Elaine is a highly experienced professional negligence lawyer with over 10 years of expertise advising on claims against traditional professionals such as solicitors, accountants, insurance brokers and surveyors, as well as claims against emerging professionals, such as loss adjusters. She has previously specialised exclusively in defending professional negligence claims for many of the UK’s leading professional indemnity insurers and a range of professional policyholders.
More recently, and as Head of Professional Indemnity at a top 100 global law firm, Elaine has been responsible for designing and embedding risk management and compliance programmes, managing claims and complaints received by the firm, and arranging primary and excess layer professional indemnity insurance cover.
While continuing to act for defendants, Elaine also now acts for claimants, who benefit from the dedicated knowledge, experience and insight that make her a true professional negligence specialist.
Elaine’s client care and attention to detail is second to none. Having instructed a number of professional negligence solicitors in London, Elaine by far exceeds others and displays knowledge and skill way beyond her years.
Client
Elaine has been absolutely instrumental in resolving our claims quickly and commercially, which has had a very positive impact on our insurance renewal.
Client
Expertise
- Professional negligence claims
- Professional indemnity policy disputes
- Risk management and regulatory compliance advice in law firms
Experience
- Acted in a £700,000 professional negligence claim against a law firm arising out of an unfair dismissal claim against the claimant’s former employer. The claim was not capable of early resolution and went to trial, where Elaine’s client was successful.
- Acted in a number of high-value professional negligence claims involving breach of warranty of authority, where an individual’s identity was stolen and their property sold without their knowledge or consent.
- Acted in a multi-million-pound dispute against a law firm arising out of negligent advice about a share purchase agreement. The claim was resolved at mediation.
- Acted in various claims against accountants involving negligent advice relating to entrepreneurs’ relief, CGT, rollover relief and R&D tax relief.
- Acted in claims against insurance brokers involving the failure to procure an appropriate level of cover and the failure to notify a circumstance on behalf of the policyholder.
- Acted in various policy coverage disputes relating to late notification, dishonesty, aggregation, material non-disclosure and successor practice issues.
- Represented clients at mediation and without prejudice meetings in an effort to resolve claims as early and as cost-effectively as possible.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Career
Elaine qualified as a solicitor in 2010. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2025, she worked at the following firms:
- Mills & Reeve
- Gowling WLG
- Browne Jacobson