Jian Jun (JJ) Liew

JJ has been instructed and involved in a large variety of commercial cases, whether to give advice, settle pleadings, or to pursue claims to trial, and whether as sole counsel or as part of a larger team. These cases range from more modest disputes for breaches of contract and/or misrepresentation, to high value disputes concerning allegations of fraud and bribery.

JJ’s experiences in this area include the following:

• Being part of the legal team in a large international mining dispute between a Chinese state-owned enterprise and an American conglomerate, concerning the ownership of a mining project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, involving proceedings in numerous jurisdictions including Hong Kong and the BVI.
• Advising a building developer in respect of rights and liabilities arising under various joint ventures and share purchase agreements, including considering payment obligations under a profit share agreement and potential claims for breaches of warranties under those share purchase agreements.
• Settled pleadings as junior counsel for an ongoing dispute concerning an allegedly erroneous report by a debt purchaser of a credit default, leading to a claimed loss of a lucrative opportunity to purchase and develop land near Bristol, reported in: https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/azzurro-wrongly-flagged-2000-loans-with-company-related-debts-k0d9cqtft
• Settled pleadings as sole counsel for a dispute concerning the ownership of stage equipment used in the musical Elf: The Musical.

JJ has a particular interest in commercial litigation with Chinese elements, and frequently accepts instructions on cases relating to Chinese clients or interests in the UK, working closely with Chinese law firms in the process.

JJ regularly appears in the County Court and the Insolvency and Companies Court for various companies applications. Aside from the usual applications including (a) to extend the period of administration, (b) for the re-use of company names, and (c) for the approval of officeholder remuneration, his experiences also include the following:

• Acting as sole counsel in a contested Part 8 trial regarding the ownership of the shares of a company operating a nightclub in Bristol, raising issues of informal decision-making under the Duomatic principle (Re Iktomi Events Limited [2023] EWHC 2538 (Ch)).
• Acting as sole counsel, drafted and presented an urgent application and claim to preserve a business structure following the death of the sole director and shareholder of the TopCo, who was also the sole director of all the underlying companies owned through TopCo.
• Advising on prospective changes to a company’s Articles of Association which may have had the effect of depriving a senior employee (against whom disciplinary action was shortly intended to commence) of their vested share options.
• Advising on a dispute between shareholder-directors of a company, wherein one faction of directors was alleged to have sought to gain an advantage by unilaterally seeking to send the company into administration to dispose of the company’s assets via a pre-pack sale to a connected company. JJ successfully drafted and presented an application to restore the company from administration to preserve the rights of the other faction of directors.

JJ was seconded to the Retail Investments team of the FCA’s GCD for a period of 6 months to March 2022. In the course of that secondment, JJ has assisted the FCA in the following matters:

• The implementation of the New Consumer Duty.
• The reform of the regulation of funeral plan providers.
• Work related to VREQs, including identifying appropriate wording for the terms of the VREQs and assessing the compliance of firms with their VREQs.
• Advising on the regulatory compliance of a P2P lending structure.
• Advising on whether certain communications fall to be regulated.
• Advising on the sanctions applicable on particular cases for breach of the general prohibition.

JJ’s experience with the FCA leaves him with a unique insight as to the approach taken by the regulator in respect of any interventions undertaken.

Outside of the FCA, JJ’s experiences in respect of financial services regulation includes the following:

• Advising on the drafting of agreements which take advantage of regulatory exemptions.
• Advising on and acting in disputes involving allegations that credit agreements or mortgage contracts provided by unregulated entities were regulated under the FSMA2000.
• Advising insurers in respect of potential claims under s.138D of FSMA2000 relating to their obligations within the ICOBS regime.
• Advising and acting in claims concerning of unfair relationship claims under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, including some claims relating to half-secret or fully-secret commissions being paid to brokers or agents.
• Assisting in the due diligence exercise associated with a purchase of the shareholding in a company which acted as a regulated underwriter (by way of the appointed representative regime) of insurance products.

