Claire has over 20 years’ experience as a High Court litigator at Gerald Esmond, having joined the firm as a trainee solicitor in 1994, qualifying in 1996 and having been made a Partner in 2000.
Media
Throughout her career, the main focus of Claire’s practice has been defamation and privacy, in addition to data protection and protection from harassment. Claire has worked on a wide variety of cases, including complex libel litigation to trial and in the appellate courts (for example Berezovsky v Fridman, in which a jury awarded Mr Berezovsky £50,000 in damages and Berezovsky v Terluk (in which Mr Berezovsky was awarded £150,000 in libel damages), defending a Twitter libel, and numerous claims against various national newspapers and broadcasters. Recently, Claire acted for Impresa Publishing SA, a leading Portuguese publisher defending a libel claim brought by a Portuguese-Angolan national whose claim was struck out as an abuse of process.
Claire’s clients include politicians, celebrities, business people, professionals and academics and Claire likes to work with her clients to find practical solutions to problems. She has considerable experience in reputation management, providing urgent trouble-shooting advice pre-publication or pre-broadcast and, often working alongside PR advisors, she gives discreet advice to companies and high-profile individuals on how to deal with unwanted media scrutiny generally.
Claire maintains a broad media practice extending to advice on passing off and trade mark infringement and regularly gives lectures and conducts seminars on the subject of defamation and privacy and reputation management.
Commercial
Claire undertakes complex High Court commercial litigation, including claims for professional negligence and financial mis-selling. She has acted on behalf of a large number of individuals and businesses against banks relating to the mis-selling of derivative products. In 2014, she acted for a company in liquidation in a claim for professional negligence against the company’s former solicitors, which resulted in a payment in damages of £10m.
Claire is a member of the business advisory board of the School of Business and Law at the University of East London. She studied English and French law at Exeter University and the University of Aix-Marseille.
Highlights
- Litigator specialising in defamation, reputation management and privacy law, and in commercial litigation.
- Listed as a leading individual in Chambers’ Guide to the legal profession, which has described her as “extremely pleasant to work with, stays calm in a storm and is sensitive to the matters at hand”.
- Chambers & Partners 2018 report that "Claire's ferocious in protecting the client and understands the issues."
Claire has over 20 years’ experience as a High Court litigator at Gerald Esmond, having joined the firm as a trainee solicitor in 1994, qualifying in 1996 and having been made a Partner in 2000.
Media
Throughout her career, the main focus of Claire’s practice has been defamation and privacy, in addition to data protection and protection from harassment. Claire has worked on a wide variety of cases, including complex libel litigation to trial and in the appellate courts (for example Berezovsky v Fridman, in which a jury awarded Mr Berezovsky £50,000 in damages and Berezovsky v Terluk (in which Mr Berezovsky was awarded £150,000 in libel damages), defending a Twitter libel, and numerous claims against various national newspapers and broadcasters. Recently, Claire acted for Impresa Publishing SA, a leading Portuguese publisher defending a libel claim brought by a Portuguese-Angolan national whose claim was struck out as an abuse of process.
Claire’s clients include politicians, celebrities, business people, professionals and academics and Claire likes to work with her clients to find practical solutions to problems. She has considerable experience in reputation management, providing urgent trouble-shooting advice pre-publication or pre-broadcast and, often working alongside PR advisors, she gives discreet advice to companies and high-profile individuals on how to deal with unwanted media scrutiny generally.
Claire maintains a broad media practice extending to advice on passing off and trade mark infringement and regularly gives lectures and conducts seminars on the subject of defamation and privacy and reputation management.
Commercial
Claire undertakes complex High Court commercial litigation, including claims for professional negligence and financial mis-selling. She has acted on behalf of a large number of individuals and businesses against banks relating to the mis-selling of derivative products. In 2014, she acted for a company in liquidation in a claim for professional negligence against the company’s former solicitors, which resulted in a payment in damages of £10m.
Claire is a member of the business advisory board of the School of Business and Law at the University of East London. She studied English and French law at Exeter University and the University of Aix-Marseille.
