Sarah specialises in contentious trust and estates, civil fraud, financial services and company/insolvency disputes. In addition to her English work, Sarah acts both for private and corporate clients in a number of jurisdictions including the Cayman Islands, BVI, Bermuda, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar and the DIFC.
Sarah appears in a broad range of contentious trust matters including fraud and tracing claims, claims for relief in relation to breach of trust and/or fiduciary duty and disputes concerning beneficial ownership of property, mistake and undue influence. She has extensive experience of advising and acting in wills and estate disputes including claims brought under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
Sarah’s financial services and funds work ranges from relatively straightforward cases of alleged mis-selling to substantial international matters involving complex offshore investment structures.
Sarah also acts in a wide variety of company matters including shareholders’ disputes, unfair prejudice petitions and directors’ disqualification proceedings. She has particular experience of acting both for, and against, entrepreneurs and fiduciary office holders in matters involving structuring issues and joint ventures in England and offshore.
Sarah’s insolvency practice includes cases concerning administrations and special administrations, voluntary and compulsory winding up, questions arising in relation to liquidators’ powers and duties, recovery and distribution of assets and treatment of creditors. She has edited Atkins Court Forms companies-insolvency volumes. Sarah is also regularly instructed in cases involving offshore company and insolvency regimes, an aspect of her work recognised in Legal 500 this year.
Areas of experience
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“Fantastic barrister” Sarah is recommended as a leading junior in insolvency and offshore by Legal 500 2018 which comments that she is: “arobust advocate” with “good client care skills” and “particularly good at offshore company and insolvency regimes“. She is rated as “technicallyfantastic and very commercial as well as pragmatic” and “thorough in her consideration of the issues and clear and concise in her advice“. Sarah is described as a: “a good tactician and a sharp mind for complex issues“, “approachable and highly professional” and someone who is: “very effective at communicating and presenting complicated points of law and legal concepts“.
Academic history
BA (Hons) Cambridge (English)
Scholar of Christ’s College
Diploma of Law, City University
Professional memberships
Chancery Bar Association
Bar of Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (2003)
Registered Legal Practitioner – Dubai International Financial Centre (2015)
Talks and articles
“Changes to the Investment Bank Special Administration Regime: Problems solved?”
Journal of International Banking and Financial Law March 2017
“Conflicts of law and the proper law of trusts: sufficient protection of proprietary interests?“ Stephen Moverley Smith QC and Sarah Bayliss; Trusts & Trustees 2015 (OUP)
Topics on which Sarah has recently written and lectured include:
Limitation in trust disputes
Equitable compensation
Exclusion and exoneration clauses
Cross border insolvency: assistance to foreign office holders and anti-suit injunctions
Piercing the corporate veil and divorce after Prest
Directors’ duties
Investor protection and remedies against financial institutions
Duty of good faith in contract and fiduciary obligations in a commercial context
