Paul is a commercial litigator with a broad range of experience including arbitration and ADR. His cases often have an international element, involving issues of jurisdiction and conflict of laws. In addition to a broad range of commercial disputes, he has particular experience of banking, financial services and insolvency, as well as shareholder and partnership disputes. He is also developing an art law practice. Paul is qualified as a solicitor advocate (civil).
Paul’s experience in banking litigation is recognised by the Legal 500 2011, the Legal Business Legal Experts 2012 and Chambers UK 2012.
Experience
Commercial litigation
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Acting for Britvic, the manufacturers of Pepsi, Tango and 7Up, against US and German based multi-nationals in the lead action concerning the contamination of carbon dioxide used by the UK drinks industry.
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Acting for Australian entrepreneurs in a multi-jurisdictional dispute between the promoters of Butte Mining PLC.
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Acting for the former management of leading book wholesalers Bertrams in a successful shareholder dispute with HgCapital (Merrill Lynch), concerning events following a private equity investment.
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Acting for a leading IT services and solutions company against a major housing association concerning its wrongful repudiation of an IT outsourcing contract.
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High profile joint venture dispute between internet bookseller Swotbooks and student admissions organisation UCAS.
Banking and insolvency
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Acting for all types of banks, including Barclays, Lloyds TSB, HSBC and smaller UK and overseas banks in several hundred cases in all areas of banking dispute.
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Acting for high net worth individuals in cases against Swiss banks for the mis-selling of structured notes.
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Advising the European Commission (DGXV) on the law and regulation of pre-paid cards, and co-ordinating input from law firms in most other European states.
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Defending New York lender from claims by Australian mining companies regarding operation of accounts in Switzerland.
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Advising several wealthy ex-pats in successful claims against HSBC Republic (Monaco) SA (formerly Republic National Bank of New York) following a staff fraud.
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Acting for the successful claimants in a documentary credits dispute (Swotbooks.com Ltd v RBS [2011] EWHC 2025(QB)).
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Acting for the receivers of a fork lift truck manufacturer in successfully defeating all but a few of 150 retention of title claims.
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Acting for overseas banking and trade creditors of MF Global.
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Acting in disputes arising from the Icelandic, Irish and Cypriot banking crises.
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Swaps mis-selling claims against various banks and related breach of trust claims.
International arbitration
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Acting for the claimants in a US$250m ad hoc insurance arbitration in London concerning the destruction of a PVC plant in Illinois with satellite arbitration in Bermuda and proceedings in New York.
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ICC arbitration in Paris concerning internal conflict within an extensive Lebanese family run group of companies operating in the Middle East.
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Acting in an LCIA arbitration between Brazilian importers and Ukrainian exporters of foodstuffs.
Professional negligence
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Advising offshore trust companies in a professional negligence action against a well-known firm of solicitors concerning its failure to bind German sureties in a commercial property transaction.
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Acting for clients of a firm of solicitors whose client accounts were deficient.
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Advising stock brokers and nominated advisers concerning alleged failures relating to disclosures on the AIM market.
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Acting in various financial services mis-selling cases.
Art market
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Successfully acting for the sellers of a Leonardo da Vinci drawing against art dealers for the recovery of secret profits (Accidia Foundation v Simon C Dickinson Ltd [2010] EWHC 3058 (CH)).
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Acting for South American owners of art in response to claims by international investigatory authorities.
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Acting for US owners of a painting by Edvard Munch in a Nazi looted art dispute.
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Contractual disputes involving attribution and provenance.
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Acting on the purchase and sale of valuable art works.
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