FIRE Year in Review

Mary is a dispute resolution partner at Kingsley Napley.  She is a commercial litigator with a specialism in civil fraud and asset tracing.  She acts for individuals, companies, insolvency practitioners and other law firms. Mary can supervise your search order, loves a freezing injunction and in recent years has developed expertise in cases involving bribery.  People say nice things about her in the directories including one comment which compared her to a dog.  Mary really needs a new photo as she has much more grey hair now.

James practises in all areas of revenue law.

His practice includes advice and litigation in the following areas: personal tax, corporate tax, VAT and other indirect taxes.

Jessica Lee is a partner in the Firm’s Litigation & Arbitration Practice Group.

Jess acts for both corporate and individual claimants and defendants in complex and high value commercial litigation with particular experience in civil fraud and asset recovery actions, company and shareholder disputes, and crypto and blockchain matters. Jess was named a Rising Star for civil fraud in The Legal 500 2023 having acted on a number of significant civil fraud matters, many of which have also involved advising on freezing, proprietary, and disclosure injunctions. Jess is also part of Brown Rudnick’s Supervising Solicitors team and having acted  on obtaining and executing multiple search, delivery up and imaging orders. Jess has also advised on significant investigations and compliance matters including investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Serious Fraud Office. 

In The Legal 500 2023, Jess is described as having "a keen eye for detail, superb litigation knowledge and experience, and always the brightest attitude and mode of communication." She is also a recommended lawyer in The Legal 500 2023 in the categories of Commercial Litigation and Banking Litigation: Investment & Retail. Jess was also named as a future leader in commercial litigation by Who’s Who Legal in 2022.

Jess has a particular interest in digital asset disputes and is regularly invited to speak and write on issues including crypto fraud and blockchain disputes and regulation. 

Jess is a keen advocate for diversity and social mobility; she is part of the leadership team for the Firm’s Women’s Initiative and has mentored younger lawyers and law students, including on the IntoUniversity programme.

Prior to joining Brown Rudnick, Jess was an associate at Baker & McKenzie where she also trained. Jess has undertaken a number of client secondments including a major international telecoms provider and a leading global financial institution.

Dominic Offord acts on high-profile and large-scale cross-border insolvency/ fraud cases, assisting his clients in recovering billions of dollars.

He is the head of the Commercial Dispute Resolution team.

Whilst Dominic advises local and foreign Insolvency Practitioners he also represents other stakeholders in contentious insolvency claims including creditors and directors.

He acts for directors in defence of directors disqualification proceedings, misfeasance, and breach of duties claims.

Dominic also regularly represents clients in commercial disputes particularly those with an international dimension.

Dominic is a member of R3 Association of Business Recovery professionals, the Fraud Lawyers Association, and the Insolvency Lawyers Association.

Andrew is a barrister and civil litigator specialising in fraud claims, investment scams, freezing injunctions and other injunctive relief, and contentious trusts. He has extensive experience of advising clients on sensitive disputes involving dishonesty allegations and his cases often involve a cross-border element.

Kate is Counsel at Signature Litigation and has over ten years’ experience acting in complex, high value, cross border disputes, including civil fraud and asset tracing claims, general commercial litigation, digital asset and banking litigation.  Kate has a special interest in digital assets and tech disputes, and regularly publishes articles on and speaks about topics relating to cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

Kate has advised on all stages of litigation, from pre-action through to fully contested trials and enforcement matters.  She also has experience of a wide range of interim applications, including applications for summary judgment, specific and third-party disclosure, security for costs, worldwide freezing injunctions, orders for disclosure and delivery up, passport orders, applications for committal for contempt of court and applications for cross-examination on evidence.

Kate is ranked in the Chambers UK 2022 guide for Civil Fraud and is described as having “notable experience in civil fraud work” and commended for having “a real commercial handle on things and is completely unflappable”. In 2018, Kate co-founded ACROSS Fraud, a network for fraud lawyers in London and worldwide and in 2014 she was identified as a ‘Rising Star’ for Commercial Litigation by Thomson Reuters’ Super Lawyers.

Carmel King is a Director in Grant Thornton UK’s Insolvency and Asset Recovery team, specialising in investigations, asset tracing and recovery actions for clients who have suffered a financial loss as a result of fraud. Carmel has a particular interest in cryptoasset fraud investigation and recovery strategies, and leads this practice area for the team. The practice combines blockchain analytics with corporate intelligence and digital forensic techniques to conduct investigations, alongside insolvency proceedings, court-appointed receiverships, other civil procedures and litigation funding to formulate legal claims and enforce judgements. She regularly presents on the topic and has published numerous articles.

Carmel is the Co-Chair of INSOL Europe’s Anti-Fraud Forum and the Vice Chair of CFAAR, the Crypto Fraud and Asset Recovery network.

Elizabeth is an experienced commercial litigator specialising in high-value, complex claims and asset recovery. Acting for both claimants and defendants, she has particular expertise in civil fraud litigation and shareholder disputes, often with multi-jurisdictional aspects.

Oren Warshavsky serves as co-leader of BakerHostetler's Global Fraud and International Asset Tracing and Recovery team.

