Advising on regulatory action, mis-selling claims and financial enforcement cases.
How Michael can help
Michael advises banks, regulators and claimants on disputes involving financial regulation, consumer protection and asset recovery. He has acted in high-profile mis-selling claims, advised on FCA investigations, and secured urgent freezing injunctions in fraud-related proceedings. His experience spans interest rate swaps, structured products, liquidity regulation and enforcement orders.
He works closely with instructing solicitors and in-house teams on litigation strategy, evidence and compliance with regulatory frameworks.
Typical instructions include:
- Representing claimants in interest rate swap and PPI mis-selling litigation
- Advising on FCA investigations and compelled interviews
- Acting in freezing injunction applications linked to fraud and asset dissipation
- Supporting banks and corporates in disputes with regulatory dimensions
Examples of work
- Wall v Royal Bank of Scotland [2016] EWHC 2460 (Comm)
Instructed in a claim for misselling of an interest rate swap and the subsequent transfer of the affected business to RBS’s Global Restructuring Group, involving allegations of misrepresentation, negligence, and breaches of contractual duties of good faith. - Hockin v Royal Bank of Scotland [2016] EWHC 925 (Ch)
Acted in a claim for alleged misselling of an interest rate swap, involving allegations of misrepresentations (including as regards the LIBOR-fixing scandal), negligence, and implied terms. - Acted, with Stephen Auld KC, for a claimant in an action against a bank for negligently recommending a suite of interest rate swaps, unsuitable for the needs of the claimant’s business.
- Acted for a stockbroking firm in a claim for payment for services provided in connection with an IPO that was aborted by the client company prior to the proposed flotation.
- Advising a property development company on a dispute with a bank arising from a facility agreement containing a unilateral power to extend the term of the loan, which was alleged to amount to an unenforceable penalty.
- Acting and advising in a group of claims by consumers for PPI misselling on a novel point of law. The banks, having upheld misselling complaints, paid out compensation with simple interest, but it was alleged that compound interest was a true reflection of the customers’ loss.
- Advising a French bank on whether registering charges over properties located in England as security for loans made abroad was a regulated activity under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
- Advising, with David Wolfson KC and Guy Philipps KC, the Financial Services Authority in a high profile and seminal investigation into the sale of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) by banks.
- Assisting in advising HM Treasury on the extent of losses by policyholders in Equitable Life as a result of maladministration, in the investigation by Sir John Chadwick.
- Nationwide Building Society v Thompson [2013] EWHC 4515 (Ch)
Acted for Nationwide Building society in the trial of a claim arising out of a mortgage fraud, involving deceit and issues relating to tracing. The claim succeeded and the judgment was upheld on appeal. - United States Securities & Exchange Commission v Manterfield [2010] 1 W.L.R. 172
Acted with David Wolfson KC in a claim arising from an alleged international fraud representing the United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC obtained a freezing injunction without the court requiring a cross-undertaking in damages, a decision which was upheld at the Court of Appeal.