Management Team

Andrea Cohen

Chief Executive

Andrea qualified as a solicitor in 1988 and specialised in bringing negligence claims against professionals, including solicitors, accountants, surveyors etc. In 2006, Andrea moved into the management team of a Top 100 law firm, developing a niche expertise in risk and compliance. Following five years as Consultant in her own risk and compliance business, ARC Risk & Compliance, and Head of Risk and Compliance and Training Principal at a law firm, Andrea joined Weightmans as a Consultant in March 2018 to work in Compli, Weightmans’ bespoke regulatory consultancy service for law firms, alternative business structures, barristers and in-house lawyers. Andrea also delivers training on a wide range of areas, most recently on GDPR.

Andrea is a founder member and Chief Executive of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association, member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Professional Negligence and member of the Manchester Law Society regulatory affairs committee and COLP and COFA Forum.

Edward Aczel

Marketing and Events co-ordinator

Ed has many years’ experience in the marketing industry. Ed manages all marketing for the association and seminars including co-ordinating speakers presentations.

Jayna Patel

South England Regional Representative

Jayna qualified as a solicitor in 2007 and has 16 years of litigation experience. She specialised early on in her career in Claimant professional negligence. Jayna has worked in Cardiff, London and Salisbury. She has worked within the legal expense industry largely representing SME's and residential property owners. Whilst working in London, Jayna secured a 100% success rate for her lender clients and she is familiar with the operation of alternative funding e.g. CFA's, ATE policies. More recently, Jayna has acted for high net worth individuals and SME's and pursued claims against solicitors, accountants, valuers and surveyors.

Jayna is based in Winchester with her husband and young family.``

Karen Cornwell

Joint Scotland Representative - Legal Director - Thorntons Law LLP

Karen is a Notary Public and qualified as a solicitor in Scotland in 1999 and England and Wales in 2010.

Her background has exclusively been in litigation with a strong emphasis on all manners of commercial, property, banking litigation and professional negligence.

Karen is one of only ten solicitors to be Accredited as a Specialist in Professional Negligence Law by the Law Society of Scotland.

She is an active member of the Professional Negligence Lawyer’s Association and is also an active member of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers (“FOIL”) and acts as a Scottish representatives of their Environmental Sector Focus Team.”

Tim Edward

Partner - MBM Commercial - Joint Scotland Representative

Tim joined MBM Commercial as a Partner in January 2021. He has over three decades of experience in litigation and dispute resolution and is listed as a leading lawyer in both Chambers and Legal 500 for Commercial Litigation and Professional Negligence (Scotland).

He is an accredited specialist in professional negligence (Law Society of Scotland).

Tim is ranked as Band 2 in Chambers for Professional Negligence – Scotland and Band 3 for Litigation – Scotland and is described as ``A consistently good and reliable lawyer.`` He is listed in Legal 500’s Hall of Fame for both commercial litigation and professional negligence. Tim is an active Solicitor-Advocate with experience of presenting cases in the Court of Session.

Prior to joining MBM, Tim spent 30 years at Dentons (previously Maclay Murray & Spens) where he was a partner and a member of their Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice, focusing on insolvency and company litigation.

He is a currently a member of the Law Society of Scotland's Pursuer's Advisory Panel pursuing negligence claims against solicitors. He served on the Law Society of Scotland's Diploma Materials Committee in the 1990's and ran the Maclay Murray & Spens PCC Elective on Civil Litigation from 2003 to 2012.

He carries out regular CPD training for the profession in the field of dispute resolution.

Harry Fehily

of Holmes O’Malley Sexton - Ireland Representative

Harry is Managing Partner of Holmes O’Malley Sexton one of the most highly regarded professional negligence solicitors in Ireland. He has particular expertise in relation to the defence of professional negligence actions against solicitors, barristers and accountants as well as defending construction companies.

With the benefit of his wealth of experience, Harry is trusted to act for most leading professional negligence insurers operating in Ireland to deal with the most complex, high value and challenging negligence claims. He has extensive experience of acting in cases before the Commercial Court and prides himself on his ability to deliver optimum results.

Harry is an internationally ranked lawyer for Dispute Resolution with Chambers Global 2019, an international legal directory that ranks the world’s most outstanding lawyers. Client feedback to Chambers described him as practical, realistic and commercial. Harry is a keen advocate of dispute resolution and is himself a CEDR-qualified mediator.

Finally, Harry is also a member of the Law Society of Ireland’s Guidance and Ethics Committee’s Panel to assist solicitors in difficulty with the Law Society. He is a member of the International Lawyers’ Network and has experience of coordinating multi-jurisdictional litigation, including in relation to a recent solicitor’s cyber attack