He is a litigator specializing in multi-jurisdictional proceedings and complex intellectual property matters. Oren has achieved more than $9 billion in monetary recoveries for his clients, obtained injunctive relief in numerous cases, and successfully defended clients in defeating claims asserted in federal and state courts for complex commercial matters, patent, trademark, copyright, bankruptcy, asset recovery matters and commercial disputes. He has been an integral part of the team representing the trustee of the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) in the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Securities. Oren has overseen and worked with teams of lawyers in the United States and around the world to trace and recover assets; the recovery has been unprecedented, totaling more than $13 billion dollars. The protracted, decades-long investigation and recovery in dozens of related international cases has demonstrated Oren's ability to work diligently and resourcefully across multiple jurisdictions.

Graeme practices across a wide range of chancery commercial work and is consistently recommended in the leading directories for Chancery Commercial, Professional Liability, Offshore and Company Law.

He is noted for ability to work with clients and as part of a litigation team with instructing solicitors, calling on his experience as a former partner in a leading offshore law firm.

Lucy has extensive experience of managing international, cross-border litigation, working frequently in the Chancery and Queen’s Bench Divisions of the English High Court (including Commercial Court) and Court of Appeal. She has also conducted several commercial arbitrations under the LCIA, ICC and ad hoc rules and most recently, was instructed on an LCIA arbitration in the aerospace sector.

David Mohyuddin’s practice in Silk covers general commercial litigation matters, corporate and personal insolvency, company law, fraud and asset recovery, banking and claims brought against professionals.

Described as ‘technically excellent’ he is ‘fantastic to work with’ and ‘very aware of the practical and commercial context of his advice.’ He is popular with clients as he is ‘easy to get on with and takes a very collaborative approach, which is refreshing for a silk.’ He recognises the practical and commercial problems faced by his clients and the need to achieve the speedy and cost-effective resolution of their legal disputes, whether consensually, at trial or by way of interim application. A ‘silk who gets his hands dirty’ and a ‘star performer,’ he is just as comfortable in multi-day trials in complex and high-value claims as he is making urgent applications (whether by way of freezing or other order, having significant experience of making applications without notice and the responsibilities that arise) and advising those already involved in or contemplating becoming involved in litigation.

Rachael is a commercial litigator who specialises in large scale, complex financial disputes and civil fraud claims. Her work usually has an international aspect and often involves working as part of a team of global advisors. Her experience includes asset tracing, forgery and enforcement issues.

Prior to joining Grosvenor Law, Rachael worked in the London office of an international law firm specialising in complex commercial litigation. During that time, she spent 9 months in the Cayman Islands representing the Plaintiff in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands’ longest ever trial and one of the largest fraud trials ever litigated worldwide.

Roger is a Fellow of INSOL International and has considerable domestic and cross-border insolvency expertise, working with companies, insolvency office holders and other stakeholders in a variety of jurisdictions.

Roger specialises in both contentious insolvency and restructuring advisory matters. He has significant experience litigating worldwide and is one of the lead restructuring partners working on Charles Russell Speechlys’ appointment as the External Administrator of Bahraini bank Awal Bank (with balance sheet assets of approximately US$6 billion) on behalf of the Central Bank of Bahrain.

Roger was also the sole restructuring partner advising the Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas in relation to the restructuring of the US$3 billion development of mega resort Baha Mar in Nassau.

In the United Kingdom, Roger acts for insolvency practitioners in pursuing officeholder (and other) claims to make recoveries for creditors, as well as acting for defendants in the defence of those claims.

On the advisory side, Roger advises both debtors and creditors on a broad range of strategies for the restructuring of businesses.

Roger has particular expertise in real estate-related insolvency issues. He is the co-author of Jordan Publishing’s Property Insolvency (2nd ed, 2015) and regularly speaks at seminars and conferences, including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the National Association of Non-Administrative Receivers, Butterworths and R3.

Ranked as a leading barrister in multiple practice areas, a strength that makes her well-suited to litigation that straddles disciplines, Zoë is “an impressive and formidable new silk” (Legal 500 2021) particularly noted for advocacy and client skills.

Her practice is grounded in a strong technical understanding of property and trusts. In addition to her practice spanning the breadth of those areas, this technical expertise serves as the foundation of her civil fraud practice, which forms a significant element of her work and where the ability to establish or challenge proprietary interests and trust structures can be decisive. Zoë also practises in professional liability, typically related to her other practice areas.

Carla Reyes has a broad practice across the spectrum of criminal and commercial litigation both before state courts and other Swiss federal jurisdictions. In particular, she enjoys considerable experience in domestic and cross-border multi-jurisdictional litigation matters.

She practices, among others, in international commercial disputes of a civil nature, in particular in the banking and trading industry.

I am an insolvency practitioner with 12 years’ experience of dealing with complex, contentious assignments; with an emphasis on fraud investigation, identification of assets, tracing exercises, enforcement of judgments and recovery of assets for those who have suffered financial loss or have a claim against another party.

I focus on assisting beneficiaries, trustees and representatives in matrimonial, family, trust and probate disputes. I work to find strategies that ensure the most appropriate action is taken in order to achieve maximum recovery. I use the Insolvency Act, along with other civil legislation, such as the use of liquidations, bankruptcies and court appointed receiverships, as a tool to assist with investigation, asset tracing and recovery processes.