Representing businesses in complex contract disputes across telecoms, retail and professional services.
How Michael can help
Michael acts in high-value commercial disputes involving contracts, professional relationships, and cross-border trade. He is frequently instructed in claims arising from failed transactions, disputed service agreements, and breakdowns in supply chains. His experience includes acting for corporate clients, individual professionals and law firms, both in standalone claims and as part of wider litigation strategies.
He is known for his clear advice, strong courtroom advocacy and careful management of multi-party and multi-claim disputes.
Typical instructions include:
- Acting in commercial contract claims involving telecoms, water, and infrastructure
- Representing law firms in disputes over professional fees or engagement terms
- Advising on breach of warranty, indemnity and misrepresentation claims
- Handling disputes involving technical issues or foreign law
Examples of work
- Currently acting for a claimant law firm, in a claim for dishonest assistance in breach of fiduciary duty, allegedly resulting in a diversion of a commercial opportunity (in the form of an option in a property development scheme) from a creditor former client.
- Handa v Handa & Ors [2024] EWHC 811 (Ch)
Acted for the claimant in a shareholder dispute in a family-owned business, which involved interpretation of a purported expulsion notice, and allegations of misappropriation of company funds, criminal fraud and diversions of commercial opportunities.
- Castle Water Ltd v Thames Water Utilities Limited [2020] EWHC 1374 (TCC)
Acted, with Neil Kitchener KC and Andrew Lodder, for Castle Water, a privately-owned water and wastewater retail services provider. The dispute concerns multiple breaches of contract alleged both by and against Castle Water, in relation to the sale by Thames Water of its non-household retail division of water and sewerage services to Castle. The case involved thirteen separate heads of claim and tort (totalling around £40 million in value) and three contractual counterclaims raising numerous difficult contractual construction, damages, causation and mitigation issues in a complex technical context. - Advising and acting in a claim involving an alleged frustrated contract arising from the UK government-imposed lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Advising a major international energy company on claims for negligence and breach of contract arising from contamination of natural gas supplied to it.
- Advising and acting for senior and junior counsel against a firm of solicitors for unpaid barristers’ fees.
- 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. - O3B Africa Ltd v Interactive E-Solutions JLT [2018] EWHC 2072 (Comm)
Instructed, with David Cavender KC, for the claimant in a successful claim arising from a contract to supply satellite bandwidth to the claimant, a telecommunications company in Pakistan. The case involved issues of technical expertise and points of foreign law. Also acted in an earlier unsuccessful appeal by the defendant against a decision to refuse it permission to amend its Defence and Counterclaim: [2018] EWCA Civ 62. - 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. - Landmark Investments Ltd v Dome Cleaning Services Lid [2015] EWHC 58 (QB)
Acted in an appeal against a decision to strike out a case for a failure to serve a Scott Schedule as directed, under Mitchell and Denton principles on compliance with court orders. - Seakom Ltd v Knowledgepool Group Ltd [2013] EWHC 4007 (Ch)
Acted with Derek Spitz for the defendant in a trial of an action for alleged unpaid commission on transactions concluded through a training course website. The case involved issues of estoppel, novation and construction, including the scope of the principle recognised in The Antaios [1985] AC 191 and Rainy Sky v Kookmin Bank [2011] UKSC 50 on commercial common sense as a factor in construing a commercial contract. The defendant was successful, the court finding that the claimant’s preferred construction of the agreement would have led to a commercially absurd result (applying both The Antaios and Rainy Sky). - Seakom Ltd v Knowledgepool Group Ltd [2014] EWCA 1164
Acted and appeared in the Court of Appeal, for the respondent/applicant. The respondent/applicant was successful in obtaining an order for security for costs, in circumstances where one of the two corporate appellants was resident out of the jurisdiction, the other was insolvent, and both had taken steps in relation to their assets that would have made it more difficult to enforce any costs order that might be made against them in the appeal. - Acted for the defendant in a claim brought by the University of Wales in relation to commission payable under a validation agreement with a private college.
- Manoudakis v easyGroup Holdings Lid [2011] All ER (D) 171 (Oct)
Acted for easyGroup Holdings in a trial involving issues arising from alleged unauthorised use of company credit cards, amounting to alleged breaches of fiduciary duty and breaches of implied contractual terms. Ratification-type arguments were a key theme. The Court found, as contended by easyGroup Holdings, that terms were implied into a consultancy agreement that the claimant had not previously acted in breach of his fiduciary duties, in light of the relevant background of the claimant’s prior involvement in the easy Group (applying the principle recognised in Attorney-General of Belize v Belize Telecom Ltd [2009] UKPC 10). - Advising, with Ian Glick KC, a major multinational oil and gas corporation on the proper construction of payment provisions in a contract for engineering works on a gas terminal, and on the meaning of the term consequential loss in the contract.
- Advising on the application and effect of force majeure clauses in the context of the 2009 ‘swine flu’ pandemic.