Michael specialises in the resolution of commercial disputes, with a strong emphasis on the financial servi-ces sector including insurance and reinsurance matters. He has regularly acted against banks and other large financial institutions, including acting for large claimant groups and liquidators in relation to IRHPs, loans and failed and often fraudulent investment schemes.

His recent case load has included acting for investors in failed technology and film funds and schemes in seeking to recover the losses against custodians and professional advisors. He has also acted for and advised large corporates missold IRHPs and in relation to the bankiing sector’s destructive treatment of SME borrowers. Michael is currently acting for a large action group formed following the insolvency of Luxembourg bond issuers pursuing losses against the issuers’ managers, bankers and advisors in legal proceedings both in the US and England. The work has included co-ordinating with US attorneys to obtain recognition of the Luxembourg liquidation proceedings under Chapter 15 of the US Bankruptcy code. Michael has also acted for the investors in a $1bn Guernsey-based life settlements fund investigating potential routes of recovery and causes of action against the fund’s managers, administrators and auditors.

Michael has a wealth of experience of managing and hedging clients’ exposure to the risk and cost of com-mercial disputes, based around combining ATE insurance, litigation funding and CFAs in innovative funding packages.

Practice areas

• Financial Services Disputes
• Failed Investment Schemes
• Group Litigation
• Professional Negligence
• Insurance & Reinsurance

Background

Michael qualified in 1991, becoming a partner at Rosling King in 1995. He moved to Addleshaw Booth & Co in 2000 and following the merger with Theodore Goddard was a partner in Addleshaw Goddard’s Contentious Group until co-founding City disputes specialist, Enyo Law, in 2010. He left Enyo and joined W Legal as a consultant in 2017.