Ben Gold

Partner

Ben specialises in defending claims against Directors and Officers, Financial Institutions and Insurance Brokers and other Insurance Intermediaries, and providing coverage advice to Insurers in relation to D&O, FI and E&O risks

Ben is as an excellent lawyer, who prides himself on providing clear, commercial and strategic advice.

In a client testimonial recorded in the Legal 500 (2020), he was described as "bright as a button… provid[ing] extremely impressive advice and litigation strategy". He is described in the current Chambers & Partners guide (2024), as having "one of the finest legal minds", and "importantly, appl[ying] it with superb commerciality."

On the defence side, recent instructions include:  

• defending directors against a £20m claim in the Commercial Court for breach of fiduciary duty – claim successfully struck out (Guy's & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust & Anor v ESMS Global Ltd & Ors [2022] EWHC 2941 (Comm) (18 November 2022))
• defending directors against a £4.5m claim in the Chancery Division – claim brought by assignee of a liquidator and alleges breach of the Companies Act 2006 duties as well as liability under provisions of Insolvency Act 1986 (claim settled on favourable terms);
• successful defence of a director in an unfair prejudice petition matter (settled pre- action on favourable terms); 
• successful defence of a director in an Insolvency Service investigation (investigation was closed with no further action taken following Ben's written submissions for the client); 
• successful defence of directors against a deceit claim (following Ben's letter of response the claimant expressly withdrew the claim pre-action);
• successful defence of a claim against a loss adjuster (claim settled pre-action on favourable terms);
• acting for charity trustee in disqualification proceedings brought by the Charity Commission; 
• acting for a coverholder in the defence of a claim brought against it by an insurer for breach of a binding authority (matter ongoing). 

In addition to defence work, Ben has a broad and very busy coverage (and monitoring) practice, the mainstay of which is D&O, FI and broker/ insurer intermediary E&O matters, with many of these cases having an international element. 

Over and above these core coverage areas, Ben has also attained considerable experience of the following complimentary areas:

• tax planning insurance (advising insurers on coverage)
• construction claims (advising PI insurers of construction professionals on coverage);
• the scope of FOS jurisdiction and advising on challenges to that jurisdiction;
• issues relating to governing law or jurisdiction. As an example, one of his cases is AXIS Corporate Capital UK II Limited & Ors v ABSA Group Limited & Ors [2021] EWHC 861 (Comm), where he acted for the reinsurers of an original FI risk, in obtaining an anti-suit injunction (granted by the Commercial Court) to restrain the continuance of foreign proceedings commenced against the reinsures by the original insured and the reinsured captive; 
• issues relating to subrogation, double insurance and contribution between insurers (another of his cases for example, is Rathbone Brothers v Novae [2014] EWCA Civ 1464, where the Court of Appeal considered such issues in the context of PI and D&O insurance);
• policy drafting.

Recent coverage instructions include the successful defence of D&O insurers in an arbitration brought against them by the liquidator of a collapsed European Bank, the defence of an E&O insurer in an arbitration brought against it pursuant to the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010 (ongoing), and acting for facultative reinsurers in coverage proceedings in the Commercial Court on a £25m claim. 

Ben was called to the Bar of England Wales in 2005.