Alex Peplow
Alex Peplow

Alex Peplow

Call: 2019

Alex has a broad commercial chancery practice, including insolvency and commercial disputes, civil fraud, company law, trusts, and probate litigation. He appears regularly in the High Court and the County Court, and welcomes instructions across all of Chambers’ core practice areas.

Before coming to the Bar, Alex practised as a solicitor in the Commercial Litigation team at Blake Morgan LLP, and has a number of years’ experience working in law firms. His first-hand experience of the demands placed on solicitors, and their clients’ need for clear advice which is focused on achieving the desired practical outcome, enables him to work effectively with those who instruct him.

Examples of Alex’s recent work include

  • Emirates NBD Bank PJSC v Saadat-Yazdi: contested Commercial Court proceedings (including a freezing injunction) to enforce Dubai judgments for AED 170 million in England against guarantors.
  • Sibner Capital Ltd v Jarvis [2022] EWHC 3273 (Ch): successfully appealing (as sole Counsel) against a District Judge’s decision to set aside statutory demands in, involving arguments as to whether a lender’s contractual option to restructure a debt was subject to a Braganza-style implied term. Decision cited in insolvency law texts Muir Hunter and Sealy & Millman.
  • Simon v Taché [2022] QB 917, [2022] 3 WLR 835, [2022] EWHC 1674 (Comm): jurisdiction challenge in claims against art advisers arising out of the purchase of a large collection of modern art. Important for its consideration of the “gateways” in CPR PD 6B concerning property and constructive trusts in the context of art litigation, and involving novel questions concerning the effect of Article 67 of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement on proceedings issued in the UK after the end of the transition period, and when a Court is deemed “seised” under Article 32 of Brussels Recast (led by Timothy Sherwin). Decision cited in the White Book.
  • Heritage Travel & Tourism Ltd v Windhorst: acting for the judgment creditor (for over €130 million) in a Part 71 Examination of the judgment debtor relating to complex international asset arrangements, including multi-layered corporate and trust structures across multiple jurisdictions (led by Andrew Holden).
  • Representing the Defendants (as sole Counsel) in the 3 day trial of a residential possession claim brought by a secondary lender, involving arguments as to unfair credit relationships and substantial cross-examination of the Claimant’s director.
  • Advising individual and trustee investors on claims against the offshore providers of several hundred million pounds worth of “investment wrapper” insurance policies, in respect of secret commissions paid to the investors’ financial advisers (with Edward Cumming KC and Timothy Sherwin).
  • 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) (led by Andrew Holden).

 

Areas of experience

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  • Arbitration

    Acting for the Charterer of a yacht in a dispute with the Owner over wrongful early termination of the Charter.

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

  • Art, Cultural Property & Media

    Simon v Taché [2022] QB 917, [2022] 3 WLR 835, [2022] EWHC 1674 (Comm): jurisdiction challenge in claims against art advisers arising out of the purchase of a large collection of modern art. Important for its consideration of the “gateways” in CPR PD 6B concerning property and constructive trusts in the context of art litigation, and involving novel questions concerning the effect of Article 67 of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement on proceedings issued in the UK after the end of the transition period, and when a Court is deemed “seised” under Article 32 of Brussels Recast (led by Timothy Sherwin).

  • Aviation
    • Walton Family Estates Ltd & Ors v GJD Services Ltd & Ors [2021] EWHC 88 (Comm): obtaining summary judgment for the airfield owner 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 (led by Adam Cloherty KC).
    • Alex (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).
    • Advising on an aircraft leasing dispute
  • Banking and Financial Services
    • Alex is instructed (with Edward Cumming KC and Timothy Sherwin) to advise individual and trustee investors on claims against the offshore providers of several hundred million pounds worth of “investment wrapper” insurance policies, in respect of secret commissions paid to the investors’ financial advisers.
    • Alex 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.
    • Advising a betting website operator on claims to recover winnings on a bet an unofficial event which was accepted in error.
    • During pupillage, Alex also gained experience of claims arising from spread-betting contracts.
  • Civil Fraud, Asset Tracing & Recovery

    Alex is very interested in the range of legal and equitable remedies which can be used to unwind fraudulent or otherwise wrongful transactions, and to preserve and recover assets. His work includes:

    • Emirates NBD Bank PJSC v Saadat-Yazdi: contested Commercial Court proceedings (including a freezing injunction) to enforce Dubai judgments for AED 170 million in England against guarantors
    • Heritage Travel & Tourism Ltd v Windhorst: acting for the judgment creditor (for over €130 million) in a Part 71 Examination of the judgment debtor relating to complex international asset arrangements, including multi-layered corporate and trust structures across multiple jurisdictions (led by Andrew Holden).
    • Insolvency Act claims to set aside transactions defrauding creditors or transactions at undervalue, both inside and outside insolvency situations.
    • “Trust busting” advice on enforcement against a judgment debtor’s interest as a discretionary beneficiary under a trust.

