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  • Overview

    Jonathan is a highly experienced and sought-after commercial chancery barrister with a litigation and advisory practice focused primarily on insolvency, company and commercial law.

    His commercial litigation practice covers all types of contractual disputes, including claims relating to agency, guarantees, banking, partnership, breaches of trust and fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment and asset tracing. His company law practice covers directors’ duties and remedies for maladministration, director disqualification, shareholder disputes, derivative claims and shareholder agreements, while in his insolvency practice, covering administrations, receiverships, liquidations, bankruptcy and voluntary arrangements, he has extensive experience in cases involving preferences and undervalue transactions, fraudulent and wrongful trading, misfeasance and breach of duty.

    His  reported cases include the high-profile administration of the Christmas hamper savings club Farepak Food & Gifts Limited, the liquidation of the largest Greek mobile telephone operator Hellas II Telecommunications (Luxembourg) II SCA, and the important landmark Court of Appeal decisions in JCAM Commercial Real Estate Property XV Limited v Davis Haulage Limited, St Poulton’s Trustee v Ministry of Justice and Imageview Management Limited v Jack.

    He was appointed Junior Counsel to the Crown from 1999 to 2009 and was instructed throughout that period by a wide range of government departments including the Department of Trade & Industry, HM Revenue & Customs and the Ministry of Justice, and by the Treasury Solicitor and Official Receiver.

    Prior to commencing practice at the Bar, Jonathan worked for six years in high-level corporate finance, first as a corporate finance executive at the leading UK merchant bank Morgan Grenfell (now part of Deutsche Bank) and subsequently as a corporate finance executive at Olympia & York, then the world’s largest private commercial property developer whose projects included Canary Wharf in London, Battery Park City in New York and First Canadian Place in Toronto.

    Chambers UK Bar and Legal 500 have recommended Jonathan for many years in the commercial chancery and insolvency practice areas. Described as “a master of detail, and a focused and ferocious cross-examiner” and as “a suitably forceful barrister and quick on his feet“, he is said to be“excellent – very thorough and gets on top of difficult issues quickly”, is “admired by market sources as he is highly technically skilled”, is “a highly commercial junior”, a “good, forceful litigator”, and a“tenacious and clear and compelling advocate”, who is “extremely approachable and user-friendly”. 

  • Commercial Litigation

    Jonathan’s commercial chancery litigation practice covers all types of contractual disputes including claims relating to agency, guarantees, banking, partnership, breaches of trust and fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment and asset tracing. In the words of Chambers UK, “trust, breaches of fiduciary duty and partnership disputes all fall within his remit, and his corporate finance background holds him in good stead for anything with a banking or financial services tinge to it”.

    • Athena Capital Fund Sicav-Fis SCA v Crownmark Ltd [2020] EWHC 2945 (Comm)
    • Dodoun v Collings [2019] EWHC 2008 (Ch)
    • McTear and Williams v Engelhard [2016] 4 WLR 108 (CA), (2016) Times Law Reports 2 June
    • McTear and Williams v Engelhard [2014] EWHC 1056 (Ch)
    • McTear and Williams v Engelhard [2014] EWHC 722, [2014] 3 Costs LR 493
    • Garwood v Ambrose [2012] BPIR 996
    • Imageview Management Limited v Jack [2009] 2 AER 666 (CA), [2009] Bus. LR 1034, [2009] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 436, (2009) Times Law Reports 24 March, Law Quarterly Review 2009 125(Jul) 369-374
  • Company & Partnership

    Jonathan specialises in all aspects of company law and corporate insolvency including directors’ duties and remedies for maladministration, director disqualification, shareholder disputes, derivative claims, shareholder agreements, share offerings, corporate finance, financial assistance and reductions of capital. He acts for shareholders, directors, office holders, lenders, creditors and insolvent companies.

