Christopher Camp

Introduction & Contact details

Chris is an employment and a commercial contract specialist. Within these two areas, he has particular expertise in:

• cases where employment and commercial law overlap
• discrimination, including in the provision of commercial and other services
• construction and engineering, including related insurance and professional negligence issues
• mediation.

He is an accredited mediator and sits part time in the Birmingham Employment Tribunal as an Employment Judge.

He has worked as a commercial lawyer in Brussels, Fiji and Tonga and is confident in dealing with EC law and private international law /conflict of laws.

He does work for the Employment Law Appeal Advice Scheme, the Bar Pro Bono Unit and for LawWorks Mediation (aka the Solicitors Pro Bono Group) and has been a volunteer adviser at a number of Legal Advice Centres. For several years before becoming a barrister, he was an NHS Health Care Assistant.

When not working, Chris likes to spend his time walking, skiing or doing judo.

Qualifications

• MA (Cantab.) Law - First Class
• Accredited Mediator

Professional Associations

• Civil Mediation Council
• Employment Lawyers Association
• TECBAR

T:       020 7242 2523 (switchboard)
DDI:    020 7691 0030
F:        020 7691 1234
E:        cc@hardwicke.co.uk

Employment

Chris’s main area of work is employment and employment-related commercial disputes. At university, he came top in his year in Labour Law and was awarded a ‘starred’ first in that subject. He has assisted individuals with employment difficulties since before he qualified as a barrister, through legal advice centres and the Free Representation Unit. He continues to act for employees, although the majority of his employment work is now for employers – from small charities working in the public sector, through firms of solicitors, to PLCs.

Chris provides advice and representation in relation to the full range of employment-related work, contentious and non-contentious, internal appeal, Employment Tribunal, EAT, County and High Court, including:

• contract termination and dismissal, including redundancy and compromise agreements
• restrictive covenants, confidential information and claims for post-employment injunctive relief (including breach of confidence claims)
• discrimination, victimisation and harassment claims of all kinds, including County and High Court claims under the Protection from Harassment Act
  transfer of undertakings (TUPE)
• the wording of employment contracts, internal policies and procedures, employment agency temporary worker agreements, directors’ agreements and agreements for the sale of businesses and/or the transfer of employees
  disputes about employment status – employee, worker, agency worker, self-employed, partner
• pay & benefits – unlawful deduction of wages, bonuses, pensions, share options, death in service benefit, critical illness cover and accommodation
  claims for and against employment agencies in relation to the supply of temporary and permanent staff
• A former legal adviser at the charity Public Concern at Work, Chris has a particular interest in matters relating to the Public Interest Disclosure Act (so-called “whistleblowing” matters).

An increasing part of Chris’s work is dealing with commercial disputes within companies and businesses, for example between joint proprietors, partners, shareholders and/or directors, that have a significant employment law element to them.

Recent work

• advising, assisting and representing at mediation a trader working for an international bank sacked after raising concerns about trades with undisclosed elements
• advising a large, national provider of agency workers nationally in relation to the proper interpretation of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010
• advising and representing a multi-national in a series of claims, including allegations of unfair dismissal, age and sex discrimination, arising out of a major, recession-induced business re-organisation

Cases

Breakell v West Midlands Reserve Forces & Cadets Association (2011, EAT) – disability discrimination; employment status of Cadet Force Adult Volunteers.

Dombey v University of Brighton [2007] All ER (D) 176 (Dec) – part-timers’ pensions; extent of employer's duty to volunteer to compensate an employee for historical breaches of contract

Odoemelam v The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2007] All ER (D) 64 (Feb) – application of statutory grievance procedures to discrimination claims against fellow employees

Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust v Diffang [2005] All ER (D) 68 (Aug) – constructive dismissal

Commercial

Employment (and related) matters and cases concerning contracts for the sale of goods and other assets, such as businesses/companies, or for the supply of services, particularly construction and engineering disputes, are the mainstays of Chris’s practice.

He has significant expertise and experience in: agency; bailment; breach of contract; conflict of laws / private international law; conversion; debt recovery & factoring; directors’ disputes & directors’ duties; exclusion clauses & limitation of liability; franchising; loans, guarantees & indemnities; misrepresentation & economic torts; partnership; professional negligence; quasi-contract & restitution and share sale agreements.

Arbitration

Many of the commercial contract cases with which Chris is concerned involve a contract with an arbitration clause and arbitration is a routine part of his practice, particularly in relation to construction & engineering disputes.

Partnership

Chris has considerable partnership law expertise and has provided advice and representation in a number of partnership and quasi-partnership cases.  Much of his recent experience has concerned cases where there is a partnership aspect to a wider commercial dispute, in particular cases where the status of one party is uncertain, i.e. partner or employee.

