Justin Perring

Justin is instructed in fraud and asset recovery disputes. His work encompasses deceit, conspiracy, breach of trust and fiduciary duty, dishonest assistance, knowing receipt, undue influence, misrepresentation, mortgage fraud, secret commission, tracing, proprietary remedies, equitable remedies, and claims involving real property, chattels and cryptocurrency. He appears at trial, at interim hearings for freezing orders, injunctive relief, jurisdiction challenges and other interim remedies, and at enforcement hearings.

Key matters:

• Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd [2024] EWHC 1714 (Ch): Counsel (with Tom Graham) at a two-week High Court retrial heard 13 years after the original trial, which had been set aside for fraud. The case concerned undue influence, unconscionable bargain, deceit, conspiracy and breach of trust, raising complex limitation, issue estoppel, witness immunity and remedy issues. Written submissions praised as a “powerful riposte under time pressure”; oral advocacy described as “erudite.”
• Langdon v Hampton (High Court, Chancery Division, 2025): Acting for the claimant company in a £ multi-million fraud claim arising from the systematic, complex misappropriation of funds by a senior employee. Obtained a freezing order and a passport order preventing the defendant (a dual Brazilian-British national) from leaving the jurisdiction, together with Bankers Trust disclosure orders against multiple banks and a fintech platform to trace assets transferred abroad.
• BDG Financial Services Ltd & Ors v Procap Assets & Ors (High Court, Chancery Division, 2018): Counsel in a claim against a Belize company and its director alleging fraudulent breach of trust and breach of fiduciary duty in relation to financial trading losses including cryptocurrency. Secured judgment for his client in the sum of £6 million following the wrongful grant of a freezing order.

Other notable instructions include:

• Acting for an elderly claimant alleging deceit, unlawful means conspiracy, breach of trust and breach of fiduciary duty arising from the misappropriation of c. US$1.75 million by family members to purchase investment properties in London (High Court, Chancery Division, 2025).
• Defending claims arising from the liquidation of a motor dealership, alleging conversion, constructive trust, dishonest assistance, unlawful means conspiracy, and transactions defrauding creditors under s.423 Insolvency Act 1986 (High Court, Chancery Division, 2025).
• Representing one of 13 defendants resisting a worldwide freezing order sought by claimants alleging misrepresentations inducing entry into a £ multi-million collective investment scheme (High Court, Chancery Division, 2023).
• Proceedings alleging breach of trust, mortgage fraud, dishonest assistance and knowing receipt of trust property.
• Representing a Swiss leisure company defending liability for business email compromise fraud.
• Acting for an individual seeking to pierce the corporate veil by alleging conspiracy, and malicious prosecution in respect of financial trading losses.

Justin acts in substantial and complex commercial disputes, frequently involving allegations of breach of contract or duty, misuse of confidential information, data protection issues, restraint of trade, guarantees and indemnities, agency and commission, joint ventures, unjust enrichment, and contested meaning and performance of commercial obligations. He frequently deals with trusts and equitable remedies in the commercial context, and disputes with a real estate element. He appears in all divisions of the Business and Property Courts, including the Chancery Division and the Commercial and Circuit Commercial Courts, at trial and at interim and final hearings. His applications work includes jurisdiction challenges, anti-suit injunctions, enforcement of foreign judgments, freezing orders, disclosure orders, security for costs, and other interim remedies.

His work spans numerous sectors, including: agriculture, aviation, banking and finance, real estate, development, construction, utilities, cryptocurrency, commodities, international trade, sale and carriage of goods, professional services, manufacturing and engineering, and IT and telecommunications.

