Thomas Mason

Thomas is instructed by both paying and receiving parties in all areas of costs and litigation funding.

His practice focuses on the following areas:

• Commercial litigation – Instructed by solicitors from a roster of leading national and international law firms in multi-million pound detailed assessment proceedings related to high value, high-profile and complex cases in the Commercial Court.
• Solicitor/client advisory –Having been a Partner in a firm of solicitors, Thomas has valuable insight into the working practices of solicitors. He has used this knowledge to draft retainer documentation and provide advice to a number of law firms on effective compliance with statutory, common law and regulatory requirements.
• Solicitor/client litigation – Acting for firms of solicitors to robustly defend challenges to their fees and also acting for companies/high net worth individuals to bring challenges to solicitors fees. This work often includes complex legal and factual disputes on retainer documentation and the status of interim statute bills.
• Medical negligence, professional negligence and personal injury – Instructed on a full spectrum of cases from fixed costs test cases to detailed assessments in high value, complex and difficult cases.

Recent work includes:

• Acting for the receiving party in multi-million pound detailed assessment proceedings related to a billion dollar fraud dispute in the Commercial Court. The case involved a novel preliminary issue on the format of precedent S.
• Acting in multi-million pound detailed assessment proceedings following a billion dollar, multi-party Commercial Court dispute. The case involved complex division between multiple parties with issue-based costs orders.
• Acting for the paying party in multi-million pound detailed assessment proceedings against its former solicitors. The underlying litigation was a billion dollar dispute with a nation state. The case involved jurisdictional issues, complex factual evidence, alleged wrongful termination of a retainer and the status of interim statute bills.
• Acting for the receiving party in multi-million pound detailed assessment proceedings. The case involved novel issues on the definitions in a funding arrangement, the presentation of certain categories of costs in precedent S and the operation of Part 36.
• Advising a new law firm on appropriate funding models and ATE/medical agency commissions. The advice involved work with innovative technology and novel ways to meet statutory and common law requirements.
• An application for a payment on account of costs and forthwith order for detailed assessment relating to a multi-million pound claim against the underwriters of an insurance policy.

“fantastic” Legal 500, 2023*

“very responsive, commercially minded and has a great demeanour for putting clients at ease” Legal 500, 2023*

*as a solicitor

Thomas is passionate about social mobility and access to justice.

His work in these areas includes:

• A mentor at the Social Mobility Foundation helping high-achieving young people from low-income backgrounds succeed at top universities and in professional careers.
• The co-founder of a legal tech start up whose aim was to help litigants in person navigate the small claims procedure.

Thomas Mason is a barrister regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Click here to view Thomas Mason’s Privacy Notice.