Year of call: 2021
Ben was called to the bar in March 2021 and runs a thriving business and property practice.
Ben’s practice covers four main areas; general commercial litigation, insolvency (both personal and corporate), banking and finance and company. Ben is regularly instructed in each of the aforementioned sectors to provide written advisory and drafting work, and to attend court at all stages of proceedings, from interlocutory hearings to trials (be they single or multi-day).
As well as contentious court work, Ben also has extensive experience of alternative dispute resolution, having successfully represented multiple clients in mediation.
Prior to coming to the bar, Ben worked in the office of general counsel of a “big four” accountancy firm and in the banking and finance team of a major Northern Irish law firm. These experiences have shaped his practice.
Ben is regularly instructed in complex and high value commercial litigation matters. His instructions commonly come in the form of contract claims, company and partnership disputes and guarantee claims.
Notable cases:
Ben is frequently instructed to handle a variety of Insolvency Act matters and applications, in both the personal and corporate insolvency contexts.
Ben has spoken at insolvency conferences, including the R3 Northern Forum, where he provided a mock-trial demonstration for a wide selection of insolvency practitioner delegates.
Notable cases:
Ben, building on his experience, prior to commencing practice, in one of Northern Ireland’s largest transactional banking legal teams, is frequently instructed to advise and attend court on matters that have, at their heart, a banking and finance focus.
Notable cases:
Ben’s strong insolvency practice is bolstered by his company practice which runs alongside it. Ben is regularly instructed in unfair prejudice matters.
Notable cases:
Ben acted for the proposed administrators of a company in circumstances where the court was faced with a competing choice of office holder. The appointment of Ben’s client as administrator was opposed by purported creditors averring to be owed circa £2-6m from the relevant company. Ben ensured the appointment of his client. The case was reported in the insolvency insider, which can be read here (https://insolvency-insider.co.uk/p/sandstone-legal-case-update )
Ben, again, acted for the administrators of Sandstone Legal Limited (“Sandstone”), in the consequential costs hearing following Sandstone being placed into administration. The matter was incredibly complex as Sandstone’s sole remaining director (the “Applicant”) had originally made the application for the administration order, but the court (in the judgment noted above) rejected the basis on which the originating application was brought and decided to enter administration on a totally different footing from that proposed by the Applicant. The Applicant’s counsel averred he had been successful (as Sandstone had been placed in administration on the back of his application) and that there was no discretion under the Insolvency Act for the court to disallow an applicant in an administration application their costs. The Applicant sought his costs as an expense of the administration. Ben successfully defeated those assertions, as the court accepted that the Applicant was not a successful party and that the court did have a discretion under both the Senior Courts Act and paragraph 13(1)(f) of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act to decline to make a cost award in favour of the applicant to an administration application, even where an eventual administration was entered. As a result, the Applicant did not get his costs as an expense of the administration, bar the issue fee of the same.
The court also accepted the test proposed by Ben as to when the costs incurred by the interim managers of a company (before they are appointed as administrators) can be sought as an expense of the eventual administration under rule 3.52 of the insolvency rules. This is the first reported decision on that point.
Given the importance of the case, as it dealt with complex multi-handed administration issues, it has been reported elsewhere (see [2025] 10 WLUK 554) and it is included in Sealy and Milman in the sections dealing with appointment of administrators and pre-administration costs.
Ben acted in a high court appeal to challenge the basis on which the court at first instance found there to be a liquidated debt. Ben argued that the court below had been wrong to transfer a liquidated debt from a primary obligor to a guarantor, where the guarantee itself did not sound in debt. The court agreed Ben was correct as to that proposition of law and the point was conceded by the Respondent. The case has been included in the most recent edition of Muir Hunter on Personal Insolvency.
