Barrister > Jeffrey Littman

Chancery & Commercial:

(a) Company and Insolvency

(b) Land law

(c) Partnership

(d) Wills, Probate and Trusts

Jeffrey has advised and appeared all over the country in disputes amongst partners, shareholders and directors and in analogous fall-out from insolvency, both corporate and personal. He is known for his sympathetic, but no-nonsense approach in situations which are not only sensitive but also of the gravest financial consequence. He is familiar with all aspects of land law, particularly easements and other intrusions on title, and has received recommendations from the established association in the esoteric field of Manorial Law.

Common Law:

(a) Costs

(b) Torts

(c) Landlord & Tenant and Housing

(d) Professional Negligence (Solicitors Professional Negligence)

Costs law is a specialised field in which few barristers specialise. It bristles with technicalities which can trip up professionals and can come to the aid of lay clients seeking satisfacion after negative experiences of the legal and judicial professions in these days of changing approaches to funding and representation. Disputes can escalate if not handled expertly at an early stage but Jeffrey has spent many years navigating these waters at all levels, from detailed assessments to the Court of Appeal. He also has more than 30 years of experience advising and appearing in other areas of common law litigation, giving satisfaction to both professional and lay client.

The area of professional negligence, which is allied to the area of costs law, represents a major part of Jeffrey's litigation practice: see the selection of reported cases below which include a landmark decision on damages for mental distress against negligent solicitors.

Administrative:

(a) Planning

(b) Judicial Review

Jeffrey is an experienced junior, appearing (in the absence of his leader abroad) in what is thought to be the largest planning matter to reach the Administrative Court from Wales. 

Regulatory:

Jeffrey handles Companies Acts matters.

Jeffrey has appeared in the following reported cases:

Donaldson v O'sullivan [2009] 1 WLR 924 (validity of block - appointment orders of insolvency practitioners)

Sweet v Sommer [2004] 4 All ER 288 (extent of requirements for creation of right of way of necessity)

Hamilton-Jones v David & Snape [2004] 1 WLR 924 (recovery of damages for purely mental distress from negligent solicitors)

Pesticcio v Huet [2004] WTLR 699 (presumption of undue influence upheld even though solicitor had advised victim)

Joseph v Boyd & Hutchinson (No 2) The Times, 28th April 2003 (indemnity principle applied to treat solicitor as litigant in person)

Joseph v Boyd and Hutchinson [1999] Costs LR 74 (taxing master’s award of indemnity costs on ground of rejection of arguments of counsel reversed on appeal)

Wm Gaskell v Highly [1994] 1 BCLC 197 (whether fixed charge over book debts became floating upon assignment of charge)

Re Kenyon Swansea [1987] BCLC 197 (company’s separate representation on s459 petition)

Pittalis v Sherefettin [1986] 2 All ER 227 (rent review, service of landlord’s notice; application of Arbitration Act 1950)

MA (St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge)

Institute of Bankers Examinations Pts 1 and 11a.

Chancery Bar Association
Wales and Chester Circuit Specialist Court Bar Association

Jeffrey wrote and presented the Civil Procedure programme for the "TV Law" series and courses on Personal Insolvency and Professional for the CPD programme of the Law Society of Wales. He was guest speaker at the 2005 conference of the Manorial Society of Great Britain.

Jeffrey’s articles on aspects of the law are published from time to time in "Legal News", the periodical of the Confederation of South Wales Law Societies.

Jeffrey’s initial post-university training was in merchant banking with Keyser Ullmann. He has been Leader of the Management Group in the Department of Computing and Control at Imperial College.

Significant events in his Bar career include:
- establishing the inapplicability of American Cynamid to defamation actions in J Trevor v Solomon in the Court of Appeal;
- obtaining a last-minute interim injunction which caused Hughie Green’s "Opportunity Knocks" to be broadcast with an excision from its tape;
- being a member of a CTS Lloyd’s of London Disciplinary Inquiry;
- advising and representing Ernest Saunders during the latter’s dispute with Guinness PLC and with his former solicitors.

In February 2008 he was appointed to The National Assembly for Wales Commission’s panel of counsel as lead counsel in the area of Real Property.

Jim Williams