Philip brings his wealth of experience of insolvency and property litigation to bear on his banking and financial services work. He has particular experience of claims in which banks initiated insolvency proceedings as a result of the cash-flow difficulties that resulted from mis-sold products. He has experience across a whole range of banking and financial services cases, including mis-sold mortgages, negligent investment and pension advice, claims by and against guarantors, and claims involving undue influence, duress and other economic torts. He is familiar with COBS, MCOB, and other rules in the FCA Handbook.

Recent work includes:

• representing the Claimant in a claim against its former financial advisors for misrepresentations and negligent investment advice
• representing property investors in unfair relationship claims against bridging finance providers
• advising guarantors on viable defences arising from misstatement and breach of duty on the part of the lender
• representing mortgagors in defending claims brought by lenders on the basis of undue influence

• Advising a cohort of property investors on their claims in deceit, conspiracy, and under FSMA in respect of a series of elaborate unregulated collective investment schemes involving holiday homes, lodges and timeshares.
• Acting for a Canary Wharf property developer & lender on a portfolio of development loans and associated personal guarantees alleged by the defendants to have been acquired by fraud. Involving allegations of conspiracy including regulated professionals.
• Two week High Court trial acting for two of eleven defendants to a multi-million pound international unlawful means conspiracy claim in the domestic white goods service plan industry. Significant factual disparities & evidential difficulties, with legal argument focussing on the requirement that the defendant should have interfered with the third party’s ability to deal with the claimant.
• Acting for and advising defendants to a further multi-million pound unlawful means conspiracy claim. The case settled at an early stage.
• Advising a former senior city tax partner and his spouse on claims against them by his trustee in bankruptcy concerning multi-million pound sham trusts and property transfers going back over a decade. Included appearing for the spouse on an application to vary a worldwide proprietary freezing injunction, in an attempt to obtain further funding for legal representation to trial.
• Advising the liquidators of a subsidiary company on the implications of a multi-faceted group reorganisation which resulted in the company’s insolvency, in particular the potential sham nature of various steps in that reorganisation.
• Three week High Court trial acting for the purchasers of a large regional accountancy firm in a claim alleging multiple fraudulent misrepresentations and breaches of the share purchase agreement. Legal argument focussing on the “hindsight principle” – the extent to which events subsequent to the fraud could be taken into account when assessing loss and damage.
• Acting for the vendors of a company providing security services to the high-end fashion industry on procurement company, for multi-million pound damages arising out of alleged misrepresentations about past performance and future intentions. Defence and counterclaim relying on the claimants’ scheme to secretly divert business away from the acquired company to related parties.
• Advising an HNWI on his claims against financial advisors for negligent investment advice, with investigations into concealed conflicts of interest, fraudulent misrepresentations, and sham transfers of the supposed underlying assets.
• Advising an HNWI on his claims against the former director of a defunct football gambling platform, including elements of fraudulent misrepresentation to induce multi-million pound “investment” on the platform. Legal arguments of attribution of liability as between the former director and the corporate entity.
• Representing a series of claimants on their claims to damages from a finance company, arising out of a scheme devised to give the impression of simple lending while disguising the acquisition of assets from the claimants. Included a number of interim injunctions (including on a proprietary basis) to prevent dissipation of assets pending determination of the claims.
• Advising a cohort of potential claimants on the routes to recover damages for fraudulent misrepresentations that induced significant investment into disguised timeshares.
• Multiple instances of advising liquidators on claims against director/shareholders guilty of fraudulently disguising the misappropriation of company money.
• Multiple instances of advising trustees in bankruptcy on claims against related parties to sham transactions – notably international property transfers with sham family trusts and sham transfers to avoid enforcement.

Related Injunctions

• Successfully obtaining urgent ex-parte injunctive relief (continued inter partes) to prevent the sale of property post-judgment for the purposes of enforcement. Subsequently setting aside the property transfer as a sham transaction & a transaction defrauding creditors.
• Successfully obtaining urgent ex parte proprietary and freezing injunctions to prevent further unjustified withdrawals of capital and profits from a private dental partnership.
• Acting for the claimants on a proprietary injunction concerning allegations of a sham transfer of the family business and familial home, including the respondent’s reliance on the equity of exoneration.
• Appearing for the respondents to a worldwide proprietary freezing injunction, in an attempt to obtain further funding for legal representation to trial.
• Acting on behalf of off-shore trusts to resist injunctive relief sought in matrimonial proceedings, where the wife alleged sham transactions disguised as investments in the trusts.

Philip enjoys a reputation as a strong and strategic commercial litigator who gives practical advice on complex disputes. He acts for a wide variety of businesses – from sole traders, to SMEs, to multi-nationals – across a range of business sectors.

He advises on all manner of commercial disputes, including share purchase agreements and related warranty claims, shareholder disputes, agency, guarantees and indemnities, insolvency, banking, and construction.

He has experience of arbitration and other modes of alternative dispute resolution. He also has experience of group litigation, and can devise strategies to assist with assessing the merits of large numbers of cases efficiently.

