Commercial
Richard is an experienced junior in the Commercial department, with extensive experience of acting in an advisory capacity or drafting, and in advocacy of all kinds.
Richard is listed as a Leading Individual in Chambers & Partners in Commercial Dispute Resolution and Restructuring/Insolvency, and a Leading Junior in The Legal 500 in Company and Insolvency.
He has been variously described as:
- “He is very good on his feet. He is careful and well prepared, and he has a manner that clients can gel with.” “He’s very persuasive in front of a judge and very good at spotting unusual points.” “He is very approachable and very user-friendly.” (Chambers and Partners 2021)
- “Good to work with. Team player. Nothing too much trouble. Reliable and hard working.” (The Legal 500 2021)
- “Very diligent and always well prepared.” (Chambers and Partners 2020)
- a “talented junior with a burgeoning reputation, who handles a wide variety of commercial disputes including company, contractual and insolvency-related matters”, having “exactly the right attitude” and being an “extremely able and user-friendly junior – he is very much a safe pair of hands on all things chancery, commercial and insolvency related.” (Chambers and Partners 2019)
- “a future star who is particularly good at cross-examination” (Chambers and Partners 2018)
Richard is Junior Counsel to the Crown (Regional A Panel) and, as such, instructed regularly in cases involving breaches of directors’ duties, public interest winding up petitions and directors’ disqualification proceedings.
Richard is also a member of the Commercial Fraud, Insolvency and Property teams and thus able to deal with matters also covering those areas of law.
More particularly, Richard’s practice encompasses the following areas in commercial law:
- Contractual disputes of all kinds
- Banking, finance and asset recovery
- Company and partnership disputes of all kinds, including unfair prejudice petitions and actions, shareholder disputes and actions for breach of directors’ duties
- Professional negligence in various fields
- Sale of goods and product liability
- Commercial litigation generally
- Commercial fraud
Commercial Cases
Recent and relevant cases include:
Absolute Living Developments Ltd v DS7 Ltd and others [2018] EWHC 1717 (Ch) & [2018] EWHC 1432 (Ch) – being led by David Mohyuddin QC in a case involving allegations of de facto and shadow directorship and largescale fraud amounting to £14,000,000 generally, and in two reported decisions relating to contempt of Court and security for costs as against a liquidator. Richard was further involved in drafting appeal papers to the Court of Appeal in the matter.
B v AC & Others – ongoing case involving acting for one of numerous Defendants in a High Court action brought by the Claimants for over £250,000 arising from allegations of fraud and breach of trust as a result of the improper sale of vehicles.
PS v B & Others – acting for receivers of numerous properties comprising hotels in London in an action to seek a validation order for the intended sale of those hotels for a sum in excess of £15,000,000 in the face of opposition from the debtor.
D v AI – Advising and drafting proceedings on behalf of the producer of infrastructure products, D, in relation to various breaches of a distribution agreement by the distributor, E. The case involved various issues, including as to identity of parties, interpretation of terms, and quantum, and resulted in a Leader being brought in. The draft proceedings prompted settlement for £6,000,000.
Montpellier Estates Limited v Leeds City Council [2013] EWHC 166 QB – assisting generally in the preparation of and dealing with various interlocutory hearings in the successful defence of a multi-million pound deceit claim made against the Council
Autofocus Limited/Accident Exchange Limited litigation (2012-13) – assisting in the appeals in numerous cases arising from the fraudulent manufacturing of “expert” evidence in credit hire cases causing multi-million pound losses. Also instructed in over 80 applications from 2015 to 2017 addressing whether there should be concurrent or sequential exchange of rates evidence in credit hire cases.
MacMillan v Manning (2017) – successful defence of a multi-day trial for misfeasance
H v G – acting successfully, over a seven year period, for the Claimant in a multi-day harassment action, also including defamation and nuisance actions, and related enforcement proceedings thereafter
Litigation arising from the Buncefield Oil depot disaster (2008) – assisting a national law firm in relation to an action against the manufacturer of safety devices at the depot.
