Many thanks to everyone who attended our recent webinar, ”Smith and Manchester awards” by ​Nazifa Chowdhury​. We hope you found the talk useful and informative.

Nazifa delivered a webinar on Smith and Manchester Awards, explaining their purpose as claims for loss of earnings designed to compensate claimants for disadvantage in the job market rather than actual ongoing loss. She outlined the differences between Smith and Manchester Awards, Blameyer Awards, and Ogden Tables, noting that Smith and Manchester Awards focus on contingent loss while Blameyer Awards address continuing loss of earnings, with Ogden Tables using statistical methods for calculation. Nazifa discussed the two-stage approach courts use to assess these claims, examining both the substantial or real risk of future unemployment and the present value of potential financial damage. She provided practical tips for both claimants and defendants, emphasising the importance of medical evidence, qualifications, work history, and unemployment data in supporting or opposing these claims, and noted that awards typically range from 6 months to 2 years of net earnings.

If you would like to review the webinar again, you can find the slides ​here (please email Chelsey Stuart if you would like to reuse the slides for your own purposes).

Nazifa Chowdhury is a member of the Civil Team and accepts instructions in the following areas:

  • Commercial
  • Breach of Contract
  • Construction
  • Chancery (Inheritance and Trusts)
  • Company
  • Personal and Corporate Insolvency
  • Landlord and Tenant
  • Real Property
  • Personal Injury/RTA
  • Claims under the Consumer Credit Act 1974/PPI
  • Credit Hire
  • Debt recovery

Nazifa appears in fast-track and intermediate-track trials, as well as interlocutory applications, CCMCs, allocation hearings, possession hearings, orders for sale hearings, winding up petitions, bankruptcy petitions, and applications to set-side statutory demands.

She has extensive experience in the County Courts and has appeared in the High Court of Justice as sole counsel on a number of instructions.

Nazifa also has a busy paper practice that involves the drafting of pleadings, application notices, and Opinions on various issues. She further has experience in advising and assisting parties in settling matters outside of litigation on without prejudice terms or by way of Tomlin Order.

Since 2022, Nazifa has been a member of the Attorney General’s Junior Panel.

Nazifa transferred to the Bar following a career as a solicitor.

Prior to joining Chambers, Nazifa completed pupillage at a commercial chancery set of chambers in London. She also trained as a solicitor with a Magic Circle law firm in London, before going on to work as an Associate Solicitor in the Commercial Litigation and International Arbitration team of an American law firm in London. As a solicitor, Nazifa obtained rights of audience in all higher court proceedings. She is also an accredited mediator.

Whilst working as a solicitor, she gained valuable experience in commercial and company law proceedings taking place at various courts, such as the Commercial Court and the Technology and Construction Court. Nazifa has also acted in relation to proceedings in the Supreme Court as part of her pro bono work on R (on the application of Elan-Cane) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC 56.

Nazifa completed her undergraduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, following which she was awarded the Dean’s scholarships for her Graduate Diploma in Law and LLM in Professional Practice (incorporating the Legal Practice Course) from BPP University.

Outside of work, Nazifa is a member of the board of trustees of the Pituitary Foundation and has been a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Law since 2021. Nazifa further enjoys taking part in initiatives for the London Very Young Arbitration Practitioners’ (London VYAP) group, such as writing on legal updates within the arbitration sphere. Nazifa’s article on the Supreme Court’s decision in Kabab-Ji v Kout Food Group [2021] can be accessed here.

Please note that although Nazifa is a fully qualified solicitor, Nazifa currently practises solely as a barrister.