Ben Shoebridge

Full Profile

Ben is a Senior Associate in the professional and commercial disputes team.

Ben’s experience covers financial lines and construction disputes for insureds and insurers in the local and international insurance markets. He acts for a broad range of professionals including engineers, surveyors, M&E consultants, builders, architects, and solicitors. He also advises insurers on indemnity and insurance coverage issues. 

Ben has a developing reinsurance practice having assisted insurers with recovery actions against reinsurers arising from their COVID-19 business interruption losses. He has also acted for reinsurers in reinsurance disputes. This includes a large claim brought against a Panama based reinsurer for its alleged liability under the reinsurance contract. 

Ben is also very experienced in clinical negligence having worked exclusively in this field for several years. He was named a “rising star” and “key lawyer” for Clinical Negligence (Defendant) in the Legal 500 2023 and 2024. 

Ben is qualified as a solicitor in Australia and in the Courts of England and Wales. 

Notable cases include: 

• Defending an international firm of surveyors in a multi-million pound claim brought by a property investor for their losses arising out of a large shopping centre development.
• Acting for insurers in a large coverage dispute relating to stone cladding defects.
• Acting for reinsurers in a claim brought by the original insurer for its losses relating to policies covering French construction business.
• Advising insurers on recoveries against reinsurers arising out of their COVID-19 business interruption losses. 
• Acting for a global firm of solicitors in a claim for breach of restrictive covenants. 
• Acting for a GP in a claim brought by a Claimant for “wrongful conception”. This was the first claim to look at the interpretation of section 1(2)(a) of the Congenital Disabilities (Civil Liability) Act 1976 (see Toombes v Mitchell [2020] EWCA 3506).