 |
|
S.
Clive Freedman
Call
1975; FCIArb; FBCS; MA (Cantab); CEDR Accredited
Mediator; TECBAR approved Adjudicator
E-mail: cfreedman@3vb.com
|
|
Clive
Freedman's practice covers information technology, banking,
building and engineering, and commercial fraud. He is particularly
interested in cases involving IT including internet and e-commerce),
technical, scientific and accounting issues. He also deals with
arbitration, expert determination, employment, insurance, oil
and gas, professional negligence, sale of goods and international
trade, and company law. He is a CEDR Accredited Mediator and
a Chartered Arbitrator, and is named as a leading junior in
Information Technology in Legal
500 and Chambers
& Partners UK Guide directories.
Information
Technology
Clive's
main area of expertise concerns disputes about software development
projects, and he often gives talks on this subject to solicitors
and groups such as the Society for Computers & Law and
Intellect. He has also been instructed on disputes concerning
web site design, intellectual property rights in computer
software and databases, and regulatory matters such as electronic
money and data protection. He also mediates and acts as arbitrator
in these fields. He has been named as a Leading Junior in
Information Technology in Chambers & Partners Guide
since 1995, and in Legal 500 since 2003. He has given talks
on the subject of electronic disclosure and helped the LiST
Group with the drafting of a proposed Practice Direction dealing
with electronic disclosure and the use of technology in the
courts.
Clive has written articles published in the Journal of the
Society for Computers & Law on the subject of abortive
IT projects (Abortive
IT Projects - clearing up the mess, Computers & Law
December 2000/January 2001) and Avoiding Pitfalls in IT Mediations
(February/March 2004). An article on J Pereira Fernandes
SA v Mehta [2006] EWHC 813 (Ch), [2006] 1 WLR 1543 was
published in Computer Law & Security Report (2007, written
with Jake Hardy of Reed Smith, Richards Butler). Clive prepared
the specimen pleadings on IT disputes for the 14th and 15th
(2004) editions of Bullen & Leake & Jacob's Precedents
of Pleadings.
In June 2004 he became a Fellow of the British Computer Society,
and he has recently been appointed Chairman of the BCS Disciplinary
Panel.
He is a Trustee of the Society for Computers & Law. He
has been a Member of the Bar Council's IT Committee since
1990, and has sat on committees concerned with the use of
IT in the Courts (eg ITAC). He is a Trustee of the British
and Irish Legal Information Institute (www.bailii.org),
and wrote the software for converting judgments to HTML for
the BAILII web site.
Practical experience in Information Technology
Clive acted for a period as the Chambers network administrator.
He has experience of a wide variety of applications, including
programming for both Microsoft Windows and Linux (e.g. MS
Office, MS Access, MS Visual Basic, HTML, Perl, Javascript,
e-mail). Clive wrote the software for his Chambers' Library
bar-coding system. He set up the first Chambers web site.
One of his hobbies is home automation.
Professional
Negligence
Clive
has dealt with many cases of alleged professional negligence.
Examples:
- solicitors
and barristers (eg concerning trade mark infringement proceedings
brought against an online auction site)
- accountants
and auditors (eg reconciliation errors in annual accounts;
failure to detect fraud; GE Capital v. Bankers Trust
- due diligence report for syndicated lenders concerning
management buyout of Magnet Kitchens)
- software
developers and consultants (eg software for banks, civil
engineering contractors and builders' merchants)
- architects
(negligent supervision of construction)
- engineers
(negligent design of basement water-proofing system)
- surveyors
and valuers (valuations for mortgage lenders)
- investment
advisers (negligent investment advice and liability for
fraud).
Banking
Banking
cases in which Clive has been instructed include:
- liability
of banks for commercial fraud (AMF v. Hashim - international
commercial fraud/constructive trust/conflict of laws)
- cheque
fraud
- syndicated
lending (GE Capital v. Bankers Trust - management
buyout of Magnet Kitchens)
- letters
of credit
- banking
regulation (deposit-taking and electronic money)
- advising
on setting up a web site for aggregating accounts.
Clive
co-wrote the chapter on electronic banking in Banking Litigation
(edited by Warne and Elliott, Sweet & Maxwell, 1999 and
2005).
Financial
Services
Cases
in which Clive has been instructed include:
- advising
on deposit-taking and electronic money
- questions
concerning MiFID
- liability
of investment advisers for negligence.
-
fraudulent investment schemes.
Commercial
fraud
Commercial
fraud cases include:
- liability
of banks for commercial fraud (AMF v. Hashim [1991]
2 AC 114, The Times 17 June 1993 - international commercial
fraud/constructive trust/conflict of laws)
- cheque
fraud
- liability
under bank guarantees
- fraudulent
investment schemes
- theft
of money by an employee using a company's online banking
facility
- applications
for freezing orders.
Clive has given talks on commercial fraud to firms of solicitors.
