We have grown our travel sector expertise with the appointment of leading specialists, partners Claire Mulligan and Justin Collins. Claire and Justin join with a team of 11 senior associates and solicitors who all specialise in the field.

Claire defends clients including leading travel operators, travel agencies and insurers in employers’ liability and public liability disputes, as well as advising on regulatory matters. She has particular expertise in handling high profile, publicity sensitive crisis and incident management matters. Recent cases include the Costa Concordia grounding, the Renfe train crash, the Madeleine McCann disappearance and the mauling of a student by a polar bear in Norway.

Formerly a partner and head of the travel practice at Plexus, Claire joins our London personal injury practice with her 12 lawyer team, significantly growing our travel industry capability.

Acting for travel operators and insurers, partner Justin Collins defends high value and complex personal injury matters including employers’ liability, public liability and motor, as well as motor and property incidents, recoveries and subsidence.

Claire, one of the UK’s leading travel sector lawyers and a regular speaker at ABTA and ABTOI conferences, says: “I wanted to move to a firm with a reputation for quality and a real client focus. Kennedys is known in the market for being a strong player with a reputation as a leading defendant firm and I felt that my team’s travel offering would complement the firm’s expertise, including their aviation sector focus, well. I already knew a number of partners at the firm so I was confident that Kennedys would be an excellent cultural fit.”

Nick Thomas, senior partner of Kennedys, says: "Claire, Justin and their team have an excellent reputation in the travel sector having advised some of the industry’s biggest names and incidents. The appointments will grow our travel capability and allow us to offer our clients an industry-leading crisis management product devised by Claire – something we are seeing an increasing client demand for.”

These latest hires follow a string of new joiners over the last few months with commercial litigator, Frank Gill, and insurance liability and regulatory partner, Rory Jackson, joining in January to establish our new Scottish office and a seven lawyer aviation team, headed by Peng Lim, joining our Singapore office in December last year.