John Leadley

Biography

John is a partner in the Baker McKenzie Dispute Resolution team based in London, and former Chair of the Global Dispute Resolution team.

John is recognised as a Leading Individual by Legal 500 for both Commercial Litigation and Product Liability work. Chambers & Partners also cite the quality of his work on European regulatory issues around products.

He is also recognised as a leading professional in his field at government level. He and his colleague, Kate Corby, were the only law firm partners invited by the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills to be part of the steering group set up to consider reforms to its review into consumer product recall processes in the UK. He has previously taken part in similar initiatives with the Corporation of British Industry and the Association of British Healthcare Industries.

Practice Focus

John advises clients on a broad range of commercial litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution, much of it international in nature, relating to general corporate, pharmaceutical and healthcare, and financial services matters. In addition, he regularly advises on product and operational safety risk management, including product recall, environmental and Health & Safety at Work issues. In all these areas, John has extensive experience of advising clients, often at board level, on crisis management, including advice on media and communications issues.

Representative Legal Matters

Representing an airport operator in LCIA arbitration proceedings against a low cost airline concerning pricing issues.
Acting for a multinational courier delivery company in a high value DIFC-LCIA arbitration and three parallel proceedings relating to its Saudi Arabia business.
Acting for a major China based manufacturer of consumer goods in two related high value ICC arbitrations.
Acting for Canaccord Genuity Limited in the defence of Commercial Court proceedings concerning the collapse of The American Leisure Group.
Acting for Ineos Manufacturing Scotland Limited (formerly part of BP Chemicals) in a major Commercial Court action concerning ownership of CO2 emissions allowances valued in excess of GBP 100 million.
Advising on and coordinating numerous product recalls for manufacturers in various industry sectors, including Mattel, BOSE, Starbucks and Sony Ericsson; managing two pan-European recalls of defective batteries used in a well-known laptop product.
Acting for various medical devices manufacturers in the defence of product liability claims.

Admissions

England & Wales~United Kingdom (1991)

Education

Inns of Court School of Law (B.A.) (1985)
Oxford University (Exeter College) (B.A. Civil Law) (1984)
Oxford University (Exeter College) (B.A. Law) (1983)

Languages

English

John has spoken publicly and written numerous articles on dispute resolution, insurance reinsurance, product liability and pharma/healthcare matters.

He edits the London Office Product Liability Newsletter and contributes to the firm's internal Pharma and Healthcare newsletter.

He has also written for external publications such as Product Liability International, Lloyd's List, Insurance Day and Kluwer's Handbook of Insurance and Reinsurance Law.