Recent work includes:

• Representing the Defendants to a multi-million pound conspiracy claim, which raised significant issues about the quantity of potential evidence and the need for statistically significant representative samples. The litigation settled following mediation.
• Arbitration arising out of one party’s retirement from a partnership, involving a challenge to the arbitrator’s jurisdiction and a dispute about the scope of an expert determination clause.
• Advising property investors on potential claims against scheme managers for fraud and their banks for breach of the Quincecare.
• Representing the Defendants in a claim for additional sums said to be due under a share purchase agreement, the terms of which were disputed and subject to a counterclaim for rectification.

Philip regularly appears on applications for injunctions to restrain the presentation and advertisement of winding up petitions, and for freezing injunctions to prevent the disposal of assets pending the determination of disputes concerning their ownership. He also appears in applications to prevent breaches of restrictive covenants in employment contracts and those concerning breaches of freeholder covenants in property conveyances.

He is able to advise quickly on the timing and suitability of injunction applications, including the question of whether an ex parte application is appropriate.

He is also well-placed to advise on the prospects of successfully opposing injunction applications and is often able to devise strategies for prompt settlement of disputes at this early stage.

Recent work includes:

• Obtaining an injunction (ex parte and continued inter partes) to prevent the sale of a house pending the trail of a claim under s.423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 concerning the transfer of that house (in which Philip later successfully represented the Claimants).
• Obtaining an injunction (ex parte) to prevent the advertisement of a winding up petition. The petition was withdrawn prior to an inter partes hearing.

Philip’s practice has always had a strong insolvency angle. He acts in all manner of insolvency cases, including claims involving transactions at an undervalue, preferences, and transactions to defraud creditors.

Philip works closely with office holders and company directors to fully understand the nature of the business and the issues that arise upon insolvency.

Philip regularly advises on and appears in applications for injunctions to prevent the presentation or advertisement of winding up petitions. He has also acted in many applications to set aside statutory demands, for validation orders, and for orders under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

Recent work includes:

• Manolete Partners plc v Hope and Jones (ICC Judge Prentis): successfully representing the Claimant at the trial of claims for the repayment of dividends that had been paid unlawfully, and for the recovery of sums wrongly paid by the company in an attempt to satisfy the terms of a share purchase agreement. Of particular interest, the court agreed that the interpretation of the shareholders’ knowledge requirement for the repayment of unlawful dividends in s.847 of the Companies Act 2006 (as explained by reference to EU law in It’s a Wrap (UK) Ltd (In Liquidation) v Gula [2006] EWCA Civ 544) was not altered by Brexit or the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.
• Representing the administrators in a series of Berkely Applegate applications relating to collective asset management agreements with substantial unallocated trust funds
• Re Tough Mudder GmbH: successfully obtaining confirmation of the Creditors Voluntary Liquidation of the German subsidiary of an English company, on the basis that its COMI was shown to be in England.
• Wessely & Anor (Zoom UK Distribution Ltd) v Rubra & Ors [2021] EWHC 800 (Ch): representing the directors of a company in administration in an application for a declaration that the administrators’ appointment was valid notwithstanding the failure to give notice to a qualifying floating charge holder. The decision resolves an issue on which there had previously been a conflict of judicial opinion.

Philip has acted in a number of professional negligence cases against IFAs, solicitors, accountants, and architects. He advises on disputes arising out of a range of situations, including negligent investment advice, the unwise drafting of share purchase agreements and construction contracts, and the improper handling of commercial litigation. He is well placed to advise on professional negligence claims across the range of his other work. 

Recent work includes:

• Advising on a potential claim against solicitors arising out of alleged failures to follow client instructions in the drafting of a share purchase agreement, leading to litigation about the true purchase price
• Advising on a potential claim against solicitors arising out of alleged failures to advise on the appropriate form and the drafting of a multi-million pound construction contract
• Acting in a claim against an IFA for negligent investment advice
• Acting in a claim against solicitors for failing to issue commercial lease renewal proceedings in time
• Right to Buy Litigation [2015] EWHC 1559 (Ch): together with David McIlroy, representing thousands of claimants in a group action concerning claims against solicitors conducting conveyancing under the Right to Buy Scheme.

Philip has developed a niche practice in cases concerning both construction and insolvency disputes, acting for construction companies threatened with insolvency and creditors of insolvent construction companies alike. This has led to an expansion of his work profile to include construction disputes more generally.

Recent work includes:

• Acting (led) for a consultant in a number of high-value adjudications and now in litigation concerning significant disputes arising from the construction of a large biomass energy plant.
• Advising main contractors on threatened proceedings against them for breach of allegedly non-delegable duties.
• Advising home owners and a main contractor on potential claims against negligent subcontractors.
• Advising creditors of Carillion following its collapse in early 2018, and in particular on their rights to obtain payment from the bank under Carillion’s Early Payment Facility Agreement.
• Acting for the assignee of claims from an insolvent plumbing company in its claims against a negligent subcontractor.

• Chancery Bar Association

• Financial Services Lawyers Association

• Professional Negligence Bar Association

• BSc BiochemistryImperial College London
• LLB The College of Law
• LLM International Commercial Practice, The University of Law

• Queen Mother’s ScholarshipMiddle Temple