Douglas Skilton

Senior Associate

Specialisms and expertise

  • Complex and high value commercial disputes, including claims for breach of contract arising from the sale of major industrial machinery, international distribution agreements and national supply contracts.
  • Disputes involving shareholders, partners and directors of companies.
  • Intellectual property disputes, including copyright, design right, trade mark and passing off claims, domain name and company name disputes.
  • Regulatory disputes, with a particular focus on health and safety and environmental law.

Past and present projects

  • Acting for the distributor of a leading brand of racing cars in China in connection with a claim for breach of contract in the High Court, which resulted in a substantial, confidential settlement for the client.
  • Providing legal and tactical advice to a company which ordered bespoke manufacturing equipment that failed to perform to specification.
  • Acting for a manufacturer involved in a cross border EU dispute, which raised jurisdictional issues and practical challenges (such as language and procedural differences, and the need to implement secure document exchange systems).
  • Advising a market leading supplier to supermarkets in relation to a high value contractual claim against it, where the claim was ultimately withdrawn.
  • Successfully defending a challenge to the ownership of a client's design rights in an industrial vehicle.
  • Taking action to prevent the copying of a national retailer's website by a 'cybersquatter', and securing a transfer of the infringing domain name.
  • The defence of a health and safety prosecution arising out of an employee falling from height in a busy part of the West End of London.
  • Defending a company prosecuted by the Environment Agency under the Environmental Permitting Regulations.

Achievements and other appointments

Douglas is described as “efficient” by The Legal 500 2010, and recommended for the way he “gets on top of detail and takes a sensible approach”. The Dispute Resolution team is praised in Chambers UK 2009 for its “prompt, clear and effective responses”.

Douglas has completed a Diploma in Litigation and he has written a number of  articles for regional and national publications.

Profile

Douglas read Law at the University of Kent, Canterbury and he joined Thomson Snell & Passmore in 2004.