International Trusts and Commercial Litigation Conference 2018

“…thank you Serle Court for another interesting conference – informative and enjoyable – a great combination!”

On Monday 19 November 2018, 28 members of Serle Court descended on New York, The InterContinental Barclay Hotel for the third International Trusts and Commercial Litigation Conference.

The conference programme presented an interesting mix of trust and commercial topics relevant to those practising in jurisdictions such as; The Bahamas, Bermuda, BVI, Cayman, Guernsey, Jersey, London, Turks and Caicos Islands and the USA.  102 delegates listened to a wide range of commercial and trust litigation talks.

James Mather and Richard Brown (Harneys) presented the first panel session of the day titled to the ends of the earth and beyond: identifying and preserving assets in cross-border litigation.

Dakis Hagen QC, Giles Richardson, Constance McDonnell, Anthony Poulton (Baker & McKenzie LLP) and Jonathan Speck (Mourant Ozannes) gave an interesting presentation on recent cases relevant to Trusts in the Firing Line.

Richard Wilson QC, Timothy Collingwood, David Lederkramer (Proskauer Rose LLP), Sally Peedom (Collas Crill) and Keith Oliver (Peters & Peters LLP) spoke about whether the common law courts have become too claimant friendly.

Rupert Reed, Jennifer Haywood, Nicole Buncher (Clifford Chance LLP) and Jason Butwick (Dechert LLP) discussed where we are in the wake of the Braganza line of cases.

In a session chaired by Emma Hargreaves, four of our junior barristers discussed important key cases of the past year:

• Burnden Holdings (UK) Ltd v Fielding [2018] UKSC 14 (Eleni Dinenis)
• FM Capital Partners Ltd v Frédéric Marion and ors. [2018] EWHC 2889 (Comm) (Gregor Hogan)
• M v St Anne’s Trustees Limited (Guernsey CA) 20 June 2018 21/2018 (Stephanie Thompson)
• JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov & Anr (No 14)
  [2018] UKSC 19; [2018] 2 WLR 1125 (Sophia Hurst)

Finally, Jonathan Harris QC entered into an interesting debate on Brexit and the Future of International Commercial Litigation with Franco Ferrari from NYU School of Law.

Throughout the day, members of chambers offered some engaging breakout sessions:

1. Obtaining information in fraud and asset recovery litigation

James Mather, Adrian de Froment, Jon Felce (PCB Litigation LLP) and Matthew Goucke (Walkers)

2. De jure, de facto and shadow directors, and their duties in good times and bad

David Drake, Nick Burkill (Ogier) and Stephen Ross (Withers LLP)

3. Attribution, Buyers and Co-ownership: the ABC of Art litigation for private client and commercial lawyers

Richard Wilson QC, Andrew Bruce and Sandrine Giroud (LALIVE)

4. Trustees’ liability to third parties: a comparative look

Kathryn Purkis, James Brightwell, Jonathan Fowles and James Dickinson (Dickinson Gleeson)

5. Judgment Avoidance: A practical guide

Andrew Moran QC, Thomas Braithwaite, Sam Roberts (Cooke Young & Keidan LLP) and Jonathan Sablone (Nixon Peabody LLP)

If you would like to find out about our 2019 conference please email our Business Development Manager, Charlotte Davidson.