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On 25 March 2025, Green J handed down judgment in Persons Identified in Schedule 1 v Standard Chartered PLC [2025] EWHC 698 (Ch).

In the final twist of this much talked about case, a consent order was filed on 18 December 2024 dismissing the shareholder action brought by 460 institutional investors against Barclays Plc ("Barclays") following a confidential settlement.

What happens if parties settle a fraud claim and then the claimant seeks to re-open the litigation?

The 2024 edition of our award winning Dispute Resolution Yearbook provides an overview of the disputes market in general, insights into our practice, and an opportunity to learn more about our team.

Summary

A recent judgment of the Court of Appeal has clarified four important principles relating to the scope of legal professional privilege.

Last month the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in Hotel Portfolio II UK Limited v Ruhan and others [2023] EWCA Civ 1120. This case deals with several, complex legal issues concerning the availability of equitable compensation against an individual who has provided dishonest assistance in a breach of fiduciary duty in circumstances where the breaches of fiduciary duty in question are properly to be categorised as a "single and uninterrupted course of conduct". 

Travers Smith LLP is delighted that its Dispute Resolution team has been awarded "Innovation in Disputes" and its Legal Technology and AI team has won "Innovation in Digital Solutions" at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe Awards 2023. Additionally, Travers Smith was ranked as the 12^th "Most Innovative Law Firm in Europe".

The Supreme Court held that the Quincecare duty does not extend to so-called "authorised push payment" (APP) fraud, whereby the victim is induced by fraudulent means to authorise their bank to send a payment to a bank account controlled by the fraudster. Pursuant to the first principles of banking law, it is a basic duty under a bank's contract with a customer to make payments from the credited account in compliance with the customer's instructions.

A majority of the Supreme Court recently held that an insolvent company does not suffer any recoverable loss if payments are made from its bank accounts that discharge a debt owed by that company. This decision adds to the growing case law on the Quincecare duty.

Partner John Lee has been featured in the Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law for his article titled, 'The endgame: issues in enforcement against cryptoassets' which considers methods of enforcement against cryptoassets, including the possibility of recovering cryptoassets without the authorisation of the private key.

Travers Smith LLP is delighted to have been named "Commercial Litigation Team of the Year" and "Private Equity Team of the Year" at the annual Legal Business Awards. The Awards took place on 27 September.

In a case involving an exclusive jurisdiction clause for the English courts and parallel criminal proceedings in the Vatican, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that there is a single correct test for granting a case management stay. The relevant question for the Court is "whether in the particular circumstances it is in the interests of justice for a case management stay to be granted".

Travers Smith LLP acted for the Claimants in these proceedings.

"Fraud on a grand scale; or relentless witch-hunt?": these were the first eight words of Mr Justice Hildyard's mammoth (almost 1,700 page) judgment in the high profile fraud claim brought by various Hewlett-Packard group companies (the "Claimants") against Dr Michael Lynch (the founder and former CEO of Autonomy Corporation Plc ("Autonomy")) and Mr Sushovan Hussain (the former CFO of Autonomy) following a 93 day trial which Hildyard J said "may rank amongst the longest and most complex in English legal history".

Meet the people who make up our Dispute Resolution practice and learn more about the market-leading work we do. Containing a host of thought leadership pieces on trending topics and current developments in the UK litigation market and insights into what matters to us as a team.

The Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") has released its Annual Business Plan for 2022/2023, alongside a Strategy Document for 2022 to 2025. We discuss below what these two documents mean for its investigations and enforcement strategy going forward.

The Court of Appeal's recent decision sheds significant light on banks' liability for failing to exercise reasonable skill and care in executing the instructions of their customers. Reversing the ruling of the High Court, the Court of Appeal made clear that the "Quincecare duty" arises not only when it is the customer's agent who fraudulently instructs the bank to transfer the customer's money, but can also arise when the customer themselves, as the victim of a fraud, instructs the bank to do so. The Court of Appeal overturned the summary judgment in the bank's favour, and remitted the case to the High Court for trial. The question of what measures the bank should have had in place to prevent a fraud of this kind can only be determined at trial.

"It does not follow that documents obtained lawfully in one jurisdiction are available for use in litigation in another."  The High Court confirms in Suppipat v Siam Bank [2022] EWHC 381 (Comm) that, where documents obtained in litigation outside the jurisdiction are proposed to be put in use by a party to English proceedings, English law, as the lex fori, will determine the questions of loss of privilege and confidentiality.

The Court has today found that Hewlett-Packard Claimants (HPE) have "substantially succeeded" in their fraud claims against Mike Lynch and Sushovan Hussain.

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has held that the Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") does not possess the power to compel a foreign company with no business or presence in the UK to produce documents held outside the UK.

Find out more about our disputes practice and how we go about our business.