Benn Sheridan
- Call
- 2022
Benn is developing a broad commercial, employment, and group litigation practice, in line with Chambers’ profile. His recent instructions include:
- B&C v A [2025] (ChD): acting for the Defendant in a claim for breach of confidence and springboard relief (led by Arnold Ayoo of Maitland Chambers).
- Re Devonport Capital Ltd (in Administration) [2025] (ChD): acting for the Respondent (pro bono) in a £1.9million petition which was successfully dismissed with costs.
- Acting for the Claimant in a professional negligence matter concerning a solicitor’s duty to keep its systems safe from cyber-attack.
- Acting for the Claimant in a proposed data protection claim under the representative procedure (led by James Williams).
- Acting for the Defendant and Counterclaimant in a three-day trial concerning a loan agreement said to contravene the general prohibition under s19 FSMA.
- Acting for the Respondent employer in an employment claim concerning a bonus payment.
- Acting for the Claimant employee in a two-day trial concerning the proper effect of s111A of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
Benn has a lively court practice as sole counsel in the High Court, county court, employment tribunal, and magistrates’ court and has appeared in several multi-day trials. He has appeared unled in the FTT (Tax Chamber) and Insolvency & Companies Court. Benn also has experience, obtained during pupillage, of assisting in a multinational arbitration under the LCIA rules; he has also advised on the effect of jurisdiction/governing law clauses.
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
Benn has recently acted in the following product liability matters:
- Acting for a large telephone handset manufacturer in a successful application to strike-out a county court claim alleging that one of its products was defective and harmful.
- Acting for a software developer in its defence to a claim that it had wrongfully terminated a customer’s account on its app.
- Advising on a claim for breach of contract claim arising out of the supply of a defective electrical component (led by James Purnell).
- Acting for a distributor of consumer goods in a claim brought by a company in its supply chain for breach of contract and non-payment of a debt.
Benn has assisted senior members of chambers on a range of group actions, including:
- A group litigation against a membership organisation carrying out a regulatory function in a global metals market.
- An environmental group action involving allegations of water pollution.
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 and Arbitration
Benn has experience as sole and junior counsel in the KBD and Chancery Division. He has a busy commercial practice in the county court, acting for financial services organisations, B2B and B2C businesses, and individuals.
Matters on which Benn is instructed raise issues including (by way of example) breach of agency agreement, breach of trust, misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, and breach of confidence. Benn is also comfortable dealing with claims raising statutory and regulatory issues, including FSMA 2000, and has dealt with fraud claims (including APP fraud).
Benn acted for the defendant in a complex Chancery Division claim concerning alleged corporate espionage. Acting unled and pro bono, Benn successfully resisted a £1.9 million petition in the ICC. As a pupil, he assisted Henry Warwick KC in an unlawful means conspiracy claim involving a solicitors’ firm and a litigation funder.
Representative commercial instructions include:
- Successfully representing a defendant solicitor’s firm in a professional negligence claim brought by their former client across multiple full-day hearings.
- Successfully resisting summary judgment in a contract dispute concerning the sale of an industrial vehicle.
- Successfully resisting the introduction of a lis alibi pendens defence in a commercial property dispute.
- Acting for a UK-based goods distributor in a claim for breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
- Representing the claimant property buyer in a professional negligence claim against their solicitor.
Benn has an unusually high level of commercial injunction experience for his year of call. He has acted as sole and junior counsel in urgent injunction applications, including:
- Resisting an injunction application at short notice, securing an order ‘holding the ring’ that allowed his client to participate in ADR.
- Obtaining consent, following an urgent interim application, to vary an order prohibiting his client from leaving the jurisdiction.
- Acting for the respondent to an Imaging and Injunction Order (led by Arnold Ayoo).
- Assisting in preparing a £30 million without notice freezing injunction and cross-border enforcement proceedings (with Arnold Ayoo, in pupillage).
Benn also has experience assisting in an arbitration context:
- While a pupil, he assisted Andrew Rigney KC and Caroline McColgan in confidential arbitration proceedings concerning a £multi-billion project to build a power station in Saudi Arabia.
- While working at Travers Smith LLP, he was a member of the firm’s arbitration working group and contributed to the drafting of the firm’s response to the Law Commission’s consultation on reforming the Arbitration Act 1996.
Representative cases
grid listEmployment and Data Protection
Benn is building a busy employment and data protection practice which intersects with his commercial and regulatory expertise. He is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association.
Benn’s employment experience includes:
- Acting for an employer in a dispute with a departing employee over the employer’s decision to withhold a discretionary bonus payment. Benn prepared the grounds of response and represented the employer at trial in the ET.