    • Touchstone Retail Limited v Grabal Alok (UK) Limited [2019] EWHC 3927 (Ch)
    • JCAM Commercial Real Estate Property XV Limited v Davis Haulage Limited [2017] BCC 222 (CA)
    • Re C & MB Holdings Ltd: Hamilton v Brown [2016] BPIR 531, [2017] 1 BCLC 269, [2017] BCC 457
    • Godefroy v Company Health Limited (In Liquidation) [2016] BPIR 1402
    • McTear and Williams v Engelhard [2016] 4 WLR 108 (CA), (2016) Times Law Reports 2 June
    • McTear and Williams v Engelhard [2014] EWHC 1056
    • McTear and Williams v Engelhard [2014] EWHC 722, [2014] 3 Costs LR 493
    • Re Hellas Telecommunications (Luxembourg) II SCA (In Liquidation) [2013] BPIR 756
    • Re Hellas Telecommunications (Luxembourg) II SCA (In Administration) [2013] 1 BCLC 426
  • Insolvency

    Jonathan specialises in all aspects of corporate and personal insolvency, including administrations, receiverships, liquidations, individual voluntary arrangements and company voluntary arrangements. He has extensive experience in cases involving preferences and undervalue transactions, fraudulent and wrongful trading, misfeasance and breach of duty, security and priority issues and private and public examinations. He acts for office holders, individuals, creditors, directors and insolvent companies.

    • Athena Capital Fund Sicav-Fis SCA v Crownmark Ltd [2020] EWHC 2945 (Comm)
    • Touchstone Retail Limited v Grabal Alok (UK) Limited [2019] EWHC 3927 (Ch)
    • JCAM Commercial Real Estate Property XV Limited v Davis Haulage Limited [2017] BCC 222 (CA)
    • Hamilton v Brown and C&MB Holdings Limited [2017] 1 BCLC 269, [2017] BCC 457
    • Godefroy v Company Health Limited (In Liquidation) [2016] BPIR 1402
    • Re Calibre Solicitors Limited (In Administration) [2015] BPIR 435
    • Re Hellas Telecommunications (Luxembourg) II SCA (In Liquidation) [2013] BPIR 756
    • Re Hellas Telecommunications (Luxembourg) II SCA (In Administration) [2013] 1 BCLC 426
    • Bonney v Mirpuri [2013] BPIR 412
    • Chadwick v Nash [2012] BPIR 70
    • Ross v Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs [2012] BPIR 843
    • St John Poulton’s Trustee v Ministry of Justice [2011] Ch 1, [2010] 4 AER 600
    • Ross & Holmes v Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs [2010] 2 AER 126
    • Tradition (UK) Limited v Ahmed [2009] BPIR 627
    • Monecor (London) Limited v Ahmed [2009] BPIR 235
    • Appleyard v Ritecrown Ltd [2009] BPIR 235
    • Re Farepak Food & Gifts Ltd (In Administration) [2007] 2 BCLC 1, [2008] BCC 22, [2010] 1 BCLC 444
  • Qualifications/education

    • BA (Cantab) Double First, History
    • MA PhD (Cantab), Doctorate in History
    • Dip Law (City University), Distinction
  • Awards

    • Senior Scholarship, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
    • Research Scholarship, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
    • Queen Mother’s Scholarship, Middle Temple
  • Professional appointments

    • Junior Counsel to the Crown (1999 – 2009)
  • Memberships

    • Chancery Bar Association
    • Insolvency Lawyers’ Association
  • What the directories say

    “Jonathan is a fantastic junior. He is highly technical and has a meticulous eye for detail and is highly commercial and innovative in his approach to cases.”

    Legal 500 2023 – Company & Partnerships: Tier 4

    “He has an inordinate ability to quickly assert command over a new matter.”

    Legal 500 UK Bar 2021

    “He has a keen eye for detail and will leave no stone unturned.”

    Legal 500 UK Bar 202o

    “He is a wickedly sharp cross-examiner.”

    Legal 500 UK Bar 2019

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