Justin Perring

Civil fraud and asset tracing form a significant proportion of Justin’s practice, across both domestic and international disputes, including those with an offshore element.

Justin was counsel in Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd [2024] EWHC 1714 (Ch) (with Tom Graham), a significant civil fraud case involving deceit, conspiracy, undue influence, issue estoppel, limitation, witness immunity and equitable remedies. His written submissions were praised as a “powerful riposte under time pressure” and his oral advocacy described as “erudite.”

He was sole counsel in the case of BDG Financial Services Limited & Ors v Procap Assets (BDG GS Action) & Ors (2018, unrep.), 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. Following the wrongful grant of a freezing order, Justin secured judgment for his client in the sum of £6 million.

As well as appearing at trial, at interim hearings (including for urgent injunctive relief and contesting jurisdiction), and at enforcement hearings, Justin has a substantial paper practice advising on jurisdiction, liability, quantum, recovery and enforcement. He also drafts statements of case.

Justin’s practice includes:

• Anti-suit injunctions
• Breach of trust/fiduciary duty
• Conflict of laws
• Conspiracy
• Constructive trusts
• Conversion
• Cryptocurrency
• Deceit
• Dishonest assistance
• Economic torts
• Email fraud
• Enforcement
• Equitable remedies
• Foreign judgments
• Interim remedies: security for costs, injunctions & freezing orders, search and imaging orders etc.
• Jurisdiction
• Knowing receipt
• Limitation
• Misrepresentation
• Mortgage fraud
• Service out
• Trusts
• Tracing and asset recovery
• Undue influence

Recent and ongoing instructions include:

• Representing the defendants at a two-week High Court re-trial heard 13 years after the original trial (which had been subsequently set aside for being procured by fraud): the case concerned undue influence, unconscionable bargain, deceit, conspiracy and breach of trust in respect of various investment properties, giving rise to complicated limitation, issue estoppel and witness immunity and remedy issues.
• Obtaining judgment in the sum of £6 million following the wrongful granting of a freezing order. The underlying claim sought damages for breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and restitution for financial trading losses (including cryptocurrency).
• Representing one of 13 defendants resisting a worldwide freezing order sought by claimants alleging misrepresentations that induced entry into a £multi-million collective investment scheme.
• Representing the Claimant proceedings alleging breach of Quistclose trust, deceit, and conspiracy relating to the procurement of c. $2 million from a Middle Eastern citizen.
• Proceedings alleging misrepresentation to induce investment in a manufacturing company.
• Proceedings alleging breach of trust, mortgage fraud, dishonest assistance and knowing receipt of trust property.
• Representing a consultant in resisting proceedings alleging conspiracy, breach of restrictive covenants and breach of confidence in a £2 million dispute.
• Acting for an individual seeking to pierce the corporate veil by alleging conspiracy, and malicious prosecution in respect of financial trading losses.
• Representing a Swiss leisure company defending liability for business email compromise fraud.

Justin specialises in complex, high-value commercial disputes, both domestically and internationally, acting for businesses across sectors including aviation, banking and finance, infrastructure and utilities, cryptocurrency, commodities, international trade and carriage of goods, entertainment and publishing, professional services, manufacturing and chemical engineering, and IT and telecommunications.

He appears as counsel (led and unled) at trial and at interim hearings in the High Court, including urgent applications for injunctive relief and jurisdiction challenges, and at the enforcement stage. He also accepts arbitration work.

Alongside his court work, Justin has a substantial paper practice, advising on liability, quantum, recovery, and enforcement, as well as drafting pleadings. He frequently deals with trusts in the commercial context.

Justin’s practice includes:

• Anti-suit injunctions
• Agency
• Arbitration
• Aviation
• Banking and financial services
• Commissions
• Commodities
• Confidentiality
• Conflict of laws
• Contracts
• Cryptocurrency
• Data protection
• Economic torts
• Enforcement
• Equitable remedies
• Factoring agreements
• Framework agreements
• Foreign judgments
• Guarantees and indemnities
• Interim remedies: security for costs, injunctions & freezing orders, search and imaging orders etc.
• Investor disputes
• Joint Venture
• Jurisdiction
• Loans
• Restraint of trade
• Service out
• Trusts
• Unjust enrichment

Recent and ongoing instructions include:

• Acting for an industrial chemicals manufacturer in a c. £25 million dispute seeking declarations as to the meaning and effect of various contractual clauses relating to notice periods, supply obligations, limitation clauses, implied obligations of good faith and rationality, and damages.
• Defending a £multi-million claim in the Commercial Court brought against a Middle Eastern company alleging breach of a hedging contract linked to the LME.
• Advising a South-East Asian company in respect of Commercial Court claims worth c. $30 million relating to energy infrastructure assets in North Africa and associated leases, contracts and guarantees.
• Obtaining summary judgment (in part) in Commercial Court proceedings seeking repayment of a property investment loan advanced to develop a high-end London property (Man v Hazelend LLP [2023] EWHC 221 (Comm)).
• Acting for a UAE company pursing claims worth c. $1 million for breach of contract for failure to deliver agricultural produce.
• 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.
• Defending a £multi-million claim against a former senior employee for breach of contract, breach of confidence, breach of fiduciary duty, and resisting a freezing order and a delivery up order.
• 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.
• Resisting referrals to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Justin acts across the full-range of company, shareholder and LLP matters, including domestic matters as well as those with international or offshore aspects.

