Dickinson Dees Law Firm

Based in our York office, Jason joined Dickinson Dees as an associate in 2007 from Hammonds, where he qualified as a solicitor in 1999.

Jason has over 8 years' experience of the range of commercial disputes and has taken a number of claims to trial ranging from a case concerning the interpretation of construction contracts for Twickenham to a Sale of Goods Act claim arising from the sale of koi carp.

Jason has specialist expertise in company disputes, including:-

·       injunctions for breaches of restrictive covenants and fiduciary duties by senior executives and directors;

·       warranty claims;

·       completion account issues; and

·       shareholder claims..

Jason was part of the legal team for The Gadget Shop in its High Court claim against directors and shareholders for loss of a corporate opportunity.

Clients value Jason’s commercial approach. His aim is always to look at the client’s wider objectives and advise on the right approach to achieve those, whether it be to seek immediate injunctive relief or negotiate/mediate.

Jonathan qualified into the Commercial Disputes Group in September 2009, having trained with Dickinson Dees.

Jonathan has experience of working as part of the team on a range of shareholder disputes, contractual disputes and fraud cases.  He also has experience of contested debt recovery claims and insolvency litigation.

Neil trained at Dickinson Dees and joined the Litigation Department on qualification in 1995.  He has a wide range of experience of various disputes in which organisations can be involved. In addition to general commercial and tortious disputes, his specialist areas of expertise are education disputes, disputes arising from agency and distribution agreements, pensions disputes, IT and E-Commerce matters and disputes on procurement. 

He has advised a number of higher education institutions on education related disputes for example on disciplinary hearings, disputes involving plagiarism allegations and issues to do with overseas students. He has acted for a number of clients on agency and distribution disputes which has normally included liaising with foreign lawyers. He has advised clients on many aspects of IT law, including a dispute arising from a major procurement of IT by a local authority. He has also acted for an independent trustee of a pension scheme facing multiple allegations of breach of trust as well as advising a former public sector client on an incapacity pension dispute. He has advised multiple Defendants in a claim brought by their former employer involving extensive and complicated allegations of breach of contract and poaching of clients by the employees.

Craig worked for the City law firm Lovells for 17 years, the last 5 of which were as a partner, before joining Dickinson Dees as a partner in 2004 when he returned to his native North East. He now heads up the Commercial Disputes Group in the firm’s Tees Valley office.

Craig has operated as a disputes lawyer throughout his career and has wide experience of the full range of disputes in which commercial organisations can find themselves involved. He has handled general commercial and tortious disputes as well as more specialised matters such as – fraud matters, professional negligence claims, pensions/financial services disputes, agency/distributorship disputes, partnership matters and private trust disputes. He also has considerable experience of product liability matters principally acting for clients in the tobacco industry defending smoking and health claims.

Craig has experience of High Court and County Court litigation, and has taken a number of cases to the House of Lords. He also has experience of arbitration and alternative dispute mechanisms.

Craig has Higher Rights of audience, allowing him to present cases in all civil courts in England and Wales.

Craig is currently handling a high value professional negligence claim by a bank against a firm of chartered surveyors who valued property which the bank took as security for loans it made. There are also allegations against the bank's solicitors whom it is said failed to spot certain suspicious features of the transaction.

He is also handling a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman on behalf of the independent trustee of a pension scheme which is being wound up with a significant deficit. The complaint makes allegations against former trustees whom it is said abused their position by making inappropriate loans from pension scheme assets to companies which they owned.

Paul trained with Slaughter and May where he qualified in 1996.  He joined Dickinson Dees in October 2001 from the IT and media practice, Olswang.  Paul became a Partner in the Commercial Disputes Group in May 2006. 

Paul has experience of a wide range of contractual and tortious disputes across a range of industry sectors, including banking, IT, e-commerce and the media.  In recent years he has undertaken a number of large scale disputes in both the transport and chemicals sectors.  He also has experience of Companies Act applications and minority shareholder disputes.

Paul has significant experience of alternative dispute resolution processes, particularly mediation and arbitration.

Clare joined Dickinson Dees in April 2008 from Muckle LLP, where she qualified as a solicitor in 2004.  Clare is a Support Lawyer to the Litigation Department with responsibility for updating our lawyers on recent developments in legislation and case law together with dispute resolution practice and procedure.

Clare also writes briefings and articles for clients and assists with training for both the team and clients.