Benn Sheridan
- Call
- 2022
Benn practises across the full range of Chambers’ practice areas.
He has substantial trial experience as sole counsel in the County and Magistrates’ Courts. He has assisted senior members of Chambers on cases in the High Court, Employment Tribunal, Competition Tribunal, and Court of Appeal. Benn’s experience ranges from product liability, personal injury, and health & safety prosecutions to employment, competition and heavy commercial litigation.
Benn’s recent work includes drafting a multinational technology company’s defence to a breach of contract claim (unled), assisting on an application for a freezing injunction in aid of foreign proceedings, and providing advice and assistance in relation to a commercial employment matter (led by Arnold Ayoo). Benn is comfortable being instructed as sole counsel or as part of a team.
Prior to joining Chambers, Benn worked in the disputes team of a leading city solicitors’ firm, gaining experience in commercial litigation, employment, and environmental group litigation.
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Expertise
Group Actions and Product Liability
During pupillage and beyond, Benn has provided legal analysis and drafting assistance on a range of group actions and product liability disputes, including:
- A group litigation against a membership organisation carrying out a regulatory function in a global metals market
- An environmental group action
In his paper on reforming the civil procedure rules for environmental mass tort claims, Benn explored the procedural difficulties of bringing ‘class actions’ under CPR 19.8 (the representative action) and CPR 19.21-26 (group litigation orders and test claims).
Commercial Litigation
Benn is developing a broad practice in commercial litigation, and has recently been instructed to advise on claims raising issues of contractual interpretation and governing law.
During pupillage, Benn worked on matters involving contract formation, interpretation, statutory implication, and exclusion clauses, including:
- A claim involving allegations of breach of contract, tort and misrepresentation, arising out of the sale and supply of allegedly defective lighting products, and
- A contractual dispute over the sale and supply of allegedly defective fuel products.
Benn also assisted on claims involving economic torts, equitable relief, and disputes over jurisdiction, including:
- An unlawful means conspiracy claim involving a solicitors’ firm and a litigation funder (assisting Henry Warwick KC), and
- A cross-border civil fraud dispute (led by Arnold Ayoo).
Employment and Public Law
Benn is developing a busy employment practice which intersects with his commercial and criminal regulatory expertise. His employment experience includes:
- Drafting, legal and strategic advice in relation to an imaging order application and breach of confidence claim brought by an employer against its departing employee (led by Arnold Ayoo)
- Assisting on preparing an application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal on a novel issue of holiday pay (while supervised by James Williams, in pupillage)
- Advising a professional whom Benn represented (as sole counsel) in trial in the magistrates’ court on potential employment and regulatory issues arising from her prosecution.
Benn’s public law experience includes:
- Legal research into the meaning of ‘public officer’ for the purpose of advising on a case involving allegations of misfeasance in public office.
- Legal research in relation to a public procurement challenge
- Prior to pupillage: assisting on a judicial review of the legality of the Cayman Islands’ constitutional bar on same-sex marriage.
Environment, Health & Safety and Personal Injury
Benn regularly appears in the County and Magistrates’ Courts on environmental, health & safety, and personal injury matters. His PI and criminal regulatory practice is strengthened by his commercial law background, allowing him to give pragmatic, client-focused advice:
- Led by Kathleen Donnelly KC and Chloe Campbell, Benn provided assistance in advance of a preliminary hearing concerning a quarry company alleged to be responsible for an odour nuisance (in pupillage).
- As sole counsel, Benn has successfully obtained Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Orders for local authorities against businesses operating in a way which poses a threat to public health.
- Benn regularly acts for claimants and defendants in road traffic disputes in the County Court, and for defendants facing criminal prosecution for road traffic offences in the Magistrates’ Court.
- Prepared an advice on the application of the Compensation Act 2006 to a mesothelioma case involving asbestos exposure across multiple jurisdictions (in pupillage).
- Legal research on the relationship between the coronial and criminal jurisdictions, in preparation for a pending inquest involving a large private healthcare provider (in pupillage)
Competition and Financial Services
Benn’s experience of competition and financial services litigation includes:
- Providing legal research on the different approaches of the CAT and Court of Appeal to causation in the long-running FX Litigation.
- Contributing to Henderson’s guide to Johnson v FirstRand in the Supreme Court.
- Acting for a large telephone company in relation to a consumer matter involving unpaid bills. Benn secured an unless order against the consumer claimant in a preliminary hearing, which effectively brought the claim to an end.
Assisting Andrew Kinnier KC and James Williams with legal research into consumer remedies as part of a large group litigation (in pupillage).
Instructing Benn Sheridan
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Government Legal Department, Junior Junior scheme (2025 to 29/04/2029)
‘An ‘opt-out’ class action regime for environmental claims’ (Bar Council Law Reform Essay Competition, 2024)
Education
- BVS, Inns of Court College of Advocacy
- GDL, City University – Distinction
- MA Intellectual History, UCL – Distinction
- BA (Hons) History, Magdalen College, University of Oxford – First Class
Scholarships and Prizes
- Bar Council Law Reform Prize – Highly Commended
- Slaughter & May Africa Essay Prize – 1st Place
- Lord Denning Scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn
- Lord Haldane Scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn
- Richard Selig Prize for Poetry, Magdalen College, University of Oxford
- Demyship, Magdalen College, University of Oxford
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For more information about the way barristers at Henderson Chambers work, including our fee transparency statement and our complaints process, please click here.
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Legal Status: Barrister
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Regulated by the Bar Standards Board.
