Gary Nicholls

Full Profile

Gary is a Legal Director in our Edinburgh office since March 2021.

He defends professional negligence claims and contract disputes involving construction professionals (including contractors, specialist sub-contractors, M&E engineers, architects and surveyors), property factors, insurance brokers, accountants, tax advisors, IFAs and other professional disciplines.  Gary also specialises in pursuing and defending subrogated property damage disputes.

He is a dual-qualified solicitor in Scotland and England & Wales as well as admitted as an Irish solicitor and was called to the Bar in 2008. He remains a member of Lincoln's Inn.

Gary has spent the majority of his career practicing insurance law and has been instructed in hundreds of court hearings and ADR.

Experience

• Instructed for a core participant in the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry conducted by Lord Brodie.
• Instructed to defend a £6 million cladding claim against an architect in Scotland arising from a hotel constructed from flammable materials.
• Settled a Factor's negligence case for 25% of damages sued for following the recent decision in Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton [2021] UKSC 20 that reconsidered the SAAMCo principle.
• Recovered 95% damages claimed in latent property damage case against sub-contractor where damage appeared 7 years after practical completion.
• Instructed in Covid-19 related dispute against an education provider where a course was postponed in perpetuity and no refund provided in breach of circumstances set out in Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
• Instructed by a bookkeeper for former client seeking six figure damages for professional negligence where counter-claim exists for unpaid fees.
• Instructed to defend a professional negligence claim against an engineer involved in a flood alleviation project.