Amelia Walker

Introduction & Contact details

Amelia joined Hardwicke in December 2008 following pupillage at Four New Square where she specialised in all aspects of professional negligence together with insurance, construction and general commercial litigation.

Since joining Hardwicke Amelia has continued to practice in these core areas and regularly accepts cases in the County Courts and the High Court on both procedural applications and substantive hearings and trials. Her practice has recently developed more into Public Law and challenges against government and local authorities.

Amelia was a 2010 Pegasus Scholar and undertook a successful secondment to the Insolvency and Litigation team of leading offshore firm Appleby Global in Bermuda. She was involved in a number of cases spanning the team's areas of expertise including insurance and reinsurance matters, professional negligence claims, shareholder disputes, trusts and estates litigation and an international arbitration.

Amelia attended the 2010 Keble Advocacy Course.

Qualifications

• Pegasus Scholarship
• MA (Hons) History - Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
• Mphil Historical Studies - Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
• Joseph Hodges Choate Memorial Fellow, Harvard University
• CPE - City University
• Bar Vocational Course - City University
• Inner Temple Major Scholarship
• Ede and Ravenscroft Prize

Professional Associations

• Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association

T:     020 7242 2523 Switchboard
DDI: 0207 691 0020
F:     020 7691 1234
E:     amelia.walker@hardwicke.co.uk

Public Law

Amelia's work has recently progressed more into the Public Law arena and she continues to use her skills and expertise in developing this area of her practice. Her recent work has involved working on matters including:

• Acting for one of the core participants in the public inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. Amelia is being led by Matrix’s Karon Monaghan QC
• Acting as clerk to a Governors’ Disciplinary Committee considering permanent exclusion of a primary school student;
• Advising as to whether the rules on entitlement to income support could be challenged on the grounds of discrimination;
• Advice to a Local Authority on its education transport policy for students with special educational needs;
• Advice on accessing adult services;
• An appeal to the Upper Tribunal of a decision of the Special Education Needs Tribunal Wales;
• Advising on procedure and costs in a continuing care claim;
• A paper on the role of Local Authorities and the YPLA in education provision for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities;
• Advice on financial, educational and community care options for a child with learning difficulties;
• Advising on the merits of public law arguments in the context of bankruptcy proceedings.

Commercial

Amelia is instructed in a wide range of commercial cases, ranging from small claim contractual disputes to much larger and more complex commercial disputes including sale of goods, consumer credit, agency and commercial agency, share sales, finance, debt factoring, debt recovery and claims for restitution.

Banking, Finance & Credit

Amelia is regularly instructed to appear on behalf of banks, lenders and financial institutions as well as on behalf of consumers and commercial borrowers in relation to the recovery of bank charges, recovery of payments, dishonoured cheques, consumer credit agreements, mortgages, and asset finance.

Cases

Cheshire Building Society v Cavanagh, Canterbury County Court. Amelia recently acted in a two-day trial relating to mortgage shortfall and undue influence.

Construction & Engineering

Amelia’s developing construction and engineering practice has exposed her to a broad range of disputes ranging from defective works in residential and commercial properties to working together with teams of counsel on substantial cases.

Recent Work

• Acting for the contractor, as junior to Paul Reed QC, in a £2m dispute relating to the construction of a marine wall;
• Acting in a team of barristers for CAR insurers in a $120million international arbitration arising from hurricane damage to a construction site;
• Advising the employer against contractor and contract administrator in a dispute with the contractor and surveyor appointed under a JCT Minor Works 1998 contract;
• Acting on behalf of a commercial property developer in a continuing roofing dispute.

Professional Negligence

Since joining Hardwicke Amelia has continued to build on the foundations laid during her pupillage during which she assisted in claims against IFAs, accountants, construction professionals, surveyors and legal professionals. Amelia has since been instructed in her own right in cases involving claims against solicitors in negligent property and mortgage conveyancing, construction professionals and stockbrokers.

Amelia gained a valuable insight into and experience of professional negligence claims against solicitors whilst on a three month secondment at the Solicitors Regulation Authority Assigned Risks Pool, from February-April 2009.

Recent Work

• Acting for the solicitor in a claim in relation to alleged negligent conveyancing;
• Advising the employer in a claim against a surveyor for failing properly to supervise and inspect building works under a disabled facilities grant;
• Acting for the client in actions against share exchange companies for negligent advice or services in the execution of share transfer agreements.

Insolvency & Restructuring

As part of her commercial practice, Amelia is frequently instructed in relation to personal and corporate insolvency matters and has acted on behalf of individuals, companies and several Local Authorities, appearing in Bankruptcy, the Companies Court and in the County Courts.

Insurance

In parallel with her developing commercial practice, and particularly her professional negligence work, Amelia has experience of an increasing range of insurance matters including construction and engineering, fire damage and professional indemnity:

• Acting in a substantial dispute raising questions of coverage in CAR and public liability policies;
• Advising insurers as to the liability of an assured sub-contractor for fire damage alleged to have been caused by employees smoking whilst installing woodwork;
• Acting for the insurers in relation to numerous solicitors’ negligence claims relating both to the negligent conduct of litigation and also to negligent transactional work.