Fiona became a member of Twenty Essex on successful completion of her pupillage in September 2018. She has a broad commercial practice covering litigation and international arbitration in chambers’ main practice areas, including:
- Shipping and international trade
- Jurisdiction and conflict of laws
- Banking, insurance and financial services
- Technology and IP
- Energy
She regularly advises on charterparty disputes, and has experience of cargo claims, international sale contracts and commodities, letters of credit, and warehouse receipts fraud.
Fiona also advises on agency and fiduciary duties, and recently defended an energy brokerage business from claims in contract, tort and agency law.
She is developing her practice in jurisdiction and conflicts. Fiona has assisted David Lewis QC as a pupil in Eastern European Engineering Ltd v Vijay Construction (Proprietary) Ltd [2018] EWHC 1539 (Comm); Sir Richard Aikens with the recently published fifth supplement of Dicey on Conflicts (chapter 11, jurisdiction in personam); and Sara Masters QC with updates to the White Book 2019 on European jurisdiction and service. She has also advised on jurisdiction to seek interim injunctive relief in England and overseas in parallel with arbitration proceedings.
Fiona prides herself on being a flexible, personable barrister who is quick to grasp points and easily able to integrate into teams.
Before joining Chambers, Fiona spent two years as a policy advisor to the UK government in the Civil Service Fast Stream. Her experience included briefing the prime minister, secretaries of state and ministers, in addition to policy formulation and stakeholder management. Fiona also spent six months on secondment to the House of Commons clerking a select committee, during which time she ran a high-profile inquiry into workplace dress codes.
Prior to that, she worked at the University of Passau, where she taught a range of subjects, including world trade law, EU law and English public law.
Fiona won the Lincoln’s Inn Crowther Shield for advocacy in 2016.
Alongside her commitments in chambers, Fiona sits on the Bar Council Legal Services Committee. She also volunteers at the South Westminster Legal Advice Centre and the International Law Book Facility, is a trustee of her local parish, and co-organises an annual Arts and Crafts festival in London. In 2017–18, she chaired the Junior Members’ Association at Lincoln’s Inn.
Fiona is Public Access qualified.