Simon Colledge
Partner

Simon is an extremely versatile and experienced commercial litigator, having worked in the London market for over thirty years where he has been recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers as a notable practitioner in litigation and dispute resolution with particular areas of expertise including contentious insolvency, professional negligence and fraud . He has also been listed in the Thomson Reuters Stand-out list, having been nominated by clients.

He uses his wealth of experience to guide clients towards cost-effective and practical solutions which align the client's attitude to risk and cost with their commercial objectives to determine the best strategy. He is a proponent of well-timed ADR, without diluting his rigorous and committed approach to formal litigation.

Simon has handled a wide variety of cases for clients ranging from large multinational corporations to private individuals. He often works closely with in-house counsel in an advisory capacity and believes strongly that early intervention is better than crisis response.

Chambers and Partners 

Simon received recognition as a notable practitioner in Dispute Resolution and Litigation in London with the following testimonials:

• "Highly client-focused and commercially astute lawyer"
• "Very personable and professional"
• "Skilled in contentious insolvency, professional negligence and fraud matters"

Notable Experience

• Acting as part of a substantial team advising the Official Receiver and PWC as Special Managers on the Carillion liquidation including applications to liquidate group companies and appoint Special Managers, retention of title and set-off issues, termination and transitioning of substantial overseas debt recovery issues
• Acting for a furniture manufacturing company facing a winding-up petition from HMRC, applying for administration leading ultimately to the rescue and successful restructuring of the business
• Advising and representing creditors faced with insolvent counterparties (eg Acer computers in the Comet insolvency)
• Acting for liquidators of telecoms company used as a vehicle for the directors' fraud which involved obtaining freezing injunctions and subsequent recoveries through their bankruptcies over a six-year period with multiple contested hearings
• Acting for a litigation funder which acquires claims from insolvency officeholders in a claim relating to a disputed trust arrangement over a bankrupt's properties
• Acting for secured lenders and their mortgage indemnity insurers in numerous professional negligence claims against surveyors and solicitors, including a number of the major reported cases in the field.
• Acting for individual defendants in major fraud cases including Versailles Trade Finance and Cadogan Petroleum
• Acting on a number of recent warranty claims including tax indemnity claims arising out of the acquisition of an oil and gas service company with tax liabilities in 5 jurisdictions, claims arising from a private equity acquisition of a retail software provider against vendors and the warranty and indemnity insurers and claims for a household-name storage company arising from their acquisition of a data storage company
• Obtaining Norwich Pharmacal relief from UK banks for Saudi and US corporate victims of malicious misdirection push-payment fraud leading to a successful recovery of funds for the clients
• Acting for a bridging loan lender in a professional negligence claim against a surveyor for overvaluation and obtaining a successful recovery
• Acting for a UK startup against a UK bank in relation to the unlawful closure of its bank account and freezing of its investment capital and securing release of its funds
• Representing a national logistics provider in a longstanding dispute with a household-name national supermarket chain relating to the distribution of newspapers and magazines to its stores in the UK and Ireland
• Advising a London Hospital PFI company in respect of a number of complex disputes with the hospital NHS Trust, including through contractual adjudication
• Acting for an NHS managed service provider in a dispute relating to the provision of UK wide laboratory-based cancer testing services
• Acting for a Dutch engineering company in a dispute relating to a hydro-electric scheme in the UK

Background

Simon trained and qualified in Edinburgh before moving to London, to join Rosling King, where he requalified and has practiced since 1990. Simon took partnership at Rosling King in 1995 where his practice was strongly focused on lender mortgage claims against professionals, often involving fraud, before moving as partner to Orchard and then Maclay Murray & Spens in 2006 where he did a wide variety of commercial, fraud and insolvency work and was instrumental in establishing the restructuring and insolvency group at the firm's London office. MMS merged with Dentons in 2017 where he remained as a partner before moving to Gunnercooke LLP in 2020 and then joining PCB Byrne LLP in 2025. Simon is a member of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association and of R3.

Contact Simon