Ian Simpson
Barrister
Year of call: 1997
“I was delighted with the outcome of the hearing and very impressed with your work. You will no doubt be my 1st choice of Counsel…”
“Very happy with the outcome here and Ian Simpson’s level of service generally.”
“I just wanted to write to express our thanks once again for the assistance at very short notice on this case. Ian was most helpful and great to work with. He did an excellent job before, during and after the hearing, and secured precisely the result we and clients were after.”
About Ian
Ian Simpson is a skilled and diligent barrister with a wealth of experience, whose current practice is now primarily civil common law defendant insurer-based, with principal areas in personal injury, primarily road traffic collision and defendant-only credit hire litigation, as well as the law of costs.
He has a reputation among those who instruct him regularly for his meticulous preparation and a proactive, collaborative approach to problem solving. This, combined with a friendly, approachable attitude to both the advisory and advocacy elements of his practice, makes him popular with both lay and professional clients alike.
Areas of Specialism
• Road traffic collision litigation
• Credit hire litigation (for defendants only)
• Fatal accident and other high-value actions
• Employer’s liability and workplace cases
• Contractual, indemnity and debt recovery aspects of insurance law
• Costs
Ian’s costs practice includes both receiving and paying party advisory and advocacy work with a sub-specialism in acting for paying parties in high-value clinical negligence claims and the recoverability of A.T.E. premiums. Solicitor-client assessment work under the Solicitors Act 1974 includes the case of Herbert v HH Law Ltd., Soole J., 21st March 2018.
Ian’s approach is founded on giving sound commercial, pragmatic and practical advice on the premise that his previous career, as a debt and derivatives trader, helps him readily assess risk and give that sort of advice.
Areas of practice other than costs
His personal injury practice includes significant experience in the areas of fraud, or quasi-fraud, of the work required that underpins the allegations involved and the seriousness of their implications, whether as a claimant in a case where fraud is alleged or as a defendant. There is often some overlap with that area and his defendant-only credit hire practice, which pre-dates the Court of Appeal judgment in Dimond v Lovell. Ian’s costs practice allows him to provide a ‘cradle to grave’ service to those instructing him, whether for a claimant or a defendant. In addition, Ian practises in general commercial law.
Ian’s exposure to the consumer credit litigation aspects of credit hire matters has led to being instructed in more general consumer credit work and he has also been instructed in cases concerning classic cars because of his interest in older cars.
Ian is a member of the Personal Injury Bar Association.
Personal
Before coming to the Bar, Ian worked in the City as a debt and derivatives trader at investment banks from 1979 and was a junior director of a leading Swiss investment bank, running one of its London trading desks from 1988 to 1991. On deciding to study law, from 1991-96 Ian combined working in the financial markets with part-time LL.B. studies as an external student and a young family.
Ian’s previous career in the financial sector gave him an excellent foundation and insight upon which to build his costs practice.
Ian has 2 adult children and is London-based. A former rugby player (still a long-suffering member of Blackheath) and middle-distance runner, Ian speaks French, some German and Italian and is interested in older and classic cars and modern design.