Joanna is a Commercial and Intellectual Property litigator in the firm’s dispute resolution team. She deals with a variety of disputes ranging from commercial disputes involving debt recovery and breach of contract claims to shareholder disputes (including minority shareholder actions). She acts for a range of clients, from large corporate firms to small businesses and individuals. She also has a keen interest in Intellectual Property disputes including copyright, trademarks, design rights and passing off.
Joanna has an LLM in Commercial Intellectual Property.
Expertise
- Alternative dispute resolution
- Appeal Court, High Court and County Court claims
- Contract disputes
- Debt recovery
- Consumer contracts
- Professional negligence
- Partnership, shareholder and company disputes (including minority shareholder disputes)
- Building disputes
- Intellectual property disputes (trade marks, copyright, design right, passing off and moral rights)
- Domain name disputes
- Database rights
- Judicial reviews
- Injunctions
Experience
- Acted in a claim of undue influence against a major building society.
- Advised numerous businesses on the intellectual property rights existing in their business name, logo and domain name and taking action to protect or recover rights.
- Advised a recruitment consultancy on the threatened recovery of commission on a placement.
- Advised a group of claimants from around the world on the recovery of funds invested in a fraudulent investment scheme involving six different defendants.
- Acted in professional negligence claims in defence of and against professional advisors.
- Acted in the successful recovery of land after it was mistakenly returned to the Crown following a negligent property transfer and subsequent dissolution of the owning company.
- Advised an international defendant on a claim from an insurer on the breach of a loan agreement, leading to an extremely favourable settlement for the client.
- Advised a betting company on taking action regarding its licence agreements following a decision in the European Court of Justice on the intellectual property rights in football fixture lists.
- Advised an IT firm on a non-payment of invoices and a breach of contract claim with a major high-street company for whom they provided IT support with proprietary software also embedded in their systems. Reached an amicable conclusion with payment of outstanding fees made, and the renewal of the contract.
- Advised clients on breach of software agreements and recovery of source code written under those agreements.
- Advised a nationwide school-furniture manufacturer on defending allegations of design right infringement and reaching a settlement.
- Acted in the successful recovery of a substantial investment on behalf of a client further to the mis-selling of a precipice bond by a financial adviser.
- Advised a client on defending a small claim that had been issued incorrectly against an individual employee (rather than the company). Advised on applying to strike out the claim, dealing with an amended Claim Form being issued, and eventually achieving the withdrawal of the claim in its entirety.
- Part of a team advising on the legal issues involved in defending the Claim, and at a Mediation for a Malaysian government official and their related company, in a claim brought by an Investment banking company in the English Commercial Court for breach of a Loan Agreement in relation to an aircraft purchase
- Advising recruitment consultancy, in relation to a dispute regarding a recruitment consultant contract with a client who threatened to recover a £100,000 commission payment made on the appointment of a candidate placed by the client. Agreed a settlement involving no payment by our client, and the preservation of the commercial relationship between the parties
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
Recognised in The Legal 500 2023 for Commercial Litigation: Mid Market
“Joanna McKenzie is one of the most dedicated lawyers with whom I have worked. She is tremendously hard-working and willing to share the risk with clients by accepting instructions on a no-win no-fee basis. She regularly goes the extra mile for her clients and always give pragmatic advice.” The Legal 500 2021
Career
Joanna qualified as a solicitor in 2003. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2013, she worked at the following firms:
- Wragge & Co
- Barker Gotelee
- Gotelee Solicitors