Recent work

• advising, assisting and representing at mediation the former joint proprietor of a pub and hotel business in a dispute with his ex business (and personal) partner arising out of the dissolution of their business partnership
• advising, assisting and representing at trial the prospective purchaser of and partner in a children’s nursery business in relation to a business sale / partnership dispute

Professional Negligence

There are three main parts to Chris’s professional negligence practice.

The first and largest part comes under the broad umbrella of construction & engineering work: claims against construction & engineering professionals, including claims against architects, surveyors and others acting as contract administrators.

The second concerns real property transactions: claims against valuers, surveyors and conveyancers.

The third part is claims against solicitors and other legal professionals, mainly relating to the conduct of litigation but including claims arising from non-contentious work such as the drafting of contracts and the preparation of wills.  Chris acts for both claimants and defendants in such claims, receiving some direct instructions from a number of firms of solicitors in relation to professional negligence claims against themselves.

Chris also has significant experience of dealing with other types of professional negligence claims, such as those against financial advisers.

Recent work

• advising and assisting in relation to a claim against an architect, acting as JCT contract administrator, arising out of his failure to issue a non-completion certificate
• advising in relation to a proposed claim against a firm of solicitors for allegedly negligent advice given in relation to a termination of employment compromise agreement

Trade & Transport

Cases concerning contracts for the sale of goods and/or the supply of services remain a significant part of Chris’s practice.  He handles a wide range of such cases, the majority of which involve an allegation of defective goods or of a failure to exercise reasonable care and skill.  The dispute may be a simple one involving a consumer purchaser, about a car or some other chattel, or may be seen by one party a straightforward debt-recovery work, or the dispute may be an adjunct to a complex construction or engineering dispute, where a small component has failed with serious and costly consequences.

Along with a number of colleagues in chambers, Chris has considerable experience in cases concerning motor vehicles and road haulage, mainly but not exclusively acting for the motor trade.

Chris also regularly handles cases concerning contracts for the sale of a company or business, cases that may involve questions not only of commercial contract law, but also of the law relating to companies and shareholders, partnerships, real property and/or employment too.

Recent work

• advising and assisting in multiple claims, of a total value potentially in excess of £1m, against credit card companies in relation to the mis-selling of solar energy heating and hot water systems by a now insolvent company
• advising and assisting a company manufacturing and erecting road signs in relation to a claim against a sub-contractor for making and supplying defective signs
• representing a retailer of motor cars at the trial of its claim to recover significant sums for damage to vehicles following a road traffic accident involving a car transporter
• advising and assisting a private provider of healthcare services in relation to a claim arising out of its allegedly discriminatory withdrawal of services from an HIV positive service user

Cases

DH Mansfield v NYK Logistics (2006, County Ct) – ‘Test case’ over whether vehicle recovery operators with police contracts may claim more than statutory sums from vehicle owners where acting on police instructions

Utilities

Chris has acted for one of the large water companies in several claims for the recovery of sums spent cleaning up rivers after industrial accidents and has provided advice and representation to companies being sued under section 82 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 for allegedly damaging electricity cables and the like.

Construction

Construction & engineering is one Chris’s specialist areas.

He deals with all types of construction and engineering disputes, for individuals, companies and insurers, of size and complexity ranging from: a County Court case between a private individual and a small building company over a new home, an extension or a swimming pool, involving an entirely oral contract; to a multi-million pound, multi-party TCC case or arbitration, between a number of sub-contractors and insurers, over the design and build of a factory or warehouse, involving complex issues of mechanical, electrical and/or electronic engineering and with contracts on JCT or ICE standard forms.

Chris regularly provides advice and representation in relation to adjudication, arbitration and mediation of construction & engineering disputes.

Recent work

• advising a local authority in dispute with project management company in relation to the rising cost of construction of a waste management facility advising and assisting GPs with a claim against architects and structural engineers in respect of the negligent design of bespoke foundations to a substantial extension to their surgery
• advising and assisting the vendors of a motor vehicle retail garage after building works on adjoining land destroyed their private sewer, causing a large drop in the sale price

Cases

Allied P & L Limited v Paradigm Housing Group Limited [2009] EWHC 2890 (TCC) - adjudication; jurisdiction; whether reservation of rights adequate; whether dispute had arisen; whether decision on liability severable from that on quantum

Kajla v Uhbi, t/a United Building and Plumbing Contractors [2002] EWCA Civ 628 – costs; unqualified representative acting for profit

Insurance

Chris is regularly instructed by insurance companies in construction & engineering disputes, including cases where there are significant coverage issues. He also advises and represents individuals and companies in disputes with their insurers, be they public liability, professional indemnity, household or other insurers.

Construction & Engineering

Chris is a construction & engineering specialist and in most of his work in this area, at least one of the companies involved in the dispute is backed by an insurance company.  Further details of his construction & engineering practice can be found under the “Commercial” heading.

Professional Indemnity

Please see COMMERCIAL section of CV.