Robin Somerville

• Shareholder & Company Disputes
• Partnership & Family Business Disputes
• Commercial & Contract
• Technology & IT Disputes
• Employment & Workplace
• Mediation & Mediation Advocacy

SHAREHOLDER AND COMPANY DISPUTES

Robin advises and represents clients in shareholder and board disputes, including s994 unfair prejudice petitions, directors’ duties claims and derivative actions. He has handled multiple s994 claims, all settled before trial, as well as share sale and exit negotiations.

His work includes:

• A £15m s994 unfair prejudice claim between three brothers and their children.
• A £3m directors’ duties civil fraud claim.
• A claim against a director who speculated company funds on financial futures and derivatives without authorisation.
• Breach of covenants claims against former directors.

PARTNERSHIP AND FAMILY BUSINESS DISPUTES

Having been involved in his own family’s third-generation business, Robin brings first-hand insight to family business and partnership conflicts.

His work includes:

• A £120m partnership dispute between six brothers and their children.
• An eight-party international partnership dispute, settled.
• A breach of partnership agreement claim brought by the beneficiaries of a deceased partner’s will.

COMMERCIAL AND CONTRACT

Robin acts in business contract disputes across a range of sectors, approaching litigation as a business investment to be weighed for commercial as well as legal risk and reward.

His work includes:

• A six-party international joint venture dispute, settled through a client division agreement.
• A misrepresentation and breach of warranties claim against a previous business owner.
• Multiple B2B and construction breach of contract claims.

TECHNOLOGY AND IT DISPUTES

Drawing on 14 years running technology businesses, Robin handles disputes over software development and deployment, IT service contracts, cloud services and support, and leased technology equipment. He is also a Course Tutor on the LLM in Legal Tech at Queen Mary, University of London.

EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE

Robin is a CEDR-accredited workplace mediator and an accredited workplace investigator. He has mediated a CEO/director employment dispute at a UK institution of the highest profile, and successfully brought his own worker status claim arising from his role as a tribunal chair at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, a case that reached the Supreme Court, where the NMC was refused permission to appeal.

MEDIATION AND MEDIATION ADVOCACY

A mediator since 2009, Robin has over 15 years’ experience as both mediator and mediation advocate, and has judged international mediation competitions including CEDR, ICC (Paris), IBA-VIAC CDRC (Vienna) and IBMC (Amsterdam).

His work includes:

• A three-party s994 unfair prejudice and unlawful extractions dispute, settled with a buy-out.
• A family business shareholder dispute following the death of the parents, settled with a £1m+ buy-out.
• A family shareholder dispute involving £5m of personal guarantees, settled by demerger.
• A high-conflict husband and wife board and shareholder dispute shortly before a £100m+ sale.
• A commercial debt and agents’ commission dispute, settled with a new two-year contract.

• LLM International and Comparative Dispute Resolution, Queen Mary, University of London
• Bar Professional Training Course
• Accredited Civil and Commercial Mediator, CEDR and ADR Group
• Accredited Workplace Mediator, CEDR
• Advanced Mediation Advocacy, Standing Conference on Mediation Advocacy
• Accredited Investigator (employment and workplace), TCM Group
• Visiting Lecturer, Bar Course, Inns of Court College of Advocacy
• Former Ombudsman, Financial Ombudsman Service
• Author of The Shareholder Disputes Handbook, Winning at Commercial Mediation, Winning in the Witness Box and the Workplace and Corporate Investigator’s Handbook