• Arbitration

  During pupillage, Alex gained experience of an arbitration in respect of a professional adviser’s entitlement to a success fee.

• Aviation

  Alex appeared (led by Adam Cloherty) for the successful airfield owner in Walton Family Estates Ltd & Ors v GJD Services Ltd & Ors [2021] EWHC 88 (Comm), obtaining summary judgment in a multi-party cross-jurisdictional action against the owners of various aircraft parked without authority on the airfield. The Court declared that the presence of the aircraft constituted a trespass and granted the airfield owner permission to sell or scrap the aircraft under the Torts (Interference With Goods) Act 1977.

  Alex also (as sole Counsel) successfully resisted an application by one of the aircraft owners to vary the Court’s order, and obtained an award of indemnity costs: Walton Family Estates Ltd & Ors v GJD Services Ltd & Ors [2021] EWHC 464 (Comm) (now cited in the White Book).

  Alex also has experience of advising on an aircraft leasing dispute.

  During pupillage, Alex gained experience of:

  • An application to serve proceedings out of the jurisdiction.
  • A dispute over the interpretation of a contract for the supply of aircraft parts.
  • A contractual dispute relating to airport operations.
• Banking and Financial Services

  Alex is instructed (with Edward Cumming QC and Tim Sherwin) to advise individual and trustee investors on claims against the providers of offshore “investment wrapper” insurance policies, in respect of secret commissions paid to the investors’ financial advisers.

  Alex recently assisted the Counsel team with a 5-week trial in the case of Ivanishvili v Credit Suisse Life (Bermuda) Ltd, a nine-figure dispute before the Supreme Court of Bermuda arising out of investments made through an insurance wrapper.

  Alex has advised a betting website operator on claims to recover winnings on a bet which was accepted in error concerning an unofficial event.

  During pupillage, Alex also gained experience of claims arising from spread-betting contracts.

• Civil Fraud, Asset Tracing & Recovery

  Alex, together with Tim Sherwin, is instructed by an art collector in a cross-jurisdictional claim against their art advisers concerning secret commissions, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligent advice concerning the acquisition of various artworks.

  During pupillage, Alex gained experience of:

  • A claim arising from a fraudulent scheme involving the sale of financial instruments
  • A claim by the litigation funder and assignee of a company in liquidation, against the company’s directors, for the return of misappropriated monies.
  • An application for a freezing injunction in respect of monies misappropriated from a company by a former employee
  • An application for a freezing injunction in support of an unfair prejudice petition
  • An application to set aside a bankruptcy petition
  • Long-running proceedings in the Commercial Court concerning equitable proprietary claims regarding shares in a number of Saudi Arabian banks and conflict of laws issues
  • An application to set aside service of a claim form out of the jurisdiction

  As a solicitor, Alex worked on cases including:

  • A multi-million-pound claim arising from carousel fraud, with proceedings across multiple jurisdictions.
  • Advising on claims arising from a Ponzi scheme.
• Commercial Litigation
  • Advising on the applicability of a liquidated damages clause in the context of an allegedly wrongful termination of an agency contract.
  • Resisting an application for a third party debt order.
  • An application to set aside a judgment in a case of mistaken identity.
  • Applications for the late registration of charges at Companies House under s. 859F of the Companies Act 2006.

  During pupillage, Alex gained experience of:

  • Commercial disputes across a variety of sectors including aviation, IT, agriculture, and the supply of high value consumer goods.
  • A claim for repayment of a commercial loan and a counterclaim in respect of an alleged unfair credit relationship.
  • An application to set aside a writ of control.

  As a solicitor, Alex worked on matters including:

  • Claims under regulated and unregulated credit agreements, including claims for the recovery of goods.
  • Multi-party proceedings relating to allegedly defective vehicles.
• Company

  Alex has experience of:

  • Advising on company law issues in the context of a trust structure.
  • Advising on company law issues and the structuring of a deal for an offshore business to acquire a UK pharmaceutical company.
  • Applications for the late registration of charges under s. 859F of the Companies Act 2006.

  During pupillage, Alex gained experience of:

  • Assisting with unfair prejudice petitions, including assisting Hugh Miall at a six-day trial (George v McCarthy [2019] EWHC 2939 (Ch)).
  • An appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council arising from a winding up order made in the BVI on the “just and equitable” ground.
  • Assisting with advising a group of shareholders on pre-emption rights.
  • Claims arising from the sale of companies.

  As a solicitor, Alex worked on an unfair prejudice petition and claim for rectification of the register of members of a company, and associated claims between related companies.

