Year of Call: 2020
(Solicitor 2018)
‘Max operates well above his years of call. He is exceptionally bright and incredibly hard working. A great talent.’
‘A formidable advocate undeterred by the most difficult challenges.’
Max is a commercial chancery barrister with a particular focus on civil fraud, company and insolvency disputes. He appears in some of today’s most high-profile commercial litigation and in precedent-setting commercial and chancery cases:
Ras Al-Khaimah Investment Authority v Azima and others, part of a long-running litigation concerning allegations of fraud, perjury and computer hacking. Settled shortly before a ten-week trial listed to be heard by Mr Justice Michael Green in 2024. Acted for the Fourth Additional Defendant, led by Antony White KC and Ben Silverstone.
Glenea Contracts v Friel [2024] EWHC 1243 (Ch). Sole counsel for the successful claimant in this three-day employee fraud trial, establishing constructive trusteeship and obtaining a c. £1m judgment inclusive of interest and costs
Re Klimvest plc [2023] 1 BCLC 388, on whether a listed plc can have a purpose or ‘substratum’, failure of which is a ground for winding-up, distinct from its constitutional ‘objects’, and whether a listed plc can be a quasi-partnership. Represented the successful petitioner, led by Daniel Lightman KC.
Kennedy v The Official Receiver [2022] BPIR 1536, on whether the Court should have regard to the facts of similar cases when determining the tariff of a Bankruptcy Restrictions Order. Sole counsel for the successful appellant.
Max is regularly instructed to appear as sole counsel in the High Court of England and Wales and has assisted as junior counsel with cases in the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales and appeals to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. In 2024, Max was appointed to the UK Attorney General’s Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown. He also practices in the Middle East. He has appeared in complex, high-value cases as sole Counsel in the DIFC and ADGM Courts of First Instance and as junior Counsel in the DIFC Court of Appeal. Before transferring to the Bar, Max qualified as a solicitor and worked as a judicial assistant at the UK Supreme Court.
LLM (First), University of Cambridge
GDL, City University
BA Classics, University of Oxford
Registered Part II Practitioner before the DIFC Courts – 2024
Attorney General’s ‘C’ Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown (2024)
Commercial Bar Association
Chancery Bar Association
Postgraduate Law Prize, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Duns Scotus Medieval Philosophy Prize, University of Oxford
Academic Scholarship, St Hugh’s College, Oxford
CPE Award, Gray’s Inn
Manager overpaying himself liable as trustee (Lexis Nexis, June 2024)
'UAE Fund Must Pay £7M As Judge Tosses Azima Fraud Ruling' Law 360, March 2024
'Bankruptcy law: reading between the lines' (New Law Journal, August 2023)
'Appeal judgment clarifies principles on bankruptcy restrictions length (Kennedy v Official Receiver)' Lexis Nexis, August 2022.