Supporting shareholders and directors through boardroom disputes and insolvency proceedings.
How Michael can help
Michael advises on company law disputes involving boardroom deadlock, director misconduct, and shareholder petitions. He has acted in claims concerning the unfair exclusion of minority shareholders, diversion of business opportunities, and breaches of fiduciary duty. He also handles disputes arising from insolvency, including voluntary arrangements, liquidations and wrongful trading.
His instructions often involve urgent strategic advice for businesses under pressure, and he is experienced in dealing with complex ownership structures and overlapping commercial claims.
Typical instructions include:
- Representing shareholders in unfair prejudice petitions and partnership fallouts
- Advising directors and investors on boardroom removals and fiduciary breaches
- Acting in disputes involving voluntary arrangements or winding-up
- Supporting litigation linked to corporate restructuring or insolvency events
Examples of work
- Currently advising one of two shareholders of a high-end residential property development company, in a dispute with the other shareholder. Allegations from both sides include claims for misappropriation of company funds and diversion of commercial opportunities.
- 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. - Advising in a dispute involving a threatened shut-down of a private power station supplying large commercial customers as a result of the insolvency of the electricity provider that runs the plant.
- Advising in an international arbitration concerning a share purchase agreement, on whether it gave rise to any equitable rights or fiduciary duties and on the availability of remedies for unfair prejudice under section 994 of the Companies Act 2006.
- Acted for and advising Sir Stelios Haji-loannou, the founder of easyJet, on a number of disputes involving alleged breaches of fiduciary duties by executives of ‘easy’ Group companies.
- Advising members of a golf and country club on a potential unfair prejudice petition and a derivative claim, arising from unilateral decisions by management to amend the club’s bye laws.
- Advising on bringing an injunction restraining the presentation of a winding up petition.
- Advising on whether future rent was included a voluntary arrangement.
- Advising on whether a proposed company voluntary arrangement qualified as an insolvency procedure for the purposes of a termination clause in a commercial contract.
- Assisting in advising administrators on the effect and validity of a termination clause in a credit insurance policy.
- Elion & Associates Ltd v easyGroup IP Licensing Ltd [2011] EWHC 4094
Acted for the defendant/respondent in a summary judgment application involving issues of alleged breach of fiduciary duty and equitable set-off.