Connie Trendle
Call: 2024
Clerk Details
Practice Summary
Connie gained a 1st Class Law degree from Oxford University in 2023. She was called to the Bar in 2024, undertook pupillage at Keating in 2024/25 and obtained tenancy at Keating in 2025 upon successful completion of pupillage.
Connie’s practice encompasses all of Keating Chambers’ core practice areas, including construction and engineering, infrastructure, energy, international arbitration, and procurement. Connie acts on behalf of clients in litigation, arbitration (international and domestic) and adjudication (statutory and contractual). Connie acts as both sole Counsel and as junior Counsel in larger commercial disputes.
Recent work includes:
Acted as Junior Counsel:
Drafting and researching to support an application to amend a statement of case as part of a $100 million energy plant dispute arbitrated under the ICC rules.
Drafting a Letter of Claim and giving advice in conference as Junior Counsel in a delay dispute worth over £10 million.
Researching and attending an advice conference as junior counsel on a potential scoring challenge to the procurement of a contract by a local council.
Instructed to draft the Reply in a final account payment dispute adjudication, with a value of over £300,000.
Advocacy:
Successfully advocated in the County Court for the re-allocation of a claim to a different track which had cost advantages for the client.
Successfully defended a money claim in the County Court.
Practice Areas
Advocacy
Successfully advocated in the County Court for the re-allocation of a claim to a different track which had cost advantages for the client.
Successfully defended a money claim in the County Court.
Construction & Engineering
- Provided advices on:
- The law of negligent misstatement.
- A matter of contractual interpretation.
- Whether a Particulars of Claim complied with the CPR and the prospects of a successful strike out application.
- Limitation and exclusion clauses, and the impact of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
- The operation of the NEC 4 payment provisions and the possibility of challenging a final account.
- The validity of exercise of a contractual option and whether or not the contract was varied.
- Contract formation.
- Jurisdiction to hear an appeal based on the order of the Court below.
- Drafted a:
- Letter of Claim and giving advice in conference as Junior Counsel in a delay dispute worth over £10 million.
- Particulars of Claim seeking damages for breach of contract and negligence.
- Defence on breach of contract and tortious obligations of an architect.
- Defence to a re-amended Particulars of Claim.
- Defence which denied claims of breach of contract, misrepresentation, and negligence.
- Produced a skeleton argument:
- Defending an allegation of fraud, and denying the existence of a collateral contract between the parties.
- Concerning whether a clause was unenforceable as an agreement to negotiate, and/or amounted a condition precedent to a right to commence arbitration.
- On the meaning of s1(1)(a) of the Defective Premises Act 1972.
- Resisting an appeal of a strike out/summary judgment decision of the court below.
- Seeking summary judgment and/or strike out.
Energy
- Drafted and researched as Junior Counsel to support an application to amend a statement of case as part of a $100 million energy plant dispute arbitrated under the ICC rules.
- Produced advice on a matter of contractual interpretation in respect of an energy dispute.
International Arbitration
- Drafted and researched as Junior Counsel to support an application to amend a statement of case as part of a $100 million energy plant dispute arbitrated under the ICC rules.
- Drafted submissions for a reply in an arbitration on claims for an extension of time.
- Drafted Particulars of Claim and Notice of Arbitration in respect of a claim for breach of contract and negligence against a contractor.
Adjudication
- Instructed to draft the Reply in a final account payment dispute adjudication, with a value of over £300,000.
- Produced advice on resisting adjudication enforcement proceedings.
- Settled Particulars of Claim for an adjudication enforcement dispute.
- Produced skeleton argument on the proper identification of a contract for the purposes of adjudication enforcement.
- Produced skeleton argument pertaining to adjudication enforcement.
Procurement
- Produced a Particulars of Claim alleging manifest errors in a council’s evaluation process under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
- Produced advice on the merits of any potential challenges to a procurement process, and the risk of moving forwards and awarding the contract.
- Researched and attended an advice conference as junior counsel on a potential scoring challenge to the procurement of a contract by a local council.
Other Information
Education & Career
BVS, City Law School Distinction - June 2024
BA (Jurisprudence), Oxon First Class - July 2023
Quadrant Prize, for the highest marked script in International Trade Final Honour School - June 2023
Best Oralist, University of Oxford Bar Society Commercial Moot - Dec 2022
John V. Lovitt Prize, for one student at Christ Church who ranks first in a written law examination - May 2022
Publication, Oxford University Undergraduate Law Journal - May 2022
First Prize, Oxford University Undergraduate Law Journal Essay Competition sponsored by 7 Kings Bench Walk Chambers - Feb 2022
Scholarship election - Feb 2022
Publication, The Pupil Magazine, Oxford Bar Society - Nov 2021
Collections Prizes in every set of undergraduate collections - 2021 – 2022
Volunteer advocate, The School Exclusion Project (2024)
Additional information
Outside of work, Connie enjoys playing and supporting Netball. She is also a keen cook and is always on the lookout for new recipes to try.