- Acting for the Claimant in a multi-day trial about the effect of s111A on her claim for unfair dismissal.
- Representing a government employee (pro bono, via Advocate) in an unfair dismissal and disability discrimination claim.
- Drafting grounds of response for a multinational company following an ET claim arising from its refusal of a flexible working request.
- Acting (pro bono, via Advocate) for an employee of a large supermarket chain in her ongoing ET claim for unfair dismissal and discrimination.
- Acting in a breach of confidence claim brought by an employer against its departing employee (led by Arnold Ayoo)
- Acting for a company in its defence to a breach of contract claim arising from its decision to withdraw a job offer during a prospective employee’s onboarding process.
- Acting pro bono for two employees accused of participating in a ‘team move’ following management changes at their company.
Benn’s data protection experience includes:
- Acting for the defendant in a complex, technical breach of confidence claim in the High Court.
- Advising a data protection representative action under CPR 19.8 (led by James Williams).
- Advising on the wording of FOIA requests in preparation for a data protection representative action.
Representative cases
grid list-
Braunford & Anor [2025] EWHC 1952 (Ch)
Judgment available here.
Regulatory Crime, Environmental, and Personal Injury
Benn is regularly instructed on environmental, health & safety, and personal injury / industrial disease matters. His personal injury and criminal regulatory practice is strengthened by his commercial experience, which allows him to give pragmatic advice:
- Led by Kathleen Donnelly KC and Chloe Campbell, Benn assisted at the hearing of an application relating to a large nuisance group litigation
- As sole counsel, Benn has successfully prosecuted food businesses for public health offences, instructed on behalf of local authorities.
- Benn regularly acts for claimants and defendants in road traffic disputes in the county court and for defendants accused of road traffic offences in the magistrate courts. In a recent credit-hire claim, Benn obtained a wasted costs order against the opposing solicitors’ firm.
- Acting for an individual accused of stalking under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. In a difficult and unusual case, Benn secured a conditional discharge for his client.
- Advising a large water company seeking to exercise its duties as a statutory undertaker on the magistrates’ court procedure
- Advising on the application of the Compensation Act 2006 to a mesothelioma case involving asbestos exposure across multiple jurisdictions (in pupillage).
- Advising on the relationship between the coronial and criminal jurisdictions, in preparation for a pending inquest involving a large private healthcare provider (for Andrew Kinnier KC, in pupillage).
Competition and Financial Services
Benn’s experience of financial services litigation includes:
- Regular instructions by telecoms providers, financial services organisations, and multinational companies in strike out / summary judgment applications and trials of consumer and financial services claims.
- Successfully defending a claim against a lender in a motor-finance related dispute on the ground that the borrower under the hire-purchase agreement was not a consumer.
- Successfully striking out a claim against a bank involving allegations of wrongful exercise of a contractual discretion to terminate a customer’s account.
- Securing a pragmatic outcome for a client by obtaining an unless order against a claimant in a preliminary hearing, which ultimately brought the claim to an end.
- Assisting Andrew Kinnier KC and James Williams with legal research into statutory consumer remedies as part of a large group litigation (in pupillage).
Benn’s competition experience includes:
- Assisting James White with research into the different approaches of the CAT and Court of Appeal to causation in the long-running FX Litigation.
News and articles
ALERTER The admissibility of disclosure, evidence...
Credit Suisse v Ivanishvili: the door opens to...
ALERTER R (Claims Protection Agency Limited) v The...
Benn Sheridan appears in significant decision on...
Benn Sheridan Secures Pro Bono Costs Order in...
ALERTER Beyond PACCAR? Publication of the Civil...
Instructing Benn Sheridan
If you require help or advice please contact our clerking team
Call +44 (0)20 7583 9020
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- Government Legal Department, Junior Junior scheme (2025 to 29/04/2029)
- ‘Credit Suisse v Ivanishvili: the door opens to fraud-on-the-market claims under s 90A FSMA’ (Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, Vol. 41 (2), February 2026)
- Contributing Editor, Butterworth’s Civil Court Precedents (Disclosure and Experts), 2025-present
- ‘An ‘opt-out’ class action regime for environmental claims’ (Bar Council Law Reform Essay Competition, 2024)
- COMBAR
- London Bar Association
- Employment Lawyers Association
- Competition Lawyers Association
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.
Bar Council Number: 77485
VAT Registration Number: 489768305
Legal Status: Barrister
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Regulated by the Bar Standards Board.
