Domestic High Court Litigation

• Acting for a property developer in a £100m+ complex claim before the High Court against a company ostensibly owned by the Candy Brothers in “the case of the century…”. Holyoake v Candy [2017] EWHC 3327 (Ch).

• Acting for a High-Net-Worth individual in a series of fraudulent misrepresentation and breach of contract claims against the directors of an insolvent venture capital / private equity fund, resulting in extensive enforcement actions being taken against said directors.

• Acting for a property developer in a £50m+ complex claim before the High Court against his son and various companies ostensibly owned by the son in relation to fraud, breach of contract and unfair prejudice (on the basis of exclusion from management in a quasi-partnership) claims.

• Acting for a group of 180+ property search companies in a third party funded group action in the High Court against 350 local authority defendants.

Cross-border Litigation

• Advising and acting for the majority creditors of a real estate conglomerate with assets valued at close to US$ billion in the PRC. Instructed on opposing applications to appoint liquidators over holding company entities in the BVI and Cayman Islands arising from connected proceedings in New York. The applications arose out of a disputed US$500 million syndicated loan and were made simultaneously in the BVI, Cayman and Hong Kong. Applications successfully dismissed in the BVI, Cayman, Hong Kong and US.

• Acting for the minority shareholders and directors of a large PRC state-owned enterprise joint venture energy company with assets valued at close to US$1 billion, in a highly contentious shareholder dispute concerning breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and expropriation of significant company assets (at least twelve separate sets of proceedings running concurrently) spanning jurisdictions including the US, the BVI, Hong Kong and the PRC. Matter included applications for injunctions to restrain various actions in the BVI, mirrored in Hong Kong and used in proceedings in the PRC. The substantive case broadly involved claims of unfair prejudice, heavily contested applications for the appointment of an interim receiver, the appointment of a liquidator, for damages by way of a derivative action, for contempt for breach of various orders, together with multiple summary judgment applications.

• Acting for an institutional client (one of the largest global banking groups) in contentious trust proceedings concerning three discretionary trusts set up by one of Hong Kong’s oldest and wealthiest families. Represented the trustee before the BVI Court in a Beddoe application, an application to replace the trustee of the unit trust and subsequently managed connected enforcement proceedings in various US states. Continue to advise the trustee on its role as trustee of the discretionary trusts on an ongoing basis.

• Acting for the minority shareholders of a company with listed subsidiaries in the US that hold significant assets in the PRC in the form of pharmaceutical trading companies in a multi-jurisdictional shareholder’s dispute between various PRC based individuals arising from decisions made by the board of directors to exclude the minority shareholders from the management of company. The matter involved complex factual claims for a buy out or wind up of the Company on the basis of unfair prejudice by virtue of exclusion from management in a quasi-partnership.

International Arbitration

• Advising and acting for a Hong Kong investor in a dispute over the development of a BVI Hotel complex in an ad hoc arbitration seated in Puerto Rico.

• Acting for a multinational energy group in a Zurich seat arbitration under the ICC rules arising from a US$11 million breach of contract claim relating to the provision of a desulphurisation unit and in related enforcement proceedings in various jurisdictions.

• Acting for a Middle East-based satellite broadcaster in a London seat arbitration under the LCIA rules arising from a US$350 million breach of contract claim and in related enforcement proceedings.

• Acting for a Middle Eastern based conglomerate in a London seat arbitration under the LCIA rules arising from breach of a joint venture agreement between the client and a multinational financial services organisation.

Regulatory / Investigations

• Acting for a multinational commodities trading company in connection with a multi-jurisdiction regulatory investigation arising from whistleblower allegations of bribery. Responsible for preparing the investigation plan, document identification, collection, processing, and review exercise (involving at one stage more than 100 lawyers), preparing interview questions, co-conducting interviews, assisting with the drafting of the report, and handling invoicing.

• Acting for a multinational defence company in connection with an internal investigation and subsequent regulatory investigation arising from export control (and money laundering) related criminal offences of a UK subsidiary. Resulted in the first ‘US style’ non-admission settlement with a UK regulator (SOCA and HM Revenue and Customs).

• Representation of a security services company in connection with a regulatory investigation into the activities of its subsidiary and liabilities arising from accounting irregularities and allegations of fraud.