• Insolvency

  Alex has appeared in the High Court and the County Court in various personal and corporate insolvency matters. Alex recently secured bankruptcy orders at the first hearing in two related petitions, after advising on applications by the same debtors (later withdrawn) to set aside statutory demands. Alex’s other recent insolvency work includes:

  • Defending an application to set aside a property transfer alleged to be a transaction at an undervalue and/or a transaction defrauding creditors.
  • Representing a creditor in applications to set aside statutory demands.
  • Securing the annulment of a bankruptcy order.
  • Securing the abridgement of a time limit within an administration, in order retrospectively to regularise a creditors’ decision.

  During pupillage, Alex gained experience of:

  • An application to restrain presentation of a winding up petition.
  • An application to set aside preferential transactions and/or transactions at an undervalue entered by a company.
  • An appeal against bankruptcy orders.
  • A claim, assigned by the liquidator of a company, against the directors for the return of misappropriated monies.
  • Assisting with advising on the interaction between the insolvency of a partnership and the insolvency of one of its partners.

  As a solicitor, Alex gained experience of:

  • Bringing insolvency proceedings against debtors.
  • Enforcement proceedings against former company directors following misfeasance proceedings, on behalf of liquidators.
• International & Offshore

  Much of Alex’s work has an offshore or multi-jurisdictional component. His recent work includes:

  • Successfully obtaining summary judgment for an airfield owner in respect of a multi-jurisdictional claim in trespass against the owners of various aircraft (led by Adam Cloherty). Subsequently (as sole Counsel) successfully resisting an application to vary the judge’s order and securing an award of indemnity costs.
  • Advising a professional trustee on a threatened claim for breach of trust and mismanagement of trust property, involving Bermuda and BVI law.
  • Acting, together with Tim Sherwin, for an art collector in a cross-jurisdictional claim against their art advisers concerning secret commissions, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligent advice concerning the acquisition of various artworks.

  During pupillage, Alex gained experience of:

  • An appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council arising from a winding up order made in the BVI on the “just and equitable” ground.
  • Advice to a foreign commercial lender on the impact of English freezing injunctions against the ultimate beneficial owner of a borrower.
  • Considering the law on rectification of voluntary settlements in Jersey.
  • Advice on the construction of a family trust, conflict of laws issues relating to domicile, and the law of legitimation, to determine whether a group of descendants of the settlor fell within the class of beneficiaries of the trust.
• Partnership and Joint Ventures

  During pupillage, Alex assisted with advising on the interaction between the insolvency of a partnership and the insolvency of one of its partners.

• Professional Negligence

  During pupillage, Alex assisted with a claim against a company’s former employee in respect of negligently delivered IT projects.

• Real Estate Litigation

  Alex’s recent experience includes:

  • Successfully representing (pro bono) a vulnerable freeholder, who had failed to attend the trial of their possession claim, in an application to set aside the resulting order and obtain a new trial.
  • Resisting applications for charging orders brought by the liquidator of the respondent’s company, on the grounds that the respondent holds the properties on trust for their children.
  • Representing a freeholder, opposing an application by a litigant in person who sought to vary an anti-harassment injunction and reassert stale claims regarding ownership of a family property.

  During pupillage, Alex gained experience of a claim against the guarantor of a commercial loan for possession of residential property.

• Trusts, Probate & Estates

  Alex’s recent work includes:

  • Acting for the Claimants in a claim to challenge the will, and certain inter vivos transactions, of a public figure on the basis of lack of capacity and/or want of knowledge and approval (led by Edward Cumming QC).
  • Together with Andrew Holden, advising a professional trustee in relation to an offshore claim against them concerning alleged failures to safeguard the trust property (namely shares in a company registered in a different jurisdiction).
  • Assisting with advising the personal representatives of a deceased trustee-beneficiary who was alleged to have appropriated substantial sums from a family trust without obtaining proper approval in accordance with the terms of the trust.
  • Advising on applications to remove personal representatives under s. 50 of the Administration of Justice Act 1985.
  • Representing an adult child of ‘P’ in contested Court of Protection proceedings regarding whether P lacks capacity to manage an international property portfolio and, if so, who should be appointed as their deputy.

  During pupillage, Alex gained experience of:

  • Advice on challenging a will on the basis of lack of capacity / want of knowledge and approval, and the interaction of provisions of a will with a shareholders’ agreement.
  • Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
  • Advice on the construction of a family trust, conflict of laws issues relating to domicile, and the law of legitimation, to determine whether a group of descendants of the settlor fell within the class of beneficiaries of the trust.
  • Advice to trustees on a proposed distribution from one sub-fund of a family trust to beneficiaries of a different sub-fund.

Other information

• Academic and Professional History
  • Solicitor (non-practising) – admitted 2017
  • LLM LPC – University of Law
  • BA Jurisprudence – Lincoln College, Oxford
• Appointments

  Alex was appointed by Roth J as adjudicator of a Scheme to determine the membership of Hollingwood Welfare Association – [2021] EWHC 1278 (Ch)

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