About
Max specialises in high value, multi-jurisdictional disputes involving fraud, asset tracing and corruption in the financial services and banking sectors, often with an insolvency element. He has litigated in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Privy Council, and as far afield as in the Cayman Islands and Tanzania. He also has extensive experience of complex multi-party LCIA arbitration.
In tandem, Max has a burgeoning practice in Public and Administrative Law disputes, with a particular focus on Judicial Review and assisting colleagues in a wide variety of sectors including competition, environmental and planning, foreign governments, immigration, pensions and tax, and public inquiries and inquests. He is an active member of both the Young Lawyers Committee of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and the ACROSS Fraud Network. He is also a member of ALBA, the Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association.
Max is admitted to practise in England and Wales.
Experience
- Advising the client in relation to Judicial Review proceedings challenging the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s decision not to grant a retrospective import permit in relation to a 19th century artistic creation of immense historical, cultural and aesthetic value.
- Advising the client in relation to Judicial Review which argues that the Windrush Compensation Scheme is not fit for purpose (Pro Bono).
- Advising the Joint Liquidators of Cayman companies in a multi-billion pound dispute in the finance and banking sector currently in trial in the Cayman Islands. The dispute comprises allegations of fraud, forgery and the misappropriation of monies, institutionalised false accounting, claims for tracing and asset recovery through European and Middle Eastern jurisdictions and involves one of the most prominent and wealthy families in Saudi Arabia
- Advised Tanzanian company in respect of claims against a global financial institution, which claims proceeded simultaneously in four different jurisdictions, over a period of 15 years, for sums in excess of USD 150 million. The dispute encompassed a jurisdictional challenge that was determined by the English Court of Appeal, claims before ICSID, allegations of fraud and corruption within the Tanzanian Government and Judiciary, and a press campaign during the Tanzanian general elections that prompted statements from the British Ambassador
- Successfully resisted claims brought by financial institutions following the Icelandic banking collapse against a high profile, high net worth individual including the withdrawal of a Statutory Demand for an amount in excess of GBP 1 million and the abandonment of a pre-action claim in excess of GBP 1.5 million
