John has very wide-ranging commercial dispute experience, particularly in relation to international cases involving multiple jurisdictions, complex facts and heavyweight financial analysis.  Long recommended by Chambers & Prs, his recent cases include:

• Freeport, Bahamas: This hugely complex and high value shareholder dispute as to ownership of Freeport in the Bahamas is one of the largest cases ever to have been fought in the Bahamas.
• Phillips v Symes: This multi-jurisdictional case has covered the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, USA, Greece, London, Geneva, Zurich, Gibraltar and Berlin.  Asset recovery has been a major issue. The main case and its offshoots have been to the House of Lords and the Privy Council, as well as several times to the Court of Appeal.

Company and partnership issues are a common feature in the matters which John handles where his financial acumen and ability to grasp complex facts, often of a financial nature, are of particular assistance.  For example, in the last year he has worked on:

• Freeport, Bahamas: a huge international dispute concerning ownership of Freeport in the Bahamas.
• Phillips v Symes: a vast, multi-jurisdictional case concerning ownership of assets in an international antiquities partnership.  The main case and its offshoots have been to the House of Lords and the Privy Council, as well as several times to the Court of Appeal.

Long recommended by the legal directories in this area, since 1985 John has practised very largely (at times almost exclusively) in the field of pension schemes and trusts (and associated professional negligence claims), most instructions since that date being either directly litigious or in anticipation of the possibility of litigation. John has been involved in a number of leading cases such as:

• National Power (in the House of Lords)
• Mettoy Pension Trust Limited –v Evans
• Coloroll (in the European Court of Justice)
• National Bus (acting for HM Government)
• Drexel Burnham Lambert

John has appeared before the ECJ in Luxembourg in respect of pensions matters on three occasions, twice instructed by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the UK. On a number of occasions John has advised major Departments of State (e.g. Dept. of Education as it then was, Department of Transport, as well as providing advice directly to the Government).

Recently he has been involved in the following matters:

• advising on £200m + shortfall in a large industry-wide pension fund
• acting in relation to millions of pounds collected by a trade union but not all used for the purpose collected
• a matter now before the Pensions Ombudsman concerning trustees not paying a widow as it would affect them personally
• a claim to set aside severance agreemeents and enhanced pensions payments

John has long been recommended in Legal 500 and Chambers & Prs for his abilities in the private client arena.  He is consistently instructed in some of the largest, most complicated, high profile and contentious matters and regularly works for international as well as UK firms.  He has acted as both advocate and adviser in a very significant number of private trust cases, generally offshore (eg in the Cayman Islands, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Switzerland).  His financial competence makes him a popular choice for such cases which often involve substantial sums and complicated accounting issues.

His recent experience includes:

• Freeport, Bahamas: a massive shareholder dispute concerning ownership of Freeport in the Bahamas.
• On-shore family trust dispute: This dispute occasioned probably the largest ever Beddoe application in 2008. 
• Phillips v Symes:  a multi-jurisdictional asset recovery case following the death of a partner in an international antiquities partnership coverning the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, the USA, Greece, London, Geneva, Zurich and Berlin.  Currently John is seeking to recover monies from the Gibraltar branch of a major French bank.
• Guernsey proceedings: John is advising beneficiaries who are seeking to recover many tens of millions of pounds from trustees in relation to their poor investment management and failure to diversify the trusts’ investments.
• Breach of fiduciary duty: John is instructed in a Cayman Islands case matter where substantial losses are claimed from trustees who sold a ship without proper consideration of, for example, the timing of the sale.
• Off-shore trust dispute: John is acting for a Guernsey trust with over US$200m in cash but also numerous European commercial interests, managed from Luxembourg.
• On-shore family trust dispute: John is involved in complex problems arising from the untimely death of a beneficiary and the resulting revisions to the trusts’ tax planning