Building
and engineering
Clive
has been involved in many cases concerning defect claims,
loss and expense claims, extension of time disputes, and professional
negligence allegations concerning architects, engineers and
surveyors. Examples:
- Balfour
Beatty v. Docklands Light Railway (1996) 78 BLR 42 (Court
of Appeal): heavy civil engineering dispute - conclusiveness
of certificate
- allegations
of professional negligence against an engineer concerning
water penetration into a basement
- adjudications
- international
and domestic arbitrations (including drilling problems in
an oil and gas joint venture, and defects in a petrochemical
plant)
- various
cases concerning buildings in Hong Kong.
Clive
is a TECBAR approved Adjudicator.
Employment
Clive
has been instructed in a number of cases concerning breach
of restrictive covenants and misuse of confidential information,
including cases requiring an application for an interim injunction.
Company
law
Company
law cases include cases on breach of directors' duties and
misuse of confidential information by directors, and claims
based on warranties in share sale agreements.
Insurance
Cases
have included:
- disputes
regarding aggregation clauses
- liability
under a D & O policy
- liability
under a policy following an oil refinery explosion.
Insolvency
Cases
have included:
- setting
aside statutory demands
- injunction
against presentation of a petition
- priorities
between creditors
Other
commercial disputes
- sale
of goods (including product recalls)
- international
trade
- oil
and gas (international arbitration concerning drilling problems
in an oil and gas joint venture)
- cases
concerning sale of horses and bloodstock breeding.
Mediation
Clive
Freedman qualified as a CEDR mediator in 1997, and has conducted
over 20 mediations. He has also carried out two early neutral
evaluations through CEDR.
Most of the mediations conducted by Clive have concerned IT
disputes, although he also mediates in other commercial fields.
Clive believes that his professional experience in dealing
with IT cases and IT clients and his own experience of computers,
networks and programming assists parties in the resolution
of disputes in this area. He has given talks on mediation
of IT disputes.
Examples of mediations:
- A
claim for £16 million against the supplier of an integrated
accounting and stock control system for a nationwide retailer
- A
claim for £11 million relating to satellite TV technology
- A
cancelled project for design of an e-commerce website
- A
highly-charged dispute between two companies who had shared
office premises and administrative staff but who had fallen
out
- A
dispute relating to ownership of farmland
- A
dispute concerning alleged copying of software
Arbitration
Clive
is a Chartered Arbitrator. He has been appointed as Arbitrator
by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (a dispute concerning
payment for professional services) and by the British Computer
Society (a dispute regarding licensing of software). He was
also the arbitrator in an ad hoc appointment concerning interpretation
of a commercial contract. He has conducted two Early Neutral
Evaluations for CEDR.
As Counsel he has been involved in a number of domestic and
international arbitrations, including:
- defects
in a petrochemical plant (ICC, hearings lasted over 3 months,
claim of £32 million)
- insurance
claim following an oil refinery explosion (claim of $150
million)
- directors
and officers insurance for a failed US Savings Bank (claim
of $60 million)
- oil
and gas exploration joint venture (ICC, claim in excess
of $1billion)
- dispute
concerning electronic instrumentation in a process plant
- acting
on behalf of a foreign government in a commercial dispute
- several
building contract arbitrations in UK.
Arbitration
disputes:
- China
Agribusiness v. Balli Trading [1998] 2 Lloyds Rep 76;
enforcement of CIETAC arbitration award.
Expert
determination
Clive
assisted John Kendall with the third edition of Expert Determination,
Sweet & Maxwell, 2001. He has been instructed in disputes
concerning expert determination in relation to
He
often gives talks on expert determination.
Articles
and publications
- Contributor to Bullen & Leake & Jacob's Precedents of Pleadings
(IT disputes), Fifteenth Edition, Sweet & Maxwell, 2004.
- Contributor
to Expert Determination, Third Edition, John Kendall, Sweet & Maxwell, June 2001.
- The
UK's Draft Electronic Communications Bill, [1999] JIBL 377 (October 1999).
- Contributor
to Banking Litigation (edited by Warne and Elliott, 1999 and 2005).
- Abortive
IT Projects - clearing up the mess, Computers & Law December 2000/January 2001.
- Avoiding
Pitfalls in IT Mediations, Computers & Law, February/March
2004.
- An
article on J Pereira Fernandes SA v Mehta [2006]
EWHC 813 (Ch), [2006] 1 WLR 1543 Computer Law & Security
Report (Vol 23, No. 1, 2007), written with Jake Hardy
of Reed Smith, Richards Butler).
Appointments
- Member of Bar Council's IT Committee since 1990
- CEDR Accredited Mediator
- Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and member of the Institute's Panel of Mediators
- TECBAR
approved Adjudicator
- Fellow of the British Computer Society, and Chair of the Disciplinary Panel of the British Computer Society
- Trustee of BAILII (Britain and
Ireland Legal Information Institute)
- Trustee
of the Society for Computers & Law
Languages
French (fluent), German (working knowledge).
|
