Claire Butler

Claire is an Associate in the Dispute Resolution department. Having trained and worked in a large London firm Claire joined the firm in 2001. Claire advises on all aspects of commercial litigation, with particular expertise in professional negligence and contractual disputes. Claire also advises on insolvency, employment and debt recovery matters.

Laura Sutton

Laura trained at a city firm and qualified as a solicitor in 2003.

Before jointing pdt Laura worked for a regional firm specialising in consumer credit, asset and motor finance where she gained considerable experience.

Laura is an Associate in the Dispute Resolution department where she continues to undertake consumer credit, asset and motor finance work.

Laura's practice focuses on factoring and invoice discounting litigation where she advises financial institutions in respect of guarantor and indemnity actions and complicated debtor claims, as well as undertaking a variety of general commercial contractual disputes.

Laura is known for her commerciality and will seek to resolve disputes with the best possible outcome for her clients as swiftly and cost effectively as possible.

Laura regularly gives lectures on the effectiveness of enforcement proceedings.

Jeff Streater

Jeff is an Associate in the Real Estate department having joined pdt in 2005. Previously, Jeff trained with and spent over three years in the Surrey office of a City law firm. He has dealt with a broad range of commercial property matters, and has particular experience of acting for developers and Housing Associations.

Peter Ames

Peter is an Associate in the Dispute Resolution department.  Peter trained in the City and joined pdt with considerable experience in both contentious and non-contentious commercial and financial matters.

Peter now focuses on a variety of commercial dispute matters including contractual, trust and fraud actions.  As well as dealing with a wide range of factoring matters, Peter also acts for clients in relation to construction disputes and insolvency action.

Gail Morris

Gail is an Associate in the Dispute Resolution department. Gail spent 3 years working within pdt's real estate department before moving across into dispute resolution in July 2006. She deals with general commercial work with a focus on factoring and invoice discounting matters. She also advises on property litigation issues.

Ian Lindley

Ian is an Associate in the Company Commercial department. He formerly practiced bankruptcy law and commercial litigation in the Delaware and Philadelphia offices of a leading US law firm. Prior to entering legal practice, Ian received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Edinburgh and Boston College. He was born and raised in the Republic of Singapore.

Ian's practice focuses on insolvency, commercial and intellectual property matters. He advises clients with respect to business sales and acquisitions, shareholder arrangements and corporate governance, all aspects on insolvency law and practice, and the establishment, sale, licensing and enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Ian holds the Certificate of Proficiency in Insolvency.

Diana Robbs

Diana is an Associate in our Dispute Resolution department having trained and practised in the City for three years.  She represents a number of large financial institutions focusing mainly on factoring and invoice discounting.  Diana deals with general contractual disputes and has advised on EU regulatory issues.

Craig Burton

Craig is an Associate in our Real Estate department and assists James Clewlow with a wide range of commercial property matters including both leasehold and development transactions. Craig is also a member of the pharmacy acquisition team and deals with all aspects of pharmacy sale and purchase transactions.

Claire Storey

Claire joined pdt in 2007 and is a Solicitor in our Company Commercial department. Before joining PDT Claire worked in the legal department of a multinational asset based lending company.

Claire’s practice covers general commercial advice, corporate transactions and insolvency work. Her particular expertise is in receivables financing and advising factoring and discounting companies on documentation, security and enforcement issues. Claire also advises on corporate transactions, shareholder agreements, business acquisitions and insolvency sales.

Meta Thakrar

Meta is a Senior Associate in our Dispute Resolution department and Insolvency teams.

Meta has substantial experience in contentious personal and corporate insolvency cases, including experience in complex disputes involving matrimonial homes, preference, undervalue and misfeasance claims and has worked on behalf of office holders, directors, companies and private individuals.

Meta also acts for factoring companies in connection with contractual disputes, issues arising from client failure and debt recovery generally.

Meta is a Fellow of the Institute of Legal executives and has been qualified since 1992.

Graeme Barron

Graeme is an Associate in the Company Commercial department and advises on a range of corporate matters including mergers and acquisitions, MBO’s, MBI’s, institutional buyouts, investments, banking transactions, shareholders’ agreements and general corporate governance.

Prior to joining pdt, Graeme practised at a niche commercial firm in the North East, specialising in pharmacy acquisition and disposals.

Nighat Sahi

Nighat is a Senior Associate and heads our Employment Department. Nighat qualified as a solicitor in 2006 and joined pdt in May 2011.

Nighat is an experienced employment lawyer, having cut her teeth in a niche employment practice based in the City. Nighat represents and acts on behalf of Respondents (businesses) and Claimants (individuals) in all aspects of employment law.

Nighat’s ethos is to provide a focused consultative and advisory approach to all her client’s needs, whether it involves litigation, advice on procedure, policies, handbooks, or simply seeking advice on best practice to resolving disputes through mediation.

Nighat’s clients range from businesses covering a wide variety of sectors, directors and senior executives to junior employees. She advises businesses and individuals on a variety of areas including: redundancy dismissals, redundancy procedures, complex TUPE claims/procedures, discrimination, harassment, equal pay, unfair dismissal, health and safety dismissals, maternity/paternity rights, part-time and fixed-term workers rights, agency worker’s rights, whistle blowing, restrictive covenants, breach of contract and conciliation and settlement of claims.

She also represents employers/employees at judicial and private mediations. Her client support work includes: contract negotiations as well as severance packages, producing and updating handbooks/contracts, training, consultative and audit work.

Nighat has particular expertise in conducting discrimination, sex, race, disability cases and has advised in a number of high-value discrimination cases. Nighat undertakes advocacy at Tribunal.

She is a member of the Employment Lawyers’ Association, Association of Women Solicitors, Discrimination Law Association and Liberty.

Jo Dudman

Jo Dudman trained at pdt and on qualification in October 2010 joined the Real Estate Department.