Amber Strickland
Amber Strickland is a Principal Associate who specialises in both Commercial Litigation and Regulatory crime.
She has experience of advising corporate and private clients at all stages of a commercial dispute from pre-action through to trial and subsequent costs disputes. She understands that in order to consider the merits of a case and the best course of action to take to resolve the issues, clients want to think about minimising costs incurred and reputational damage caused by the those actions. If possible, Amber will look for a practical and commercial approach to resolution of a dispute.
As part of her Regulatory Crime practice, she helps businesses manage risks effectively in order to meet regulatory requirements whilst also keeping in mind the need to take a sensible and pragmatic approach to incident prevention.
She supports clients through regulatory investigations by the police, Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency and Local Authority Environmental Health. She also advises on and represents clients at Coronial Inquests.
She provides clear and practical advice based on the commercial realities.
Outside of work, she enjoys learning to cook new recipes and taking on home improvement projects.
Experience
Commercial Litigation
Amber has experience of working with software development and IT services providers following disputes arising out of development and outsourcing contracts. For example, she worked for a large international consulting and IT services partner following a dispute which arose out of the delivery of an Agile software development project. She developed an understanding of how these projects work and the provider and client expectations. The claim resulted in successful outcomes including a costs order in the client's favour at the CMC, a successful summary judgment application which narrowed the issues in dispute and a challenge to claims for privilege which allowed the client to see 80% of the material over which privilege had been claimed.
She has led and assisted in technical and high value negotiations and she has experience of mediations taking place at different stages of the proceedings (including pre-action). She is able to understand the client's commercial objectives and assist clients to implement settlement tactics which will achieve their objectives.
Amber acted for a large aerospace company following the theft of confidential and top secret restricted military information by a former employee. She also acted in similar circumstances for an automotive company when a current employee stole confidential designs from its innovation centre after resigning and taking a job with a competitor. In both cases Amber prepared urgent without notice injunction proceedings. All of the information (and copies) were retrieved and in one case the employee was restricted by Court order from working for the competitor company. The swift and decisive action meant that the confidentiality of the information was preserved and that reputational damage was avoided.
Amber also has experience of acting in matters and claims arising from data/cyber incidents including cases arising out of hacking incidents, breaches of confidence and alleged breaches of data protection legislation and misuse of private information
Regulatory Litigation
Amber has assisted many clients in respect of regulatory investigations, in advance of them having been asked to provide a statement under caution and subsequently when they have been invited to attend an interview under caution. These clients include house builders accused of illegal abstraction of water from the mains supply, an American bank in respect of repeated breach of planning permission, a construction company accused of destroying TPO trees and a pub group accused of, in one case, planning contraventions and in another case misrepresenting information on its menus. On each occasion the client had never been involved in an investigation of this nature and had never attended an interview under caution.
In most of those cases, the regulator has been satisfied with the written response under caution and the investigation has been closed without charges being brought. In some cases, a complex regulatory investigation and a prosecution has followed. Amber has assisted clients through these processes which usually require sensitive negotiations with the regulator in relation to the charges and the plea.
As well as defending breaches, Amber has provided practical advice on compliance with regulations. Recent examples include electrical equipment, waste battery, product safety, food supplements, waste packaging, fire safety, asbestos, provision of care, CDM and restriction of hazardous substances regulations.
Amber has successfully guided a number of clients through the inquest process for example, following fatalities on construction sites, death in prison, deaths in care homes or assisted living facilities and death of a child following a visit to a cinema. Amber has acted as an advocate at Inquests and has protected clients from conclusions at the Inquest which could give rise to adverse publicity as well as inferences which could be used in civil claims and regulatory prosecutions against the client. Amber has worked closely with client's internal and external PR teams in order to ensure