     

    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

    Alex regularly advises and represents businesses involved in commercial disputes across a wide range of sectors. His work includes:

    • Advising on the applicability of a liquidated damages clause in the context of an allegedly wrongful termination of an agency contract.
    • Acting for a company director (as D2 where the company is D1) in a claim including allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation, procuring breach of contract, accessory liability for breach of trust, and breach of bailment relating to the supply of a custom vehicle.
    • Obtaining a declaration that a payment under a COT3 Employment Tribunal settlement is not enforceable due to breaches of the agreement by the receiving party
    • A claim for a refund of monies paid to a warehouse operator for charges not properly owed under a contract for logistics services
    • Litigation between individuals in the film industry concerning film project financing, ownership of films, and a claim for company shares
    • Litigation and insolvency proceedings relating to property development loans and personal guarantees
    • A claim for damages arising from failure to provide Packing Recovery Note instruments.
    • 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 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:

    • Proceedings to correct company share records and rectify various purported transactions carried out under a mistaken belief as to the distribution of the company’s shares.
    • Advising on company law issues arising from the acquisition of 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.

     

    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 regularly appears in the High Court and the County Court in various personal and corporate insolvency matters, and advises on such matters. Alex’s recent insolvency work includes:

    • Sibner Capital Ltd v Jarvis [2022] EWHC 3273 (Ch): successfully appealing (as sole Counsel) against a District Judge’s decision to set aside statutory demands in, involving arguments as to whether a lender’s contractual option to restructure a debt was subject to a Braganza-style implied term. Decision cited in insolvency law texts Muir Hunter and Sealy & Millman.
    • Winding up petitions, bankruptcy petitions, and challenges to statutory demands.
    • Challenging an office-holder’s decision on a proof of debt under IR2016 r. 14.8, including an appeal against a Deputy ICC Judge’s decision on such an application
    • Acting for a trustee in bankruptcy, seeking court directions as to whether a possession order should be enforced in the face of an allegation that it was obtained by fraud.
    • Claims to set aside transactions defrauding creditors or transactions at undervalue.
    • Applications to set aside transfers at undervalue / transfers defrauding creditors.
    • 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.
    • 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 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 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 (led by Timothy Sherwin).

     

    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.
    • 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

    Alex has experience of advising on a combined winding up and bankruptcy proceedings against a partnership and its members.

    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

    Alex acted in a claim against a solicitor for negligently failing to issue proceedings within a limitation period

    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 experience includes:

    • Obtaining an interim injunction allowing a tenant to re-enter commercial premises, pending the trial of their claim for relief from forfeiture.
    • Acting for a developer in a dispute with a landowner concerning an oral joint venture contract and an agreement to purchase part of the land.
    • Representing the Defendants (as sole Counsel) in the 3 day trial of a residential possession claim brought by a secondary lender, involving arguments as to unfair credit relationships and substantial cross-examination of the Claimant’s director.
    • Advising on the enforceability of an equitable mortgage.
    • Advice and representation in relation to family property and business property disputes, including claims for proprietary estoppel, common intention constructive trusts, resulting trusts, and claims for a share of beneficial ownership under the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970.
    • Representing a trustee in an application to surrender discretion to the Court where the trustees could not agree on how to distribute the trust assets
    • Representing unborn beneficiaries in an application to bless a proposed distribution of trust assets
    • 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.
    • Opposing an application to vary an anti-harassment injunction and reassert stale claims regarding ownership of a family property.
  • Trusts, Probate & Estates

    Alex’s experience in relation to trust, probate and estate matters includes:

    • 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), led by Andrew Holden.
    • 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 KC).
    • Advising private trust companies in relation to hostile attempts by an associate of the settlor to gain control of the trusts
    • Advising on the application of the forfeiture rule where the settlor of an inter vivos trust had been killed by a discretionary beneficiary.
    • Acting in proceedings to remove a delinquent trustee and personal representative.
    • Assisting with advising the personal representatives of a deceased trustee-beneficiary who had allegedly appropriated substantial sums from a family trust without obtaining proper approval in accordance with the terms of the trust.
    • Advising on enforcement against a judgment debtor’s interest as a discretionary beneficiary under a trust, involving arguments as to shams and “illusory trusts”.
    • Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975.
    • 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.

Other information

  • Academic and Professional History
    • Former solicitor (2017 – 2019)
    • 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)