At 2TG our people are hard-working, forward-thinking and approachable. We believe our supportive culture is one of our greatest strengths.
With the set comprising around 60 barristers, we know each other well and work effectively together. We often operate in large teams with clients. Our practice management team is modern and commercial, matching barrister experience thoughtfully to clients’ requirements.
At 2TG our barristers are expert in a broad range of complementary practice areas and we enjoy repeat instructions from a variety of loyal clients.
Practised advocates from the start, all our Silks and the vast majority of our Junior barristers are recognised as leaders in their chosen fields. Many of us are at the forefront of shaping the law in our specialist areas and we pride ourselves in having excellent industry knowledge.
At 2TG our barristers have excellent experience acting across a range of industry sectors and we are able to offer advice in an informed and commercial context.
Our combination of practice area excellence and industry expertise means we possess real insight into the commercial realities facing our clients operating in these areas. Secondment plays an important part of our commitment to developing our skills and understanding.
2TG is home to award-winning accredited mediators, arbitrators, adjudicators and experts with considerable experience of alternative dispute resolution.
Our barristers are also skilled as advocates in different alternative dispute resolution procedures and work strategically with clients to understand their commercial objectives, and then to resolve litigation as cost-effectively and expeditiously as possible.
Work with an international dimension forms a significant part of many barristers’ work at 2TG.
We appear in international courts and arbitral tribunals all over the world, frequently acting on complex multi-jurisdictional disputes. We are particularly well-known for managing cross border litigation on matters of jurisdiction and applicable law and appear regularly in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
At 2TG, in addition to our professional advice, we are recognised for our excellent contribution to education and development. We provide regular high-quality training.
Our reputation among the legal profession and other clients for our first-rate webinars and in-person conferences is very important to us. We also contribute frequently at industry events and as editors of leading texts and authors on topics of legal interest.
Insights
Judgment was handed down today in the case Lewin v Gray at the High Court in Sheffield. This is an important case on whether a breach of health and safety regulations gives rise to a cause of action for breach of a common law duty of care.
Mr Lewin was a general builder who had over many years undertaken building jobs at a farm occupied by Mr Gray. Neither party had been aware of the requirements of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 that the Claimant builder prepare a Construction Phase Plan and the Defendant farmer ensure that such a plan had been drawn up before works commenced.
Tragically during the course of the works the builder fell through a fragile barn roof suffering a severe spinal cord injury rendering him paraplegic. He brought a claim against the farmer complaining that had the Defendant ensured that he had prepared a Construction Phase Plan that would have prompted him to put in safeguards against falling through the roof to the ground.
The claim failed. Although both parties were unquestionably in breach of the regulations this did not give rise to a cause of action applying s 47(2) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 as amended by the Enterprise Act 2013 which said as much. The Claimant could not get around this by asserting that there was a common law duty of care to at least comply with the criminal law.
It was not fair, just or reasonable to impose a novel common law duty of care so as to override the express provisions of the 1974 Act. There was no common law duty to require a contractor to do something which he was only required to do by virtue of the Health & Safety Regulations.
Martin Porter KC instructed by Mark Bailey of DAC Beachcroft appeared for the successful Defendant.