Russell-Cooke boosts recognition in Best Lawyers in the UK 2023

Russell-Cooke features heavily in this year’s Best Lawyers listings, with 13 lawyers listed. five partners and six consultants have been listed in Best Lawyers in the UK, and two senior associates featured in the inaugural edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in the UK.

Partners Jae Carwardine (crime), Samantha Little (children) and Andrew Studd (charities) maintain their ranking. Fiona Read (family) and Sarah Towler (clinical negligence and personal injury) were listed for the first time this year.

Consultants Camilla Thornton (family), Deborah Blythe (clinical negligence and personal injury), Peter Dawson (real estate), Richard Frimston (private client) and James Sinclair Taylor (charities) also maintained their ranking. Peter Cadman (professional and financial regulation) was also listed this year.

Best Lawyers is a global directory which covers 76 countries, 148 practice areas and receives over 13 million peer reviews every year. The Best Lawyers in the UK and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch lists are based on peer review. Lawyers who are nominated for consideration are voted on by currently recognized practitioners working in the same practice area and geographic region.

The full current UK rankings can be found on the Best Lawyers website.

Jae is a partner and head of the fraud and criminal litigation team, with over 20 years’ experience and with a proven track record in dealing with high-profile cases. She has particular expertise in representing professionals who find themselves accused of criminal matters with potentially career-threatening implications or intrusive media interest.

Samantha is a partner and head of the children law team, advising clients on all aspects of children law. She is experienced in assisting a range of clients including vulnerable adults and children and handles cases in an empathetic yet practical manner.

Fiona is a partner and head of the family team in Putney. She has extensive experience in all aspects of family law. Fiona frequently handles cases with an international element and which often involve high value financial settlements in divorce, disputed arrangements with children (including re-location to other countries) pre and post-nuptial agreements and co-habitation and property disputes. She is also noted for her expertise in matrimonial finance work.

Andrew is a partner in the charity and social business team advising on a wide range of charity and company law issues and commercial matters. His expertise include constitutional and governance matters, commercial and service delivery contracts, mergers and incorporations, grant funding arrangements, joint ventures, collaborative working arrangements and reorganisations.

Sarah is a partner in the clinical negligence and personal injury team advising clients on a wide range of claims, including cases involving misdiagnosis of symptoms, negligent operations, road traffic accidents, work accidents and tripping accidents. Additionally, she manages five pro-bono personal injury and clinical negligence drop-in clinics at Croydon, Morden, Battersea, Kingston and Roehampton.

Deborah specialises in complex and high value claims and has particular expertise and interest in cases relating to birth related brain injury in babies, the treatment and diagnosis of many types of cancer particularly breast cancer, and dental claims.

Peter Cadman specialises in advising clients on matters relating to professional and financial regulation and discipline, as well as regulatory and disciplinary law in sports related matters. Peter regularly acts as an advocate in disciplinary and regulatory proceedings before Disciplinary Tribunals, Appeal Tribunals and in the High Court. Peter’s expertise is reflected by his appointment as a decision maker for many regulatory bodies. 

Peter is a consultant in the real estate team. He advises clients on a wide variety of high-value real estate transactions including mixed use and residential deals.

Richard is a consultant in the private client team. He advises clients in relation to their estate planning, wills, probate and tax planning issues and offers Notary Public services. Areas of expertise include cross-border estates and international private law issues.

James works with a wide variety of charities, not for profits, local authorities and government departments. He tends to focus on governance and structure issues including reviews of governance, company group and collaborative structures, Royal Charters, International Federations and other bodies. He has done substantial amounts of work for membership organisations which represent a particular challenge

Camilla is a consultant in the family team. She has almost 30 years' experience advising on all aspects of family law including divorce, separation, financial settlements, cohabitation and matters involving children. Her particular expertise lies in advising mid to high-net-worth individuals, including non-residents, on their financial settlements following separation and divorce.

Tom is a senior associate in the trust and estates disputes team. He acts for both claimants and defendants on a range of complex matters including domicile disputes, claims regarding the administration of estates and trusts (domestic and international), applications to remove trustees and personal representatives.

Nisha is a senior associate within the immigration team. She has specialised in UK immigration law for over 10 years and has extensive experience of advising both businesses and individuals on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious immigration matters.