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Teresa Rosen Peacocke

e-mail tpeacocke@3sb.law.co.uk

Teresa is an English Barrister and New York attorney specialising in advice and advocacy in contentious matters in the US, UK and other English common law jurisdictions. She practices in London and from the New York office. Her main practice areas are in the fields of Chancery, commercial and private international law.

Teresa has appeared several times in the House of Lords, most notably in White v Jones [1995] 2 AC 207 and in Royal Bank of Scotland plc v Etridge (No 2) [2001] UKHL 44. Her advocacy work extends to domestic and international litigation and arbitration and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.

She is an accredited and experienced mediator (and Lead Mediator with Consensus Mediation), an experienced Arbitrator and Fellow of the Royal Institute of Arbitrators, and a Governor of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute. She also acts as an expert witness on English or American law in foreign proceedings.

Teresa has become known for her willingness to probe legal doctrine and authority for the benefit of her clients. She has an abiding interest in the underlying rationale for legal principles and analysis and writes and speaks regularly on subjects within her expertise.

Teresa was the first to challenge the decision in Ross v Caunters, concerning solicitors’ liability to beneficiaries, following the House of Lords’ ruling in Murphy v Brentwood District Council in 1990, in the case of White v Jones decided by the House of Lords in 1995.

She then mounted a direct challenge to Pilkington v Wood in relation to a beneficiary’s duty to mitigate loss by rectification of a will, which was established as a general principle by the Court of Appeal in Walker v Geo H Medlicott & Son in 1999.

In the same year she successfully sought to extend and update the law of ademption and portions in Re Cameron. Teresa succeeded in advancing the principle of “unequal equities” prevailing over rules for competing minor interests in land in Freeguard v Royal Bank of Scotland Plc in the Court of Appeal.

She also acted in Royal Bank of Scotland Plc v Etridge (No 2) in 2001, asking the House of Lords to reconsider their earlier decision in Barclays Bank Plc v O’Brien.

In 2007 in the case of Ridgwell v Ridgwell Teresa undertook a first response to the changes in Inheritance Tax under the Finance Act 2006 by varying a private trust to insert a new beneficial interest for tax purposes. In 2008 she acted with New York co-counsel in Esso Exploration and Production Chad, Inc. v. Taylors International Services, Ltd, one of the first occasions for a US Federal Court of Appeals to consider the scope of judicial review of an international arbitration award following the decision of the US Supreme Court in Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc.

Teresa led the establishment of Chambers’ New York office in 2002. She is admitted to practice law in the courts of the state of New York, the Federal District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals as well as the Court of International Trade.

A significant proportion of her work involves coordinating parallel litigation and alternative dispute resolution procedures in London and New York (and elsewhere in the US and the Caribbean), including obtaining discovery and pre-emptive remedies in different jurisdictions, pursuing expert and deposition evidence in US courts in support of UK and Caribbean litigation, and enforcing foreign interlocutory and final judgments in US and UK courts.

Teresa is a tireless advocate of alternative dispute resolution and has developed special procedures for international and multi-party mediation, especially in the areas of trust and probate disputes, mediation assistance for litigants in person, and pre-litigation mediation, involving commercial and probability analyses of litigation risks and principles of decision theory.

Teresa is qualified to accept instructions from legal and non-legal professionals and directly from members of the public in the UK (under the Bar Council’s Licensed Access and Public Access Rules), and from any clients in the US and around the world.

Teresa has become well acquainted with, and is happy to discuss, the conduct of cases through conditional fee agreements and third party funding arrangements.

  • Professional reputation

    Teresa is recommended as a leading Professional Negligence barrister in the Directory of Legal Experts.

  • Notable Engagements

    Teresa was recently engaged as an expert on English law and procedure in New York litigation, and coordinated litigation in London with simultaneous actions in Guernsey, Delaware, and Oregon.

    She currently acts as advocate with Pennsylvania co-counsel in multiple international commercial arbitrations conducted in London.

    She represented clients involved in contentious and non-contentious legal business arising from the terrorist attack in New York on September 11, 2001 and the Tsunami disaster in Thailand on December 26, 2004.