Key matters:

• Acting for an industrial chemicals manufacturer in a c. £25 million dispute concerning the meaning and effect of contractual clauses relating to notice periods, supply obligations, limitation clauses, implied obligations of good faith and rationality, and damages.
• Representing the Defendant in a £ multi-million claim for breach of contract, breach of confidence and breach of fiduciary duty, including a freezing order and delivery up order (I2R Packing Solutions Limited v Taylor, High Court, Chancery Division, 2023).
• Advising a South-East Asian company on questions of English law arising from a US$30 million sales contract for oil assets in North Africa, including the validity of an assignment of credits under a lease, the interaction of three governing laws, and the effect of a subsequent settlement agreement.
• Obtaining summary judgment (in part) in Commercial Court proceedings seeking repayment of a property investment loan (Man v Hazelend LLP [2023] EWHC 221 (Comm)).
• Defending proceedings brought by a developer alleging negligent misstatement in respect of representations made in a CON29DW report (High Court, QBD, 2021).

Other notable instructions include:

• Defending proceedings in the Circuit Commercial Court concerning the construction of a tiered dispute resolution clause and the gateway conditions to mandatory arbitration (High Court, Circuit Commercial Court, 2026).
• Defending a £ multi-million claim brought against a Middle Eastern company alleging breach of a hedging contract linked to the LME (High Court, Circuit Commercial Court, 2024).
• Acting for a statutory undertaker on numerous contentious schemes under a £300 million capital delivery contract, including disputes over accounts, delay events, defects, pay less notices, adjudications, and applications for urgent injunctive relief.
• Advising a party in Swiss Arbitration concerning an aircraft maintenance services framework agreement, and challenging the jurisdiction of the Italian court, including anti-suit relief (2025).
• Acting for a claimant who obtained judgment for breach of contract and interference with goods following the aborted sale of a £multi-million manor house (Robinson v Sullivan, High Court, Chancery Division, 2020).
• Acting for a UAE company pursuing claims worth c. USD 1 million for breach of contract for failure to deliver agricultural produce.
• Acting for a property developer resisting an injunction to restrain breaches of restrictive covenants.
• Obtaining pre-action disclosure in respect of a proposed breach of confidence and a data protection claim.
• Acting for the Defendant resisting the enforceability of a guarantee and factoring agreement.
• Acting for a statutory undertaker on various regulatory and commercial matters including the Water Industry Act 1991: submissions to Ofwat on charges, discharge consents and area of appointment disputes, decommissioning and removal of infrastructure assets, compulsory purchase, real estate and asset management disputes, referrals to the Information Commissioner’s Office under EIR, and disputes concerning escape of water, contaminated land, stand-off distances and connection rights.

Justin acts in disputes involving companies, LLPs, partnerships, unincorporated associations and shareholders. His work includes boardroom and governance disputes, deadlock, shareholders’ agreements, unfair prejudice petitions, derivative actions, business sales, succession, family businesses, retirement, restructuring, dissolution, restoration, and alleged breaches of directors’ or trustees’ duties. His instructions include domestic matters as well as those with an international or offshore dimension.

He regularly appears in the Insolvency and Companies List at final and interim hearings, including urgent applications for injunctive and other interim relief. His non-contentious practice includes advising on governance, share schemes, and corporate structures.

Key matters:

• Advising the incoming Sporting Director of a Premier League Football Club on the £35 million share scheme provisions of his services contract.
• Acting for the respondent director in an unfair prejudice petition arising from the breakdown of a family quasi-partnership company, including removal from management, alleged exclusion, and a share issue said to dilute a minority shareholding (High Court, Chancery Division, 2025).
• Acting for the trustees of a West London mosque in High Court proceedings to discharge an injunction restraining trustee elections, raising issues of charity proceedings under s.115 Charities Act 2011, proper parties, and the balance of convenience (Butt v Trustees of Shepherds Bush Mosque, High Court, Chancery Division, 2026).
• Obtaining a freezing order against a co-director and shareholder who had failed to allocate shares or pay dividends, and who threatened to phoenix the business.

