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Portrait of Sophie Newman
Areas of expertise: Commercial dispute resolution

Profile

Sophie is an associate in the commercial dispute resolution team and works in the firm’s Oxford office. She assists with a broad range of commercial disputes, acting for both private individuals and corporate clients. 

Sophie’s practice covers a diverse range of areas, including advising on commercial contract and shareholder disputes, regulatory compliance, debt recovery and professional negligence claims. She has been involved in UK and cross-border litigation and arbitration, has experience of taking claims through the County Court and the High Court, and has previously assisted with a Supreme Court case. She also works closely with the firm’s corporate, commercial and employment teams. 

Sophie graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Human, Social and Political Sciences in 2016, following which she worked as a major gifts fundraiser. Between 2019 and 2021 she undertook the Graduate Diploma in Law and the Legal Practice Course, achieving a distinction in both. Sophie joined Penningtons Manches Cooper in 2021 as a trainee and qualified as a solicitor in 2023.

Recent work highlights

  • Acting for the Consumers’ Association (Which?) as an intervener in Philipp v Barclays Bank, an APP fraud case in which the Supreme Court disagreed with the Court of Appeal’s decision that the ‘Quincecare’ duty of care could apply to an individual customer’s instructions and not just an agent’s.
  • Advising a large US-based medical technology company on a dispute with a UK manufacturing firm regarding their licensing and exclusive distribution agreement.
  • Acting for a director-shareholder in respect of an unfair prejudice petition involving the diversion of group company assets by another director-shareholder for personal gain.
  • Acting for liquidators in a professional negligence claim against a pseudo-bank for breaches of its ‘Quincecare’ duty by facilitating customers’ investments in a Ponzi scheme.
  • Advising a professional cyclist on his appeal of the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal’s decision regarding alleged EPO use and the resulting ban from the sport.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC311575 and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 419867.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP