A. E. Verona Cocks

London 020 3745 6535 · Truro 01872 672072

LinkedIn veronacocks

Profile:

Verona qualified in 1998 having done an internship with a law firm in the United States. She practised in the Midlands for 12 years working for Martineau Johnson LLP, where she was an associate, and culminating with her appointment as the 100th partner and head of Commercial Dispute Resolution and Insolvency, a department she developed from scratch, in the Midlands offices of a now top 45 national firm, Weightmans LLP. Verona then joined Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP, a niche banking and finance firm in Watford and London, where she was a partner for 4 years acting for major city banks and financial institutions. In 2014 Verona joined Coodes LLP to develop and head up its Commercial Dispute Resolution department and in 2016 became a Consultant Solicitor for Setfords and Michelmores, before founding Paddle & Cocks LLP, in April 2018 with Penny Paddle.

Verona is the President of the Association of South West Law Societies, the immediate past President of Cornwall Law Society and past committee member of Birmingham Law Society. In her spare time she practices yoga having qualified as a Yoga teacher in June 2020, having hung up her running shoes after running 11 half marathons over the space of 10 years and stowed away her hockey stick following 15 years of play club hockey for various clubs in the Midlands and the SE; Verona is also an energy healing practitioner and has a particular interest in music having played the flute for many years and now sings.

Expertise:
Verona has a wealth of experience in commercial dispute resolution and insolvency litigation. She has acted for a range of private sector clients from SMEs to FTSE 100 companies with household names as well as organisations in the public sector. In addition, Verona has represented financial institutions including banks, asset finance houses and subprime lenders. Her expertise includes complex contractual disputes, partnership disputes, banking and finance litigation, fraud, shareholder disputes, injunctive relief and mediation. She advises on all aspects of corporate and personal insolvency including undervalue and preference claims, wrongful trading and ROT disputes. She deals with property and agricultural disputes in relation to recovery of land, agricultural banking disputes, and disputed farm tenancies, as well as construction and engineering disputes. In respect of the latter examples include the malfunction of a combined heat and power unit, defective transformers for powering vast complexes and product liability for the supply and fitting of a defective switchboard in an electrical installation.