Commercial litigation for international clients
Our specialist team have experience of acting for foreign governments, financial institutions, public limited companies, limited companies and private individuals in all divisions of the English legal system.
Sectors and Services
Commercial litigation for international clients
What we do:
Our firm has a wealth of experience when dealing with matters at the Supreme Court level due to the fact that we act as Privy Council agents for foreign law firms. Our litigators also have considerable experience of both High Court litigation (whether in the Commercial Court, Business and Property Courts or Queen’s Bench Division) and all forms of appeal. BDB Pitmans also have substantial experience of acting in the First Tier Tribunal in respect of all property related matters.
We have particular experience of shareholder disputes (having acted in some of the leading authorities such as X, Y and Mumbray v Lapper) and in matters relating to fraud and injunctive relief required to support actions for fraud.
We can help with:
Interim application to seize assets and search and seizure orders in England and Wales and overseas
The team at BDB have acted on substantial multi-jurisdictional applications in respect of the freezing and search and seizure of assets. This includes applications with up to five simultaneous jurisdictions in acting for major financial institutions and governments pursuing assets.
Enforcing English judgments overseas
Through our network of associated firms we have very strong experience of instructing overseas lawyers in respect of both the enforcement of judgments and the freezing of assets that were necessary in foreign jurisdictions. We have substantial knowledge of the law relating to permission for service overseas and the service of legal documents.
Enforcing overseas judgments in England
We have considerable experience of applying for the enforcement of overseas judgments in England and Wales, their registration, and enforcement mechanisms for ensuring that overseas creditors are paid.
Recent examples of our work are:
- Acting for a foreign government in respect of the pursuit of assets throughout the world which had been misappropriated by a President;
- Acting for two airlines in respect of fraudulent misuse of funds which had been dissipated across western Europe;
- Acting in a major professional negligence claim relating to the negligent advice of an international law firm in a foreign jurisdiction but subject to an English jurisdiction and English law clause;
- Acting for a German bank, as one of nearly 100 defendants to a claim by the Danish Tax Agency to recoup over £1bn in tax refunds;
- Acting for BVI and Hong Kong law firms on an expedited appeal to Privy Council concerning the jurisdiction in common law to issue freezing orders in support of foreign proceedings;
- Acting for Ghanaian bank to register Ghanaian High Court order and then enforce against assets located in England;
- Instructing lawyers in New York and California to enforce English judgments;
- Defending Czech national from proprietary injunction sought by US citizen over English property;
- Representing Monaco resident in trust claim over Swiss bank assets;
- Acting for Nigerian oil company in ICC arbitration
