset-tracing measures, as well as cost applications and the mediation process.

Jessica was in the Phillips v Symes litigation regarding the recovery of a deceased’s estate from his former business partner. This litigation has been widely reported on a variety of applications ranging from forum challenges to a cost application against an expert witness, an inquiry into the capacity of the defendant to conduct litigation and a committal application.

In addition Jessica’s major arbitration cases stem from commercial disputes involving the breakdown of relations between joint venturers or partners. These cases, along with arbitration experience, have given her experience of large scale cases involving significant amounts of disclosure and forensic document work.

More recent cases include:

• advising on the construction of documents in relation to the segregation of client monies in relation to the insolvency of a well known bank
• advising on the construction of an asset sale agreement
• acting for trustees facing allegations of negligent misstatement and breach of contract in relation to the running of an employment benefit trust which involved insurance issues
• advising trustees on the structuring and legal implications of a without prejudice proposal in relation to a claim in breach of contract

Jessica has gained experience of partnership law and joint venture disputes in some significant cases.  She has been involved in the following cases:

• a partnership/joint venture dispute concerning the recovery of a deceased's estate consisting of valuable antiquities from his former business partner which he had hidden around the world
• the breakdown of a joint venture relating to the rollout of a mobile telephone network in Africa
• allegations of breach of fiduciary duty within a solicitors’ partnership in Kazahkstan
• a joint venture between a French company and the leading beverage company in China

Jessica has excellent experience of both onshore and offshore contentious and non-contentious trust matters, reinforced by her consistent recommendations in Chambers & Partners for traditional and commercial chancery work.

She has represented trustees, personal representatives, beneficiaries, minors and unborns, and has experience of the associated applications from Beddoe applications to an application for segregation of a trust fund and an application for the removal of a protector.  She has experience of probate disputes, in particular regarding testamentary capacity, and Inheritance Act claims, and has advised on cases which raise issues of mutual wills, secret trusts, the Hastings-Bass principle, and rectification.

She was second junior in the widely reported Phillips v Symes litigation regarding the recovery of the assets of the deceased’s estate consisting of high value antiquities located worldwide which necessitated a wide variety of applications to court primarily in London, but also in ten other jurisdictions.

Recent cases include:

• acting for trustees in relation to a high value divorce
• acting for trustees facing allegations of negligent misstatement and breach of contract in relation to the running of an employment benefit trust
• acting for a family against trustees who, it was alleged, in breach of their duties had allowed the trust fund to be dissipated by the actions of a fraudster: this case involved a consideration of the Bartlett duty, an anti-Bartlett clause and the principle of reflective loss
• advising trustees on the variation of a trust
• advising trustees on the structuring and legal implications of a proposal in relation to a claim in breach of contract
• acting for a widow in relation to the administration of her husband’s estate
• two high value Inheritance Act claims first acting for the children of the first marriage of the deceased, second acting for the second wife of the deceased

In addition Jessica has recently become a contributing editor of International Trusts Laws with responsibility for a number of offshore jurisdictions and specialist topics