Jamie Susskind

High Court

Jamie has an unusual level of High Court experience for a barrister of his call, and is often instructed to appear against barristers many years his senior. He is frequently instructed in cases involving a cross-border dimension or particular complexity.

Recent and current work includes:

• Alesco Risk Management Services Limited & ors v Bishopsgate Insurance Brokers Limited & Ors[2019] EWHC 2839 (QB) (led by David Craig QC and Amy Rogers) –in this insurance industry “team move” litigation involving allegations of dishonesty and conspiracy to injure, Jamie acted successfully for the Corporate Defendants.
• JLT Specialty Ltd & Ors v Gordon & Ors (led by Gavin Mansfield QC) – Jamie is instructed by the First Defendant in high-value “team move” litigation.
• Acting for a high-end Indian restaurant chain in a “team move” claim involving allegations of conspiracy to poach top cooking staff.
• Potensis Ltd v Bennett– as sole counsel, Jamie secured an injunction and favourable costs order, in the Queens’ Bench Division of the High Court, against a departing real estate employee acting in breach of his post-termination restrictions.
• Vanden Recycling Ltd v Kras Recycling BV and others[2015] EWHC 3616 (QB); [2017] EWCA Civ 534 – Jamie acted for the Defendants (led by Jonathan Cohen QC) in complex employee competition litigation.
• Willis v JLT and others– Jamie acted for the Claimants (led by Gavin Mansfield QC and Amy Rogers) in high-value “team move” litigation.

Statutory Employment Law

Jamie also advises and represents clients across all aspects of statutory employment law, including whistleblowing, discrimination, harassment, victimisation, redundancy, TUPE and questions of jurisdiction. Recent instructions have included:

• Mele v Angela Mortimer Plc & Ors – Jamie acted as sole counsel for the successful Claimant, a senior director dismissed after 25 years, in multi-week whistleblowing and discrimination litigation.
• Securing aggravated damages and substantial damages for injury to feelings for the claimant in a multi-day sexual harassment and discrimination claim.
• Acting for the Claimant (a nursery school teacher) in a whistleblowing unfair dismissal claim involving allegations of child abuse.
• Acting for the claimant/appellant in the ET and EAT in Ellis v Ratcliff Palfinger (UKEAT/0438/13/BA).The EAT noted Jamie’s “careful analysis in his Skeleton Argument and oral submissions”.
• Mathur v Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft and others(led by Mohinderpal Sethi). Jamie acted for the Claimant in a multimillion pound claim involving whistleblowing detriments and unfair dismissal arising out of the LIBOR scandal; sex discrimination, and equal pay.
• Negotiating a £30,000 settlement for a claimant with learning difficulties in a claim for unpaid wages.

Jamie is the author.co-author of two chapters in International Employment Disputes (Eds. Oudkerk and Rogers, Sweet & Maxwell 2019) He regularly speaks to law firms about trends and tactics in employment matters.

Jamie has a thriving commercial practice and appears regularly in the High Court. As sole counsel, his clients have included  Uber, BT, a Brazilian Premiership footballer, and a well-known US Law Firm. He also brings experience of international commercial arbitration, and disputes in the financial services, mining and natural resources, entertainment and media, retail, and hospitality sectors. As a former fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Jamie takes a keen interest in cases involving a tech angle.

Jamie is often instructed in cases of significant legal complexity, and those which require precise and forceful written and oral advocacy. His current and recent work includes:

• A commercial arbitration arising out of a dispute over a property development in Moscow (led by Charles Samek QC).
• A commercial arbitration between a hedge fund and a former senior executive (as sole counsel).
• A High Court dispute between a hedge fund and a former senior executive (as sole counsel).
• Gruber & ors v American International Group & Ors [2020] EWCA Civ 31; [2018] EWHC 3030 (led by Daniel Oudkerk QC and Amy Rogers) – Jamie acted for the Claimants in litigation arising from the US Government bailout of AIG during the financial crisis of 2008. The case was reported by Bloomberg here.
• Advising in relation to injunctive relief in a commercial dispute with national security implications.
• Advising a well-known PR agency as to the contractual and tortious claims available to it against a former client (outside the jurisdiction).

Jamie acted successfully for the Claimants (led by Brian Kennelly QC) in a judicial review of the DPP’s decision not to prosecute a neo-Nazi for crimes contrary to the Public Order Act 1986. In response to the litigation, the Crown Prosecution Service quashed its own decision. This case received national coverage from (among other outlets) The Guardian, The Independent, BuzzFeed, and the BBC.

Education:

• 2012-2013: Bar Professional Training Course (BPP)
• 2011-2012: Graduate Diploma in Law (City University): Distinction
• 2007-2010: BA History and Politics (Magdalen College, Oxford): top First in the university Scholarships and Prizes:
• Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize (2019)
• Fellowship, Harvard University Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society (2017) Gray’s Inn James Hunt Advocacy prize (2014)
• Gray’s Inn Arden Scholarship (2014) Gray’s Inn Bedingfield Scholarship (2013)
• Gray’s Inn David Karmel Entrance Award (2012)
• Oxford University William Gladstone Memorial Prize (2010) Oxford University Gibbs Book Prize (2010)
• Magdalen College Atkinson prize (2010)
• Oxford Union Edward Tomlinson Memorial Prize for the best speech made at the Oxford Union in the academic year (2009-2010)
• Magdalen College Angus McIntyre Prize for History (2009) Magdalen College Demyship (scholarship) (2009) Magdalen College Demyship (scholarship) (2008)
• First Class (Distinction), Preliminary Examinations (2008)
• Youngest ever Captain of the England Schools Debating Team; ranked #1 Debater in the World (2006)

Publications:

• “Pleading and Proving Foreign Law”, International Employment Disputes (Eds. Daniel Oudkerk QC & Amy Rogers) (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2019)
• Co-Author, “Assistance in Overseas Proceedings”, International Employment Disputes (Eds. Daniel Oudkerk QC & Amy Rogers) (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2019)
• Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech (Oxford University Press, 2018) Karl Marx and British Intellectuals in the 1930s (Davenant Press, 2011 ISBN 978-1-85944-063-6) Co-Author, “Remedies & Negotiations”, Termination of Employment (Butterworths, 2015: 51)
• Assistant Editor, First Supplement to De Smith’s Judicial Review (7th Edition, 2013; First Supplement 2014)

Before becoming a lawyer, Jamie’s background was in politics. He also briefly worked for Lord Saville during the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, and worked on the London Citizens Living Wage campaign in London Hospitals.

In 2011, Jamie spent three months learning Kung Fu in a Shaolin Temple in the Kunyu Mountains of China’s Shandong province, an experience from which he is still recovering.