Tom Whittaker Director

Tom is a director and solicitor advocate in the dispute resolution team. He regularly advises clients on commercially significant and complex civil disputes, investigations and inquiries for a wide range of corporate and government clients across different sectors.

He has been on the Electronic Discovery Reference Model project team to improve data mapping in eDiscovery. Tom has specialist accreditations in document review and analysis platforms Relativity and Brainspace and regularly speakers about eDiscovery.

He regularly writes on AI regulation and law, including the practice note on the EU AI Act for LexisPSL, and about explainability and machine learning for Society for Computers and Law. Tom also regularly writes for the Burges Salmon AI law and regulation blog (here).

Tom regularly speaks at industry events on AI regulation and risk management. He has spoken on various podcasts, including:

• Mesh-AI’s podcast ‘Adapting the EU AI Act, and a Modern Engineering Approach (here)
• FRP Advisory’s podcast 'Unchartered: a new dawn' (here) on technology in forensic investigations;
• Burges Salmon’s Pensions Podcast (here).

Tom was awarded lawyer of the year at the Bristol Law Society awards 2024 for his and the Burges Salmon AI team’s work regarding AI regulation.

• Advising and training clients on AI regulation.
• Advising an accountancy practice in preparation for and response to regulator requests and investigations. 
• Advising a transport client and a renewable energy manufacturer on internal investigations for, respectively, potential regulatory disclosures and potential litigation.
• Advising trustees of pension schemes in their professional negligence claims against former administrators and actuaries. 
• Advising public bodies on their disclosure obligations and managing the disclosure process.
• Advocating on behalf of insolvency practitioners in respect of applications under the Insolvency Act 1986.