Thea Maertens - Gateley

Expertise

Thea specialises in high value and complex commercial dispute resolution.

She acts for a wide range of clients, from PLCs to individuals, in a variety of different matters: contractual disputes, warranty and indemnity claims and obtaining urgent remedies such as search orders and other prohibitive injunctions. Thea’s particular area of specialism is professional negligence claims: acting in claims arising out of services provided by professionals such as Accountants, Solicitors, Tax Advisers and Construction and Financial Services professionals. Thea is a member of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association.

Thea is known for her strong commercial acumen and is exceptionally good with clients. She provides excellent leadership and team management in the conduct of complex Commercial Court and Chancery Division disputes. Thea uses alternative methods of dispute resolution such as mediation in order to achieve commercial and practical outcomes for her clients. Her hard work, attention to detail, focus and expertise achieves excellent result for clients in complex and difficult matters.

Experience

Achieving at mediation an advantageous settlement on behalf of pension trustees and the employer of their professional negligence claim against former legal advisers to the pension scheme.
Obtaining a search order and injunctive relief against ex-employees misusing the client’s confidential information, successfully protecting the confidential information and stopping significant damage to the client’s business.
Successfully defending a breach of warranty claim for £11m and recovering unpaid consideration of over £1m for the clients.
Helping a client reach a resolution without issuing court proceedings in respect of a dispute regarding the failure of fans on an offshore oil rig.
Successfully challenging the jurisdiction of the English courts under the Recast Brussels Regulation, setting aside the claim against the client for £3m and recovering the client’s costs.

Thea Maertens is exceptional with clients, and always on the ball – a joy to work with
Legal 500 UK, 2022

In what must have been the most protracted negotiation to arrive at a settlement, Thea had the mindset and skill to keep it on track and had the right strategy to ensure that we came to an amicable agreement. This was because she worked very hard with the opposing lawyer and had the knack of knowing where and how to get things done.
Client

Thea has been my first point of contact throughout a most trying time, her control and management of our actions has been in my opinion at all times intelligent and thorough. To describe Thea’s performance as efficient and/or professional would not begin to tell the story because as a client involved in these types of proceedings you need so much more and it is there that Thea delivered.
Client

I worked with Thea on a series of warranty claims arising from our MBO in 2017 which spread out over several years. We were really impressed with the collaboration and support we received from Thea. Her commercial acumen is strong, and this helped greatly in articulating and quantify our claims. My experience of potential litigation was very limited, and the litigation process seemed like a maze, but Thea is an expert guide! She was key to navigating our way through the process and we ended up with a result that we were very satisfied with because of being able to draw on her expertise.
Client

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