Kate Steele

Practice Areas

Kate is a partner in the award-winning Commercial Dispute Resolution team with over 15 years’ experience of assisting clients with contentious commercial and corporate matters. Her practice is varied and includes contract and tort disputes, company and shareholder disputes (including unfair prejudice petitions, warranty and completion account claims), the protection of confidential information and commercial fraud. In addition, Kate is experienced in reputation protection and contentious data protection (and is also a Certified Data Protection Practitioner) including cybersecurity incidents.

Praised for understanding the business needs of her clients and her straightforward and commercially focussed advice, Kate is experienced in all aspects of litigation, as well as assisting clients to resolve disputes through alternative means such as mediation. Kate has proven track record of obtaining and defending urgent injunctions including freezing orders, restrictive covenant/confidential information injunctions and wrongful interference injunctions. She has acted on a number of reported cases and represented clients in the Court of Appeal.

Career

Kate trained at Halliwells LLP before qualifying at Hill Dickinson LLP in 2010. Kate became a partner in the Commercial Dispute Resolution team in 2022.

Professional Memberships

Liverpool Law Society (former Chair and Treasurer of the Junior Lawyers Division of Liverpool Law Society)

Society for Computers and the Law

Professional Liverpool

Clients

Kate represents companies and high net worth individuals.

Work Highlights

• Acting for a manufacturer against a large global brand in a multi-million termination and breach of contract claim.

• Acting in multi-million litigation involving allegations of breach of warranty and fraudulent misrepresentation in relation to an online gambling company, including successfully overturning a without notice freezing injunction and, separately, an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

• Obtaining injunction orders and a multi-million judgment for a transport sector client in claims for breaches of a JCT contract and vesting certificate and wrongful interference.

• Defending an unfair prejudice petition and petitioning for a winding up order on just and equitable grounds in relation to a civil engineering business.

• Acting for a regulated consumer credit lender in litigation against ex-employees and a competitor for breaches of restrictive covenants, inducement to breach and conspiracy including an urgent interim application for springboard relief.

• Defending an unfair prejudice petition and a related partnership claim in relation to an automotive repair and maintenance business including obtaining a post-judgment freezing injunction against the petitioner/claimant.

• Acting in numerous claims concerning mis-directed payments (collectively totalling millions) as a result of cyberfraud, both for and against the payor victim of the fraud. Obtaining Norwich Pharmacal orders and a freezing injunction against a bank in respect of the account of an unknown wrongdoer.

• Successfully striking out/obtaining summary judgment of defamation and malicious falsehood claims issued against an education institution client.

Industry Sector Expertise

Kate works for clients across a range of sectors. She has particular experience acting for technology clients in termination disputes.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

England and Wales

Languages Spoken

English

Education