He regularly appears in the Insolvency and Companies List at final and interim hearings, including urgent applications for injunctive and other interim relief.

Justin also has a substantial paper practice. On contentious matters, he advises on liability, quantum and recovery matters and drafts court documents. His non-contentious practice includes advising on governance, constitutional matters, and drafting.

Justin has spoken at the Hollington Conference on shareholder disputes.

Justin’s practice includes:

• Auditors
• Boardroom disputes
• Bona vacantia
• Business succession and inheritance
• Company & partnership property including leases and trusts
• Conflict of laws
• Constitution
• Deadlock
• Derivative actions
• Director disqualifications
• Director’s duties and fiduciary duties
• Dissolution
• Enforcement
• Escheat
• Family businesses
• Farming businesses
• Foreign judgments
• Interim remedies: security for costs, injunctions & freezing orders, search and imaging orders etc.
• Jurisdiction
• LLPs
• Quasi-partnerships
• Restoration
• Service out
• Share capital reduction
• Shareholder, partnership and LLP agreements
• Share schemes
• Traditional partnerships
• Unfair prejudice petitions
• Vesting orders
• Winding up

Recent and ongoing instructions include:

• Advising the incoming Sporting Director of a Premier League Football Club on the £35 million share scheme provisions of his services contract.
• Representing the directors of a special purpose vehicle incorporated to bring proceedings against a Bulgarian property developer who resisted a hostile boardroom takeover.
• 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.
• Resisting an unfair prejudice petition in respect of a construction company: allegations of quasi-partnership, share dilution, exclusion from management, removal as director, disciplinary process and termination of employment breach of duty, acquiescence & waiver.
• 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 national auditor in respect of its resignation from an audit.
• Representing the director of a property development company resisting a derivative claim.
• Representing a substantial accountancy LLP seeking to remove a member.
• Advising the outgoing partner of a London law firm on retirement.
• Advising a law firm on their conversion from a traditional partnership to an LLP.
• Acting for a member of a partnership carrying on the business of a GP practice for breach of the partnership agreement and seeking dissolution and winding up.
• 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 a director and shareholder resisting claims of breach of fiduciary duty and director’s duties action in respect of the sale of a business.
• Acting for the Applicant in a claim to rectify the Register of Companies following a mistaken application by the Company’s accountant to strike it off.
• Advising a care home provider on an employee benefit scheme to undo a defective flowering share scheme.
• 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.

Justin regularly appears in the Insolvency and Companies List at final and interim hearings (including urgent applications and applications for interim injunctions and other interim relief).

He advises insolvency practitioners, trustees, creditors, and directors on contentious and non-contentious issues, including liability, recovery, cross-border enforcement, and transaction challenges. He also drafts court documents.

Justin is a regular speaker on insolvency matters.

Justin’s practice includes:

• Annulment
• Administration
• Bankruptcy petitions
• Conflict of laws
• Construction
• Cross-border
• CVAs
• Enforcement
• Foreign judgments
• Injunctions
• Insolvent estates
• Jurisdiction
• Leases
• Liquidation
• Moratoriums
• Receivership
• Reviewable transactions
• Service out
• Suspension of discharge
• Vesting orders
• Winding-up petitions

Recent and ongoing instructions include:

• Resisting a claim brought by a liquidator against a limited company and an individual involved in commercial and residential property development alleging payments at undervalue, in preference or misfeasance.
• Acting for the administrators in respect of a remuneration application complicated by the heavy involvement of the FCA, various European banks, hostile creditors and former directors, associated companies, and mixed funds.
• Acting for the administrator of a property development company pursuing a misfeasance claim and an unlawful dividend claim.
• Acting for the Applicant in seeking to restrain advertisement of a winding-up petition on the basis of a conspiracy by the Petitioner company (part of a complicated group of companies ultimately controlled by a former director of the Applicant).
• Acting for the liquidators dealing with a complicated inter-company position in resisting a claim brought by a bank under a series of cross-guarantees seeking contractual and insolvency set-off.
• Proceedings resisting the suspension of a debtor’s bankruptcy involving a complicated inter-company position and offshore assets.
• Acting for the Petitioner in obtaining permissions to serve out to Peru.
• 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 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.
• Acting for the surety of an insolvent private limited company on the effect of disclaimer, the granting of a tenancy at will, and the election of the landlord in taking possession of commercial premises.
• Acting for the leaseholders of commercial premises on the effect of the administration of a major retailer on their leases.
• Challenging the insolvency of an estate and whether the trustee and personal representative had acted in breach of trust or committed devastavit and whether assets were held on constructive trust.

Justin frequently acts as advocate in mediations and advises on all forms of ADR. 

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) (1^st 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