Editors
General Editors
Peter de Verneuil Smith KC
Call: 1998 | Silk: 2019
Peter is a leading silk in the area of commercial/financial services group litigation. He has appeared in most of the high profile commercial group litigation cases (RBS Rights Issue, Tesco, RSA & British Airways data breach). His recent work includes: acting as co-lead counsel for 120 institutional investors in a prospectus claim against Glencore worth $2bn, acting for Santander in defending a group PPI claim brought by 40,000 individuals and acting for Volvo in the NOx emissions litigation.
Peter regularly speaks and writes on group litigation issues and is regarded as a leading voice in this practice area. In 2023 he gave seminars on ESG and Class actions to various leading solicitor firms (both defendant and claimant), spoke at LIDW on the future of ESG and group litigation and was a speaker at the 3VB gala event (“Group Litigation- 10 lessons”). He co-authored the JIBFL article “Damages under s.90 and 90A FMSA” published in the summer of 2023.
Adam Kramer KC
Call: 2004 | Silk: 2021
Adam is one of the most experienced commercial barristers at the Bar in relation to group and multi-party litigation, being experienced in GLO, cost sharing, book building, steering group and test claimant issues.
In the securities field, he is lead counsel on a current s90A dispute, and second lead on the huge Glencore s90/s90A claim, was lead counsel for a large claimant group against Tesco in the second round of the s90A claim, having earlier acted for the Stewarts group of institutional investors in the RBS Rights Issue s90 FSMA prospectus GLO litigation which led to a settlement in 2016, as well as having advised on other (some very large) s90/s90A securities claims.
Adam also has an important role in the Diesel emissions litigation, as lead counsel for certain large consumer claimant groups against a number of manufacturers (including Mercedes and Peugeot- see on early disclosure [2023] EWHC 2568 (KB)), following his long-standing role for the Leigh Day claimant group in the Volkswagen claim (GLO hearing [2018] EWHC 1178 (QB), reliance in deceit failed strike out [2021] EWHC 3444 (QB), £193m settlement in 2022).
Adam also has substantial experience in multi-party test claims, such as the bank overdraft charges test case (for a bank) [2008] EWHC 875, 2325 (Comm) and FCA v Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd (Covid-19 business interruption insurance test case against 8 insurers) [2021] AC 649 (Supreme Court) (for the FCA) and the Stonegate and ExCeL (‘at the premises’ clauses) business interruption insurance test cases.