Expertise

Rebecca has been practising in the personal injury field for over 25 years. She specialises in complex high-value brain, spinal, other serious injury and fatal claims involving international and domestic aviation accidents. She has also acted in claims arising from road accidents, and in employers’ and public liability claims. Particular highlights of her varied career include:

• Key roles leading complex aviation claims in the high-profile Shoreham Air Show, Germanwings and Boeing tragedies, resulting in significant awards of damages
• Leading multi-jurisdictional actions involving working with co-counsel in Europe, Africa and the USA
• Experience in the application of different laws for the purposes of determining damages, including French, Spanish, Maltese, Afghan, Nigerian and US law
• Development of case law interpreting the Montreal Convention, see Labbadia v Alitalia (2019)

Experience

Rebecca has successfully represented clients in all the most recent noteworthy aviation disasters including the Germanwings, Shoreham Air Show and Boeing Ethiopian airlines tragedies.

Career

Prior to joining Stewarts in January 2020, Rebecca worked at Irwin Mitchell as a senior associate heading up their London office aviation team. Rebecca’s previous roles were with Leigh Day as a senior solicitor in their catastrophic brain/spinal injury team, and prior to that she was a partner at Amery Parkes working in the same field.

Foreign Jurisdictions

Rebecca has been involved in cases across the globe including Europe (France (Germanwings 9525), Republic of Ireland (Manx 2), Turkey (Pegasus 2193), Middle East, India – Pakistan (Sunway Air and Bhoja B4-213), Nepal (Sita Air 601), Asia (India – Pakistan (Sunway Air and Bhoja B4-213), Nepal (Sita Air 601), Africa (Ethiopia (ET302, Aquarius), Nigeria (Dana Air  9J-922), Rwanda (Robinson R44), Tanzania (Precision, Coastal) and in the Americas (Brazil (LaMia), Las Vegas (BA 2276).

Recognition

Rebecca is ranked in Chambers as a notable practitioner in her field. They note that she is frequently handling high-profile matters for those affected by major air accidents.

Chambers Insights 2023:

• “Rebecca is very forensic and determined. She does not let go and does not let anything get in the way of getting good results”
•  “Rebecca Smith is a particularly outstanding member of the team. Her client service, level of sophistication and commercial awareness are very strong.
• “Rebecca is an outstanding lawyer with talent, tenacity and charm.”
• “She fights incredibly hard for all of her clients in a field dominated by difficult opponents.”
• “Her clients receive a stellar, five-star service. There is no question that I would recommend her as a ‘go-to’ solicitor in any aviation case involving a serious injury”

Accreditations and memberships

Rebecca is a member of:

• PEOPIL
• APIL
• American Association of Justice (AAJ)

Rebecca is Secretary to the PEOPIL Aviation European Exchange Group (EEG).

Publications

Rebecca has featured in press articles relating to the Shoreham Air Show, Germanwings and recent Boeing Ethiopian Airlines tragedies.

Personal

Rebecca’s interests include water and snow skiing. She enjoys travel, with adventure very much on her agenda.