Events

Radcliffe Chambers Commercial Litigation Conference – Thursday 1 February 2024

Join us for the Radcliffe Chambers Commercial Litigation Conference 2024 on Thursday, 1st February 2024, 12:30 – 21:00 at etc.venues St Paul’s, 200 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4HD.

Our Commercial Litigation Conference will be led by members of the Radcliffe Chambers Commercial Litigation practice group together with industry experts and will cover a wide range of pertinent issues and trends faced by the business world today to provide attendees with comprehensive and up-to-date legal information and support.

Throughout the day there will be several opportunities for networking with our members and expert guest speakers, including after the final plenary session, where you can enjoy an evening of drinks and canapés from 17:45.

Opening Plenary Session: Pitch to Partners: a case law update inside the Dragons’ Den

Chaired by James Morgan KC, Pitch to Partners will see our members, Chloe Shuffrey, James Fagan, and Amber Turner compete against each other in a typically spirited Dragons’ Den manner to pitch the best case of 2023 to the Dragons’ Lucy Ward of Stewarts, Genevieve Quierin of Stephenson Harwood, and Jason Woodland of Peters & Peters.

Then we have the following breakout sessions for you to choose from:

Breakout Session 1:

Just how autonomous is international arbitration? Some implications and uncertainties of having no forum? – present by Shantanu Majumdar KCKate Rogers and Tatiana Minaeva of RPC

A number of potentially different laws apply to the determination of a dispute by arbitration: the law of the underlying contract, the law of the arbitration agreement and the curial law.

But are other laws relevant too? Does the tribunal have the right or the duty to apply the “mandatory” rules of other states or entities and, if so, which, why and when?

These are especially topical issues given the current sanctions against Russia and raise fundamental general questions about enforcement/enforceability, party choices of seat and law, as well as the integrity and predictability of the whole arbitral process.

This session aims to provide practical answers and approaches from the perspective of both counsel and arbitrator.

The FCA’s new Consumer Duty: enforcement and routes to redress – presented by Mark Fell KCPeter Dodge and Robin Henry of Collyer Bristow

The introduction of the Consumer Duty on 31st July 2023 has been described as the ‘biggest overhaul for the UK’s financial services industry in 20 years’. Intended to set higher expectations for the standard of care firms give consumers, the Duty has imposed significant additional obligations on the regulated sector. It protects not just individual consumers but also some SMEs.

This session will consider the remedies available to customers where the Duty is breached and, in particular, what, if any, effect the introduction of the Duty might have on litigation arising from the sale of unsuitable products.

Breakout Session 2:

Fraud 2023: recent significant judgments – presented by Christopher Boardman KC, Simon Mills and Lucas Moore of Payne Hicks Beach

Christopher Boardman KC, Simon Mills and Lucas Moore will be discussing the hottest most recent cases for fraud practitioners, including topics such as setting aside arbitral awards on the grounds of fraud, (Nigeria v Process & Industrial Developments Ltd), the meaning of transactions for s.423 Insolvency Act 1986 (Invest Bank v El Husseini), and the proprietary basis of knowing receipt (Byers v Saudi National Bank).

Disputes in Commercial Trusts – presented by Kate Selway KCMatthew Tonnard and Thomas Middlehurst of Blake Morgan

Breakout Session 3:

Imaging Orders in Practice – presented by Tom Beasley, Katie Longstaff and Graeme Buller of Alvarez & Marsal

TBD (Owen Holland) Ltd v Simons and others [2020] EWCA Civ 1182; [2021] 1 WLR 992 marked the advent of imaging orders replacing traditional search orders as the default tool used to preserve incriminating evidence at risk of destruction and prompted the introduction of the standard form imaging order in April 2022.

In this session Tom and Katie will consider TBD (Owen Holland) Ltd v Simons and subsequent case-law, discuss the practicalities and issues involved in obtaining an imaging order, and shed light on the imaging process itself.

Privilege – Pitfalls for Practitioners and How to Avoid Them – presented by Gary Lidington and Alexander Kingston-Splatt

This discursive session will cover a range of practical issues often encountered in commercial litigation practice relating to the important and evolving subject of legal professional privilege including joint privilege, common interest privilege, advertent and inadvertent waiver, receipt of confidential documents, and the cherry-picking principle.

Closing Plenary Session: The Good, Bad and the Ugly: the dos and don’ts inside a commercial courtroom – chaired by Stuart Benzie with Mr Justice Pepperall, HHJ Marc Dight and Phillippa O’Neill of Buckles

In ‘The Good, Bad and the Ugly’, chair Stuart Benzie will discuss with Mr Justice Pepperall and HHJ Marc Dight the most important lessons practitioners should learn, from their extensive knowledge and experience, to succeed in a commercial courtroom. Phillippa O’Neill, will join the discussion adding her insights from the perspective of an experienced commercial litigator.

The conference will be followed by an evening of drinks and canapés from 17:45.

Download the agenda here.

The ticket price for our conference is only £120+ VAT, a 10% discount will be applied to individual firm group purchases of tickets of 5 or more. Please contact events@radcliffechambers.com before purchasing 5 or more tickets for this conference.

Tickets can be purchased on our Eventbrite page here.

We look forward to seeing you there.