Meet the Team
Claire Collinson
The team at Claire Collinson Legal is led by Claire Collinson, a qualified solicitor with over 14 years experience of disputes and litigation. Claire graduated from Leicester University in 1995 with a First Class Honours Degree in Law, obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice with Distinction from the College of Law in York in 1996 and was admitted as a solicitor in 1998.
Claire received various academic prizes including the Leicester University Law Department prize for the best final year student and Leicester Law Society Prize for best graduate of year intending to become a solicitor. Claire worked for Ward Hadaway, a leading regional practice based in Newcastle, between 1996 and 2007, specialising in commercial litigation and became a partner in 2005.
At Ward Hadaway, Claire dealt with a wide variety of civil disputes for individuals and corporate clients including insurance litigation, financial services related claims, professional negligence actions and contractual disputes. Claire also built up an extensive knowledge and experience of funding options for commercial litigation including after the event insurance and conditional fee arrangements.
The vision for Claire Collinson Legal is to provide top quality legal advice at affordable and proportionate prices thereby enabling greater access to justice for deserving individuals and businesses, an issue which has always been paramount to me professionally.
Since setting up Claire Collinson Legal in 2009, Claire has dealt with a wide variety of insurance and financial disputes including a significant professional negligence dispute relating to investment portfolio management, a large number of disputes with high street banks relating to interest rate hedging products and a variety of commercial and personal insurance disputes.
Helena Motherway - Solicitor
Helena qualified as a solicitor in 1995 and has worked as a litigator in a number of top North East practices. Her experience includes working within the Insurance Team at Eversheds LLP, undertaking work on behalf of Companies and Insurers in respect of claims for Injuries and Industrial Disease. Helena also worked at Watson Burton LLP as part of the Dispute Resolution Unit developing her commercial litigation skills in respect of Insurance and Professional Negligence Disputes and gaining exposure to a wide variety of Commercial and Financial Litigation disputes.
Helena is accomplished in providing robust, quality claims handling and litigation services. She has excellent technical knowledge, litigation and negotiation skills and in particular has a detailed knowledge of litigation funding methods including Conditional Fee Agreements and After the Event insurance. She understands the need to provide an excellent level of service on a bespoke basis.
Helena has received recognition in the Legal 500 for her effectiveness as a lawyer. At Claire Collinson Legal, Helena is dealing with a variety of insurance disputes, professional negligence claims, and claims relating to interest rate hedging products.
Suzie Done - Solicitor
Suzie studied LLB Law and French at Cardiff University; spending a year at the School of Law, Nantes. She achieved a commendation in her LPC at Cardiff Law School. Suzie joined Dickinson Dees LLP in 2001 as a trainee and qualified there in 2003.
Suzie qualified into a corporate commercial team with a focus on regulatory compliance matters. This gave Suzie experience of dealing with regulatory authorities such as the Office of Fair Trading and her first insight into banking regulation in particular in respect of the OFT's case on interchange fees.
In 2004 following the heightening of tax and financial regulation in the pension sector Suzie became specialised in this area of law. Suzie therefore has broad experience working with a variety of regulatory authorities including the OFT, HMRC, the FSA, the Pensions Ombudsman and the Pensions Regulator and, Suzie has particular expertise in investment, banking and funding documentation.
At CCL, Suzie is dealing with advice on interest rate hedging disputes and investment and financial services complaints.
Hilary Nunn - Office Manager
Hilary has over 30 years experience working in the legal profession. She initially worked as PA for a senior partner in a corporate department following which she moved into a conveyancing position where she trained as a Legal Executive.
Having qualified as a Chartered Legal Executive in 1995, Hilary continued with her property work acting for private clients in complex property transactions including acting for clients with property investment portfolios, large countryside properties, high value properties and apartments, and transactions involving trusts and estates.
She has now retired from full-time legal work, and uses her legal and office experience working part-time in an administrative role for Claire Collinson Legal. As Office Manager she administers the office management and procedures including carrying out general administrative tasks, accounts management, file management and assists fee earners, particularly with document preparation and diary management.