JJ has firm experience across a range of contentious and non-contentious probate disputes, having advised and represented across the full spectrum of probate matters, including:

• Acting as sole counsel, successfully defending a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 on jurisdictional grounds, reported in:
  • The Times: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/shaggy-it-wasnt-me-inheritance-row-g2v2qz8vp
  • The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rik-rok-ducent-court-father-b2754306.html
  • The Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/rik-rok-shaggy-singer-it-wasnt-me-family-feud-sister-b1228712.html
  • The Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14730477/Co-star-Shaggys-Wasnt-dragged-1m-inheritance-row.html
• Advising on and drafting a complex settlement agreement for an intimated probate and 1975 Act claim, addressing the distribution of proceeds of sale of valuable shares (valued in excess of £12m) by way of a discretionary trust as part of the estate distribution.
• Advising on the effects of various discretionary pilot trusts and the options available to the main beneficiaries to realise their interests in those pilot trusts.
• Acting successfully in a Part 8 claim seeking a declaration that the life interest holder’s rights to a property under a will trust had lapsed from breach of the conditions attaching to that life interest, and that the remainderman should be entitled to an order for sale and distribution of the proceeds of the property.

JJ has been involved in cases spanning across the property practice area, with a particular strength in areas of property law intersecting with his other areas of expertise. His experience in this area includes:

• Acting as sole counsel in a claim by the spouse of a Chinese billionaire seeking an interest in the family home in London by way of a common intention constructive trust or proprietary estoppel, notwithstanding the deceased’s transfer of the title to the spouse’s stepdaughter prior to his death.
• Advising on the merits of a claim where, following the purchase of the shares of a company operating a dentistry business, it was subsequently discovered that the premises from which the business was operated contained substantial asbestos contamination requiring removal at substantial cost.
• Advising on a potential claim for defective construction of a new-build property in London, which included considering the extent of the duties owed in a “build and purchase” contract for property and the changes to the law brought about by the Building Safety Act 2022 (including the service charge reforms included in that piece of legislation).
• Acting as sole counsel in long-running mortgage possession proceedings for the possession and sale of a valuable property in Essex, with advice and representation provided on matters ranging from priority of interests, mortgage subrogation, and alleged unlawful eviction. This included successfully defending two applications for interim injunctions at the “serious issue to be tried” stage, with the Court concluding in one such application that a sealed possession order cannot be set aside under CPR 3.1(7): Franklin v Fleximize Capital Ltd [2023] 10 WLUK 661.
• Advising on the options available to the holder of a legal charge over a freehold title in a hotel, following the said freehold title escheating to the Crown after the company holding the title entering liquidation and the liquidators disclaiming the company’s interest.

JJ has significant expertise in the insolvency practice area, and regularly appearances in the Insolvency and Companies Court to provide representation in various insolvency applications and claims. His experiences include the following:

• Advising and assisting in the intervention by the spouse of a deceased debtor in proceedings by a Chinese state-owned enterprise under the Administration of Insolvent Estates of Deceased Persons Order 1986 against the debtor.
• Advising and acting in claims brought by insolvency practitioners (or insolvency litigation funders) against former directors of insolvent companies for breaches of duty, the recovery of sums transferred in breach of fiduciary duty, and wrongful or misfeasant trading. JJ has varyingly acted on behalf of both sides of such claims, and has significant expertise in advising on such disputes.
• Advising and acting in applications to set aside statutory demands and to restrain presentation/advertisement of winding up petitions, with JJ again varyingly acting on both sides of such applications.
• Advising on a complex liquidation of a large Isle of Man trusts and corporate service provider engaging issues of corporate insolvency, trusts, and property law.

JJ also has experience advising on the effects of insolvency on assets held in trust and on jointly owned assets, including bank accounts and real property.

• Bar Professional Training Course, BPP University (Very Competent)
• LLM (Commercial), Wolfson College, University of Cambridge (First Class) (Thesis Title: “A House of Mirrors: a way forward for choices between causes of action?”)
• BA in Law (Jurisprudence), Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford (First Class)

• BBP BPTC Excellence Award (BPP University)
• Wolfson College Jennings Prize (University of Cambridge)
• Corpus Christi College Degree Award (University of Oxford)

• The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn
• Chancery Bar Association
• Society of Trust and Probate Practitioners (STEP)

• Mandarin Chinese (Conversationally Fluent)