Profile

Chanelle is a senior associate in Kennedys’ professional liability team, based in Birmingham. She joined Kennedys in 2015 as a trainee solicitor, and qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales in 2017. 

Chanelle is instructed by major professional indemnity insurers and their insureds, Lloyd’s syndicates and self-insureds. She defends a wide range of professionals, with a focus on solicitors, architects, accounting and construction claims. 

She is also experienced in advising insurers on complex policy and coverage issues.

Chanelle has completed two successful long term client secondments to a well-known construction firm, and to international insurer. 

Chanelle has extensive experience in defending both pre-action claims and litigated claims, and often utilises ADR (primarily mediation) to achieve favourable results for her clients. She has also successfully acted on adjudications. 

In addition to her professional indemnity practice, Chanelle is regularly instructed to defend universities and colleges against a wide range of claims, involving alleged discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, data breaches pursuant to UK GDPR/DPA 2018 and Human Rights Act 1998 breaches.

Work highlights

  • Successfully defended and achieved a £500,000 settlement in an architect’s negligence claim for over £4m following mediation.
  • Defended and obtained a favourable pre-action settlement of a complex accountancy claim worth in excess of £605,000 for £250,000.
  • Successfully defended and settled a sensitive professional negligence data breach claim at mediation for £38,000 inclusive of costs, against a claim of c.£250,000 plus costs.
  • Pivotal in mitigating insurers’ losses and obtaining a favourable settlement of c.£500,000 in a £1.2m+ estate claim against a solicitor for the invalid execution of a will
  • Instrumental in defending and settling a claim against a university for breach of contract issued in British Colombia, Canada for CAD $8,000 against a claim for US $44bn.