MARK FANNING
Partner - Head of Travel & Marine
GARY BEAZLEIGH
Principal Associate
Solicitor
HILARY KETT
Consultant Solicitor
STEVE COOK
Loss Adjuster
Claire Scargill
Claims Manager / Senior Associate
Megan King
Claims Handler
NATALIE FANNING
Operations Director
PAULA SMITH
Finance & Data
Manager
CHARLOTTE LEWIS
Executive
Assistant
Managing Director (Solicitor)
Tel: 0208 159 9671
Mobile: 07454 201540
Email: mark.fanning@milesfanning.co.uk
Mark is the owner and Managing Director of Miles Fanning Legal. He has almost 30 years of experience as a solicitor. He specialises in handling complex international large loss claims and marine casualty claims, most of which are significant high-profile losses involving complex issues of law and jurisdiction. He has also developed a specialism in Senior Court Costs Office (SCCO) costs appeals and defending significant valued detailed assessments.
Mark holds a Highfield International – Supervising Food Safety Level 3 qualification and has considerable experience in defending group action claims involving food safety and hygiene issues and is no stranger to a ship’s galley/kitchen. He has also been involved in defending claims involving fraud, fundamental dishonesty and gastric illness.
Mark routinely advises insurers on the interpretation of insurance policy wordings in the context of potential policy disputes and is also an experienced technical claims auditor, managing large scale audits for various insurers over the last 15 years.
In relation to Lloyds insurance schemes, Mark has worked with underwriters and scheme brokers to develop reserving and claims handling strategies and supervised their implementation accordingly.
Mark provides training and speaks at conferences, particularly in the field of marine claims.
RECENT NOTABLE CASES
Director (Solicitor)
Tel: 0208 159 9673
Mobile: 07927 555934
Email: margaret.james@milesfanning.co.uk
Margaret has over 23 years experience in the field of Defendant personal injury litigation including road traffic accidents, employers liability, public liability and travel claims including the handling of catastrophic, serious injury and complex claims with reserve values of £250,000 to £3m.
Margaret has been working as a Director at Miles Fanning Legal since June 2017 managing claims arising from accident & illness abroad, as well as managing the Legal Team. Margaret deals with claims brought against our tour operator clients under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements (“PTR 2018”), managing jurisdictional disputes and taking recovery action to enforce indemnities due under contract from hotels/accommodation suppliers or by way of contribution proceedings against the negligent third-party supplier.
Prior to joining Miles Fanning Legal, Margaret primarily worked at a law-firm acting for a large motor insurer on their Large & Complex Loss account. She managed claims of significant value where claimants had suffered serious, life changing or fatal accidents.
Margaret also holds a Highfield International – Supervising Food Safety Level 3 qualification.
Associate Director (Solicitor)
Tel: 0208 159 9681
Email: gary.beazleigh@milesfanning.co.uk
Gary has over 20 years of defendant personal injury experience working as a Partner at a national law firm prior to joining Miles Fanning Legal.
Gary is experienced in claims falling under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements 2018 and deals with claims brought against tour operators and travel companies in a wide range of issues including hotel accidents, pool injuries, mountaineering accidents and gastric illness claims.
In addition to defending claims, Gary handles international recovery actions in overseas jurisdictions in order to enforce indemnities under contract from hotels/accommodation suppliers or by way of contribution proceedings against negligent third-party suppliers. He also advises on policy coverage and indemnity issues.
Gary is a regular contributor to the legal and trade press on personal injury law and has been published in periodicals including Post Magazine, Personal Injury Bulletin Law Journal and Claims Magazine
Consultant Solicitor
Email: hilary.kett@milesfanning.co.uk
Tel: 0208 159 9675
Hilary is a very experienced commercial consultant solicitor with over 20 years’ experience working in-house, mostly within the travel industry and financial services and prides herself on giving sound commercial legal advice in an easy to understand way.
Hilary headed up the UK commercial team of a multi-national integrated tour operator for over 11 years where she provided commercial support to the cruise, tour operator, ski and retail operations and had overall responsibility for the provision of legal support to the Group’s airlines. She joins us after a period working for another global travel business where she was sole legal counsel for EMEA.
Hilary has previously been a member of the ABTA Code of Conduct Committee and has taken part in panel discussions at ABTA travel law events.
She is very experienced with booking conditions, customer documentation, agency agreements, supplier agreements and general procurement matters. She has a wealth of airline contract experience including ground handling, airports, engineering and fuel agreements. She can also advise on package travel and ATOL compliance and consumer protection issues.