Other notable instructions include:

• Representing the directors of a professional services company in a dispute with a fellow director and shareholder who had diverted business and employees to a new company.
• Acting for a member of a GP practice partnership, seeking dissolution and winding up for breach of the partnership agreement.
• Representing the director of a property development company resisting a derivative claim.
• Representing a substantial accountancy LLP seeking to remove a member.
• Resisting an unfair prejudice petition in respect of a company that runs a West London hotel: allegations of quasi-partnership, exclusion from management, breach of duty, filing false documents.
• Acting for an agricultural tenant in a dispute concerning whether a farmhouse was an asset of the partnership; whether the partnership was validly terminated; whether the occupation was a protected agricultural tenancy; whether the Claimant was estopped.
• Representing the directors of a special purpose vehicle incorporated to bring proceedings against a Bulgarian property developer who resisted a hostile boardroom takeover.
• Advising a care home provider on an employee benefit scheme to undo a defective flowering share scheme.
• Representing a director and shareholder resisting claims of breach of fiduciary duty and director’s duties action in respect of the sale of a publishing business.
• Advising a national auditor on its resignation from a significant audit engagement.

Justin is instructed across the full range of corporate and personal insolvency. His work includes petitions, administrations, receiverships, liquidations, CVAs and IVAs, void dispositions and validation orders, applications to restrain, extend or end insolvency processes, rescission, annulment, after-acquired property, and disputes involving the matrimonial home. He regularly acts in matters involving misfeasance, fraudulent and wrongful trading, director disqualification, reviewable transactions, and applications to challenge, remove or give directions to office holders. He also acts in litigation against insolvent entities, office-holder applications and examinations, and cross-border and offshore insolvency matters. He appears in the Insolvency and Companies List at final and interim hearings, including urgent applications.

Key matters:

• Acting for the administrators of a financial services company on a remuneration application complicated by the involvement of the FCA, multiple European banks, hostile creditors, former directors, associated companies, and mixed funds (High Court, Chancery Division, 2025).
• Representing the Defendant in director disqualification proceedings and securing a favourable costs order following discontinuance by the Secretary of State (High Court, Chancery Division, 2026).
• Successfully restraining advertisement of a winding-up petition on the basis of a conspiracy by the Petitioner company (part of a group ultimately controlled by a former director of the Applicant) (High Court, Chancery Division, 2025).

Other notable instructions include:

• Acting for the administrator of a property development company pursuing a £ multi-million misfeasance claim and an unlawful dividend claim.
• Resisting a claim brought by a liquidator alleging payments at undervalue, in preference, or misfeasance in the context of commercial and residential property development.
• Proceedings resisting the suspension of a debtor’s bankruptcy involving a complicated inter-company position and offshore assets.
• Acting for the Respondent who set aside a statutory demand made by an insurance broker to enforce a personal guarantee of a private limited company on the basis of an estoppel.
• Acting for the leaseholders of commercial premises on the effect of the administration of a major retailer on their leases.
• Acting for the surety of an insolvent private limited company on the effect of disclaimer on the granting of a tenancy at will, and the election of the landlord in taking possession of commercial premises.
• Acting for liquidators in resisting a claim brought by a bank under a series of cross-guarantees seeking contractual and insolvency set-off.
• Challenging the insolvency of an estate and whether the trustee and personal representative had acted in breach of trust or committed devastavit.
• Acting for a payments platform provider as petitioning creditor resisting rescission of a winding-up order, raising issues of creditor protection and conditional relief.
• Acting for the applicant UAE bank who resisted an application to annul a bankruptcy.
• Acting for a TV personality in annulling her bankruptcy and setting aside the petition.

Justin has substantial experience in utilities and infrastructure matters, with a particular niche in the water industry. He acts for statutory undertakers, developers, contractors, and businesses across contentious and non-contentious work, particularly involving infrastructure projects, contracts, property and asset management, finance, developments, and statutory rights and obligations under the Water Industry Act 1991.

