Amy Nesbitt

Amy is an established Partner within Weightmans’ Specialty team. Amy’s practice focuses on insurance coverage and professional liability matters. Most of her clients are insurers, and she also accepts direct instructions from commercial entities, local authorities, and professional services firms. Following a recent relocation from Weightmans’ London office where Amy practised for several years, she is now based in Newcastle but maintains a strong London client base and acts for clients across the country.

She acts in disputes concerning all manner of professionals and sectors including construction professionals, surveyors/valuers, insurance brokers, local authorities, and property managers. Amy also has experience in matters involving emerging and miscellaneous professions including beauticians and aesthetics practitioners, agronomists, estate agents, property search providers, notaries public, IT professionals, and providers of digital and automated services.

Amy has vast experience advising on contentious and non-contentious insurance coverage issues under Professional Indemnity, Directors and officers, Management Liability, and Officials Indemnity policies.

Amy is a practising Barrister and a member of FOIL’s Directors & Officer’s Sector Focus Team. She is frequently commended by clients for her ferocious work ethic – known to “pull out all the stops in a very short space of time” – and has been described by clients and peers as  “fiercely intelligent, quick-witted, well-ordered and thorough: a formidable combination that makes her capable of grappling effectively with the largest and most complex of cases”, with her drafting and written advocacy receiving particular praise: “her drafting skills, which she developed during her previous career at the Bar, are particularly impressive and set her apart from her peers. Most importantly of all, her work is characterised by a ‘client first’ mindset.”

Notable cases

• Advising on coverage issues under a D&O policy in the context of a criminal investigation by NHS Counter Fraud Services concerning an alleged conspiracy to defraud the government in relation to a £100m hospital redevelopment project.
• Acting on a complex coverage instruction for excess layer insurers on an insurance “tower” for a national building contractor regarding cladding-related claims brought under the Third Party (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010 with a combined value of over £100 million.
• Advising and acting for insurance brokers in the defence of professional indemnity claims and referrals to the Financial Services Ombudsman (FOS) arising from the absence of or limitations on insurance coverage for COVID-19 losses.
• Acting in a series of complex disputes arising from damage to dwellings caused by the pyrite crisis in Ireland and advising on related insurance coverage issues.
• Acting in judicial review, declaratory proceedings and related high-profile civil claims against a local authority concerning the adequacy of steps taken to ascertain, communicate and maintain records pertaining to the highway status of the land.
• Advising on insurance coverage issues under a Professional Indemnity policy in respect of multiple claims against loss adjusters involving elements of fraud.
• Providing advice on D&O coverage, defence strategy, and monitoring in the context of numerous claims involving employment liability issues.