Andrew Bridgeford

Overview

I'm a Consultant in our Jersey office. In my KM role, I support litigation and disputes resolution team in Jersey. I also act within the team in major litigation and arbitration proceedings.

I have for a number of years independently published the Weekly Digest of Jersey Law which, amongst other things, attempts to provide full summaries of all judgments issued by the superior courts of Jersey. I also contribute case summaries to the Jersey and Guernsey Law Review, on whose Editorial Board I have served.

I work in English and French. In large areas of Jersey law, common law principles are followed. But Jersey is a mixed jurisdiction and there are also significant areas where the law is derived from civil law and customary law sources; when working in these areas, I am often to be found poring over the old French texts, particularly the seminal eighteenth-century works of Robert-Joseph Pothier and the older commentators on Norman and Jersey law. I first read Pothier as a young lawyer; the learning process will never cease.

My approach to the older material is to shape arguments that assist in the application of the law in a manner fit for the 21st century, as the court itself strives to do: per Sir Michael Birt, Cannon v Nicol 2006 JLR 299.

I have a rusty knowledge of German, having studied with a benefit of a short Stipendium at the law faculty of the Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany.

Professional qualifications

• Advocate (Jersey), 1988
• Barrister (England), 1986 (currently non-practising)

Work highlights

• Company law. This has included shareholder disputes, directors' duties, distributions and capital maintenance. In 2016 I was a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Sussex where I was researching issues of 'common law' capital maintenance.
• Limitation (prescription). Recent successful limitation cases in which I have co-drafted opinions or submissions include O'Keefe and Beveridge (as joint liquidators of Level One Residential (Jersey) Ltd and another company) v Caner and others [2017] EWHC 1105 (Ch) (English High Court - the Jersey limitation period for claims of breach of directors' duty). Current work involves other limitation issues arising in significant proceedings in New York.
• Trust law. Jersey role in our successful Guernsey team in the Privy Council case of Investec Trust (Guernsey) Limited and others v Glenalla Properties Limited and others 2018 UKPC 7. I have had a similar role in numerous past trust disputes in Jersey.
• Accessory liability for dishonest assistance and knowing receipt. My ongoing work relates to defences to claims in dishonest assistance and rights of contribution between co-defendants under Jersey law.
• Limited partnerships. I have recently carried out extensive work on the rights and duties of general partners and the nature of partnership asset-holding in relation to Jersey limited partnerships.
• Assignment. I have also carried out extensive work on the assignment of debt and the effect on rights of set-off (compensation) under Jersey law.
• Contract law. An area of particular interest has been the status of penalty clauses in Jersey contract law after Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi and ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67.