  • Selection of Recent Cases

    • Esso Exploration and Production Chad v Taylors International Services, Ltd. September 2008 (2nd Circuit Court of Appeals) – Appeal from Arbitration award
    • Ridgwell v Ridgwell [2007] EWHC 2666 Variation of trusts following Finance Act 2006
    • Vicountess Hambleden v Maria Carmela Trust October 2007 (John Jarvis QC) – Construction/rectification
    • Dekker v Holliday Brown & Clements June 2007 - Limitation and locus standi in solicitor’s negligence
    • Jessup v Wetherell [2006] EWHC 2582 (QB) - Limitation
    • Freeguard v Royal Bank of Scotland plc [2005] EWHC 978 (Ch) - Bank’s duty on enforcement of security
    • National Westminster Bank Plc v Gill (Royal Bank of Scotland plc v Etridge) (No 2) [2001] UKHL 44 - Bank security documents over real property/ undue influence
    • Harrison v Tucker [2003] WTLR 883 - Will construction
    • Fitzhugh Gates v Borden Sherman [2003] EWCA Civ 886 - Wasted costs
    • Shelley v Phillips & Co Rimer J (18th July 2000) - Solicitor’s liability on transfer of business
    • Walker v Medlicott & Sons [1999] 1 All ER 685 - Solicitor’s liability; rectification
    • Horsfall v Haywards (1999) PNLR 583 - Solicitor’s liability; rectification
    • In re Cameron decd. [1999] 3 WLR 394 - Advancement/Ademption
    • Wight v Olswang [1998] NPC 111 - Trustee exemption clause
    • Cancer Research Campaign v Ernest Brown & Co. [1997] STC 1425 - Solicitor’s liability to charities for inheritance tax
    • White v Jones [1995] 2 AC 207 – Solicitor’s duty to intended beneficiaries of a will

     

  • Professional memberships and Appointments

    Chancery Bar Association, Commercial Bar Association, Professional Negligence Bar Association, Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists; Society of Trust and Estates Practitioners, American Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, New York County Lawyers Association, Governor (non-voting) of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute.

    Teresa sits as a Judge in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the world's largest moot court competition, with participants from over 500 law schools in more than 80 countries.

  • Education

    Teresa Rosen Peacocke has obtained Bachelors and Masters degrees and taught Philosophy at the University of Michigan before coming to the English Bar. She later obtained an LLM degree in Law from New York University Law School.

  • Recent Publications

    • “The remedy in White v Jones cases: smoothing the analytical wrinkles”  Prof. Negl (2008) 24(3), 138-153
    • Beneficiaries; Drafting; Duty of care; Inheritance tax; Professional negligence; Solicitors; Wills.P.N. 2008, 24(3), 138-153
    • “ADR in Trust and Probate Disputes” July 2008
    • ‘Sherman v Fitzhugh Gates’ (2005) Trusts and Estates Law Journal - Severance of beneficial joint tenancies by Simultaneous Will Making and Wasted Costs
    • ‘Will Construction According to Mannai Investment v Eagle Star’ (2004) 54 Trusts and Estates Law Journal

  • Seminars and Professional Enagagements

    Teresa lectures on all aspects of her practice both in chambers and at venues in the US, Caribbean and throughout England and Wales (including solicitors’ and insurers’ offices).


    In 2008 Teresa began a series of talks on the analysis and application of the doctrine established by the House of Lords in White v Jones, at solicitors’ and insurers’ offices and meetings of professional bodies throughout the UK. She has published this material in an article entitled “The remedy in White v Jones cases: smoothing the analytical wrinkles” in Tolley’s Professional Negligence.


    From July 2008 Teresa began speaking on alternative dispute resolution in trust and probate matters, espousing a new mediation system (NMS) for the early resolution of disputes. Her paper is soon to be published and is available on the website.


    In 2009 Teresa is now undertaking a new series of talks on proprietary estoppel, constructive trusts and related limitation issues, focused on recent decisions of the House of Lords and Court of Appeal and the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong.


    She is happy to respond to any forthcoming invitation to talk on these areas of law.


    For these and other recent talks, please see below: