Tony has a busy practice specialising in the fields of insolvency, company law, civil fraud, commercial litigation and arbitration. His work has a strong international element, and he has substantial experience of cross-border issues arising in connection with complex commercial disputes, foreign insolvencies, receiverships and contempt proceedings.
Tony has significant experience of obtaining urgent injunctive relief, including freezing and proprietary injunctions, receivership applications and the appointment of provisional liquidators, both domestically and offshore.
Tony took silk in 2022, having been recognised as a leading junior in his areas of specialism for a number of years. He is directory ranked for Insolvency, Offshore, Civil Fraud, Banking and Finance, Company, Chancery Commercial, and Commercial Dispute Resolution. Prior to taking silk, Tony was identified as (one of two) “most highly regarded” junior barristers for Restructuring and Insolvency in successive editions of Who’s Who Legal and was short-listed for Insolvency/Company Junior Barrister of the Year at the Chambers UK Bar Awards 2017.
Recent directory quotes describe Tony as a “real star to watch”, and a “very clear, calm and careful advocate” who “marries a lot of brainpower into practicality and focus”.
Tony is admitted to the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, British Virgin Islands, and frequently appears before the Courts of the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands. His practice also includes work before the DIFC Courts and the Abu Dhabi Global Market Courts.
Recent cases include:
• Acting for the successful joint administrators in various applications before the ADGM Court establishing the extraterritorial effect of the office-holders’ powers to obtain documents and information (NMC v Neopharma [2023] ADGMCFI 0022; [2024] ADGM CFI 0008; [2024] ADGMCFI 0013).
• Acting for the successful claimant bank (together with Michael Ryan of 7KBW) in a trial before the English Court against the former director of a commodities entity for fraudulent breach of fiduciary duty and negligence (UBS v Kumar [2024] EWHC 1740 (Ch)).
• acting for the successful defendant (together with Charles Connor) in a trial concerning the legal status of funds advanced to purchase London real estate, raising complex points of trust law (Prochazka v Prochazka).
• Acting (with Rupert Hamilton) for the successful respondent in establishing the discharge of a suspended contempt order (Deutsche Bank v Sebastian Holdings [2023] EWHC 2563 (Comm)).
• Acting for the successful petitioners in proceedings in the Cayman Islands relating to a $100m+ petition debt (BPGIC v Mena [2024] CIFsd 6).
• Acting for the trustee in bankruptcy of Pramod Mittal (with Rowena Page of Maitland) in a successful appeal against the refusal to suspend the debtor’s discharge from bankruptcy (Re Mittal [2023] EWHC 920 (Ch)).
• Acting for trustees in bankruptcy in a two-week trial to set aside various trust declarations pursuant to s423 of Insolvency Act 1986 (Leeds v Lemos [2023] EWHC 2384 (Ch)).
• Acting for the successful trustees of the insolvent estate of Boris Berezovsky in a complex dispute over the deployment of privileged material (Thielmann v Besharova [2022] EWHC 2879 (Ch)).
• Acting for court appointed receivers in respect of ongoing enforcement proceedings arising from the Gerald Smith litigation (including in relation to contempt and possession applications) (with Maria Kennedy).
• Acting for the successful petitioner banks in insolvency proceedings in connection with a +£1bn petition relating to Vijay Mallya ([2021] EWHC 1740 (Ch)).
• Advising and acting in relation to numerous just and equitable winding-up petitions in the Cayman Islands on behalf of the shareholders of funds whose rights of redemption have been suspended.
• Acting in complex ongoing proceedings relating to a med-tech company, including two sets of deceit claims in relation to the sale of shares and an unfair prejudice petition brought by prejudiced shareholders (with Duncan Matthews KC, Matthew Chan, Mark Baldock, Harris Bor and Thomas Wong).
Tony also frequently provides expert testimony for foreign courts or arbitrations, including in matters relating to Cayman law.
Tony recently contributed (with Maria Kennedy) a chapter on the interaction of insolvency and court proceedings in “Arbitration and Insolvency” (2024).
He enjoys working as part of a larger team and has gained experience of both sides of the profession, having previously worked at a major international law firm.
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