Phil Duignan

Partner

Practice areas

• Consumer
• Industrials
• Litigation and dispute management
• Public law
• Retail
• Transport

Practice notes

Phil is a Partner in our Litigation and Dispute Management practice group in Manchester.

He specializes in acting in high-value and complex litigation, helping his clients utilize High Court, arbitration and ADR processes to acheive their desired outcomes. He is client partner for a number of our key client accounts.

Phil has particular experience in advising on shareholder disputes, professional negligence actions, contractual disputes, procurement matters, and both the bringing of and responding to applications for injunctive relief. He also regularly advises client's post-corporate deal in respect of the bringing of and responding to warranty and indemnity claims.

He has extensive experience in business protection litigation. Phil is highly experienced in advising on taking action (ranging from the securing of undertakings to obtaining urgent injunctive relief, and pursuing claims for damages/loss of profits) to enforce employer rights and protect sensitive confidential information, and also defending employees and businesses in respect of the same.

He heads up our Aviation and Airports sector, and regularly advises in this area, as well as in the consumer and retail sector.

Phil strongly advocates the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution techniques, and has a wealth of experience in using mediation to achieve the best possible results for his clients.

The GC of a leading UK-listed business said of Phil, "He is young and dynamic, he really wants to serve his clients, he is responsive, and looks at things from all angles."

Phil's recent experience includes:

• acting for a FTSE 100 listed PLC following the discovery of a multimillion-pound fraud in its supply chain to obtain a freezing injunction over assets within 24 hours of initial instruction
• acting for the Department for Transport in the 2019 Rail Franchising Litigation
• acting for Thames Water in a multimillion-pound dispute arising from Thames’ sale of its non-household retail water business to Castle Water, a "Lawyer top 20" case in 2021
• acting on behalf of one of the nation's leading fashion brands in respect of a multimillion-pound dispute arising under a logistics services agreement

Professional Activities

• Member, Manchester Law Society
• Member, Pro-Manchester

Awards and Rankings

• Acritas Stars Independently rated lawyer
• Partner in our CDR Manchester team, the sole team ranked in Tier 1 for Litigation in the North West in Chambers and Partners 2022
• Ranked in the Legal 500 UK Rising Star 2021, 2022 for Commercial Litigation in the North West, with client testimonials, including:

"Phil Duignan is truly exceptional in all areas. His response time (even out of hours) is the fastest I’ve seen in litigation (almost immediate). He can rapidly process quickly changing and very complex events and alter the litigation plan accordingly. He also understands people well and is able to extract the required outcomes in his communications with the other side. He’s humble, honest, smart and efficient."

"The people at this practice are fantastic. Speed of response is excellent, working style is very attentive and detailed. Technology is good. When I work with Phil Duignan, I feel like he’s in-house. He very rapidly can understand and process new and changing events. He’s an exceptional lawyer."

Qualifications and Education

• Legal Practice Course, College of Law, Chester, 2005-2006
• LLP (Hons) Law, Lancaster University, 2005