Loss Adjuster
Tel: 020 8090 8309
Mobile: 07384 259049
Email: Steve.cook@milesfanning.co.uk
Steve joined Miles Fanning Legal in November 2017 and has 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, with 20 of those as a Loss Adjuster.
Steve carries out on-site or desktop investigations across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, ensuring we obtain the best possible evidence to support a defence. He provides a comprehensive investigation service including site visits to secure evidence from various staff from managing directors to labourers; taking photographs and preparing measurements/plans; interviewing witnesses and obtaining statements; obtaining disclosure documents and providing advice to policyholders regarding their risk management
Since joining Miles Fanning Legal, Steve has developed a particular specialism investigating marine claims and holds a Highfield International – Supervising Food Safety Level 3 qualification to assist with the investigation of gastric illness claims.
Prior to joining Miles Fanning Legal, Steve has extensive experience in investigating claims in a variety of areas including product liability, employers liability, public liability, motor accidents & professional indemnity claims across many industries including travel, construction, manufacturing, education, retail and aviation.
Claims Manager & Solicitor
Tel: 0208 159 9685
Email: claire.scargill@milesfanning.co.uk
Claire joined Miles Fanning Legal in October 2023 as our Claims Manager and is a fully qualified solicitor.
Claire has been defending travel claims since 2000, when she worked in house in the legal department of a large Tour Operator dealing with contractual disputes, ABTA Arbitrations and Civil Litigation. Claire also investigated complaints made to Trading Standards pursuant to Trades Description and Consumer Protection Acts.
Claire moved to private practice in 2005 and subsequently qualified as a solicitor 2009. In private practice Claire specialised in defending public liability personal injury travel claims acting for insurance clients and Tour Operators dealing with complex claims involving coach crashes, sickness outbreaks and fatal incidents. Claire also has extensive experience pursuing recovery actions against overseas suppliers outside of the jurisdiction. Claire also completed lengthy secondments to insurer and cruise company clients.
Claire has experience in Medical Malpractice and has represented private healthcare providers in brain injury cases. She has also represented clients at Inquests in both Travel and Medical Malpractice cases.
Claire has written several articles and has contributed to Travel Law Quarterly and the ABTA Travel Law Today magazine and has presented at the ABTA Travel Law Seminar. She also holds a Highfield International – Supervising Food Safety Level 3 qualification.
Claims Handler
Tel: 0208 159 9677
Email: megan.king@milesfanning.co.uk
Megan is responsible for assessing claims at first notification to determine if cover is in place, undertaking fraud checks, providing advice about the claim and the strategy to be deployed, liaising with suppliers and hotels for assistance (and pursue recoveries when required) through to resolution of the claim.
Head of Operations
Tel: 0208 159 9682
Mob: 07896 422045
Email: natalie.fanning@milesfanning.co.uk
Natalie has over 26 years of experience within the insurance and travel industries. From 1997 to 2007, Natalie worked within the insurance industry across a number of roles in both the claims and account servicing teams at global insurance brokers, largely for a global tour operator in her later years of employment there.
In 2007, Natalie moved to a FTSE 100 multi-national travel company with responsibility for placement of marine, aviation, D&O, property and casualty insurance worldwide. Natalie & Mark Fanning set up Miles Fanning Legal in 2016.
Natalie manages the operations of Miles Fanning Legal including Finance, HR and IT. She works with Mark Fanning to set the strategic direction for the business and ensures that the Claims, Legal, Commercial and Loss Adjusting Teams can fulfil their roles as effectively as possible.
HR & Operations Manager
Tel: 0208 159 9684
Email: paula.smith@milesfanning.co.uk
Paula has over 20 years experience in an HR environment, having previously worked for large multi-national companies in HR & Total Rewards. Prior to joining Miles Fanning Legal Paula worked for a global pharmaceutical company where she was responsible for Total Rewards for UK, Ireland & the Nordics.
Paula is responsible for HR within Miles Fanning Legal and has devised and implemented processes and policies within the business that enable us to operate in a forward-thinking environment. Paula is also responsible for the day-to-day operations across the business including accounts payable, accounts receivable and office management.
Executive Assistant
Tel: 0208 159 9672
Email: charlotte.lewis@milesfanning.co.uk
Charlotte is the Executive Assistant providing support to the Managing Director, Head of Operations and Legal Team.
