Dervla Simm
Senior Associate Global Regulatory
Languages
English
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Overview
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Experience
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Credentials
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Insights and events
Legal 500 2021"Dervla Simm is very diligent and hardworking. Great attention to detail. Clear and practical advice."
Dervla Simm typically acts for companies operating in heavily-regulated industries where the private and public law worlds interact.
Dervla recognizes that her clients have to find a way to operate profitably in the face of increasingly burdensome regulation and works with them in their engagement with government and regulators to shape policy and regulation to assist their businesses.
As a starting point, Dervla provides her clients with pragmatic legal advice on issues such as UK and EU legislation, commercial human rights, and information rights. But this is just one part of her role. She knows that getting the best for her clients often means combining quality legal advice with smart, timely discussions with governmental and regulatory bodies. By engaging early in this way, her clients are often able to head off issues before they become problems, avoiding the time and costs associated with litigation.
Dervla also guides her clients on how to use their interactions with public bodies to tee-up legal arguments when it looks like litigation is likely to be the best or only option. Where litigation is part of a client's strategy, Dervla has experience in acting on a range of contentious matters, including in commercial judicial reviews and information rights appeals.
In addition, she is passionate about pro bono and has been heavily involved in pro bono work throughout her time at the firm. She successfully obtained hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme for the victim of a violent assault. Since 2013, she has represented a group of families whose relatives died in Welsh care homes – helping the families to secure an independent review into their deaths and representing them at high profile inquests due to be heard in 2021.
Legal 500 2021"Dervla Simm is very diligent and hardworking. Great attention to detail. Clear and practical advice."
Representative experience
Acting for Uber London in its successful (and strategically important) 2018 and 2020 appeals against the decisions by TfL not to renew its licence to operate in London.
Advising The Crown Estate on a range of public law and policy issues of strategic importance.
Advising National Air Traffic Services on issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Completing a secondment with The Crown Estate which included: public law advice on vires; negotiating and drafting commercial agreements; and advising on IT procurement processes.
Acting for National Air Traffic Services in a dispute with Ryanair regarding the interpretation of EU rules on charges payable for London air traffic control services.
Representing Uber in its 2016 judicial review (both in the High Court and on appeal) of new regulations introduced by TfL for operators and drivers.
Advising British American Tobacco on regulatory and public law issues, in particular relating to the 2016 Tobacco Products Directive and introduction of plain packaging.
Advising The Crown Estate on aspects of the devolution of the management of The Crown Estate after the Scottish independence referendum.
Representing Uber in the 2015 Part 8 claim brought by Transport for London on whether the Uber app constituted an unlawful taximeter.
Advising Uber on key regulatory issues relevant to its UK operations, inside and outside London, including plying for hire, acceptance of bookings and cross-border hiring.
Acting for UK oil and gas sector clients in a judicial review challenge to primary legislation.
Representing a group of families in inquests into the deaths of their relatives in Welsh care homes in circumstances suggestive of abuse and neglect.
Acting for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition in relation to an information rights case before the Upper Tribunal.
Acting for a victim of sex trafficking in a JR challenging a decision of the First-tier Tribunal not to award damages under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme for loss of earnings.
Credentials
- B.A. (Jurisprudence), University of Oxford
- Legal Practice Course, BPP University Law School
- Solicitor, England and Wales
- Member, Administrative Law Bar Association