Justin’s expertise includes:

Infrastructure and Development

• Bridges and tunnels
• Capital delivery contracts
• Compulsory purchase and land acquisition
• Construction contracts (including defects, delay, pay less notices)
• Guarantees and performance bonds
• Joint Venture
• Defects and delays
• Developer obligations
• Overage
• Procurement
• Property law

Property and asset management

• Boundaries, easements, leases and licences, mortgages, adverse possession, restrictive covenants, registration
• Bye-laws
• Contaminated land
• Conservation, heritage and listed buildings
• Finance
• Minerals

Water Law and Utilities

• Adoption
• Appointment
• Connections and disconnections
• Commercial agreements
• Charges
• Data Protection
• Decommissioning
• Developers
• Discharges
• Environmental Information Regulations
• Escapes, nuisance, Rylands v Fletcher
• ICO
• Infrastructure projects
• Ofwat
• Licenses
• Permitting
• Pipelaying and removal
• Ports and waterways
• Renewables
• Requisition
• Stand-off distances
• Supply duties
• Water and sewerage
• Water Industry Act 1991

Litigation

• Adjudication
• Arbitration
• Court proceedings (High Court and First-tier Tribunal)
• ICO and environmental information appeals
• Urgent injunctions and interim remedies

Recent and ongoing instructions include:

• Numerous contentious schemes under a £300 million AMP contract (accounts, delay events, defects, pay less notices etc.).
• Defending proceedings brought by a developer alleging negligent misstatement in respect of representations made in a CON29DW report.
• Acting for the respondent property developer who resisted an injunction to restrain breaches of restrictive covenants.
• Drafting submissions to Ofwat in respect of a dispute regarding charges for a sewer requisition scheme.
• Disputes concerning connection notices, charges, locations and conditions.
• Advising on a scheme dealing with requests to decommission and/or remove infrastructure assets under s. 116 and 185 Water Industry Act 1991
• Drafting submissions to Ofwat in respect of the refusal to consent to the discharge of trade effluent.
• Disputes concerning procurement processes.
• Drafting submissions to Ofwat in respect of an undertaker’s area of appointment.
• Acting for an undertaker seeking a declaration as to the interpretation of a contract for sale and TP1, rectification based on common mistake, and an easement by necessity to a pumping station.
• Advising on the compulsory purchase of land to install aquifer storage and recovery apparatus.
• Enforcing stand-off distances to sewers and mains.
• Disputes concerning notices to move pipes etc. under Water Industry Act 1991 and conditions attached.
• Disputes concerning discharge rights.
• Dispute concerning the liability for contaminated land.
• Submissions to the ICO in respect of Environmental Information Regulations disputes.
• Disputes concerning the liability for the escape of water from assets including mains, sewers and reservoirs.
• Advice as to the meaning of curtilage in the context of the Water Industry (Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers) Regulations 2011.
• Back-up supply obligations for a private development.

• BA (Hons) (First Class), History, University College London, 2010
• MA, Medieval Studies, University College London, 2011
• GDL, City Law School, City University, 2012
• BPTC, BPP Law School, 2013

• Bedingfield Scholar, The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn
• GDL Scholar, The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn
• Falcon Chambers Prize Essay (runner-up)

• COMBAR
• Chancery Bar Association
• R3
• Insolvency Lawyers Association
• The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn

“Justin achieves results beyond instruction. No matter the size or urgency of the instruction, Justin will get the job done whether that being extensive drafting or preparing meticulously for a lengthy trial.”

“A junior who is able to provide candid advice to clients.”

Legal 500 UK Bar 2025

“Justin has an exceptionally analytical brain, is good in persuading judges, and provides comprehensive advice.”

Legal 500 UK Bar 2024

“Justin is sensible and frank with the facts. He is very approachable and provides clear, meaningful advice.”

Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

“Justin is extremely efficient and professional. Pleadings are meticulous, accurate and succinct where required. He provides sound legal advice.”

Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

“Justin is approachable, thorough and prompt. He has a meticulous eye.”

Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

“A rising star for commercial work.”

Legal 500 UK Bar 2021