Legal business DWF has appointed finance litigation partner Ben Johnson to its Manchester office, where he will work with the business's national finance litigation team to bolster its existing capabilities.
Ben was formerly one of two Partners in the DLA Piper's North West Banking Litigation practice and brings significant experience in acting in disputes for retail bank and other financial services clients across the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. He has particular expertise in acting for the payments sector whether in litigation, risk advisory/regulatory or non-contentious work. He also focuses on cyber security, having been mandated to act in significant investigations and having litigated in connection with high-profile incidents, particularly across the retail banking market, where businesses are increasingly challenged with disputes relating to fraud, data loss and cyber-attacks.
In his role at DWF, Ben will take a lead role in managing the development of the banking litigation practice. With the increasing influence of payments regulation, such as Payment Services Directive 2, together with Open Banking and Fintech initiatives creating significant growth across the payments sector, Ben will build on our existing banking litigation platform to create a strong specialist focus in this area.
John Perez, National Head of Finance Litigation, said: "Ben brings a very strong track record in the industry and expertise in some of the most topical issues that are facing our clients' industries. He shares our approach to delivering decisive and forward-thinking advice to our financial services clients as they navigate complex legislative changes in the sector and he will be an excellent addition to DWF, not only to our North West practice, but also from a national and international perspective."
Ben Johnson added: "With its focus on technology and innovation, DWF can offer something very different to clients. This is key in the financial services sector, where businesses are facing a significant amount of change and so require new approaches to service delivery and process management in order to guard against risk, reduce costs and stay competitive. DWF's geographic spread also presents a strong competitive advantage, as it can be leveraged to create further opportunities for global clients. There is a fantastic opportunity to build on the existing strong practice to deliver even more value for clients, and I'm looking forward to working with the team."
