Poppy Rimington-Pounder
Call: 2018
Barrister
Poppy joined Radcliffe Chambers as a tenant in October 2019, following the successful completion of her pupillage. She has developed a busy practice of her own, and is regularly instructed to appear in the both the County Court and the High Court. She accepts instructions across chambers’ core practice areas.
Poppy recently returned from a three-month secondment at a leading offshore law firm in Jersey, working in their BVI dispute resolution team. In 2019 she was called to the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (BVI).
Poppy regularly appears in the High Court and County Court on bankruptcy petitions, winding-up petitions, and other insolvency and company matters. She acts for debtors, petitioners and insolvency practitioners. She has a wide experience of insolvency hearings, such as annulment applications, applications to re-use company names, and private examinations. She recently assisted senior junior counsel in an unfair prejudice petition.
During pupillage, Poppy gained experience in a broad range of insolvency matters, including:
- Assisting with particulars of claim against former directors of a company in liquidation, alleging misfeasance and breach of directors’ duties
- Assisting with advice to liquidators as to whether the pari passu rule could be disapplied where there were some 150,000 creditors and administering all the claims would exhaust all funds
- Assisting with an application to pool the assets of three companies whose affairs were closely connected
- Assisting with an advice on the individual liability of the trustees of a company limited by guarantee
- Shadowing counsel during a mediation in a claim for transactions at undervalue
Poppy has been instructed in her own right as counsel in commercial claims concerning contractual disputes. Poppy also gained experience in a broad range of commercial matters during her pupillage, including:
- Assisting with a conflict of laws advice relating to the enforceability of a contract and the concept of “universal succession”
- Assisting with an advice on the completion of a contract which had occurred some 11 years late
- Assisting with particulars of claim alleging civil fraud against a former employee
- Assisting counsel during the costs and consequential directions hearing following judgment in Courtwood Holdings SA v Woodley Properties Ltd [2018] EWHC 2163 (Ch) – a claim for the recovery of the proceeds and profits from a £27 million sale of an investment property
Poppy gained experience in a broad range of wills, trusts and estates matters during her pupillage, including:
- Assisting counsel in Burgess v Penny [2019] EWHC 1571 (Ch) – a probate case concerning due execution and want of knowledge and approval
- Assisting counsel in Burgess v Penny [2019] EWHC 2034 (Ch) – the costs and consequential directions hearing following judgment
- Assisting counsel at a mediation relating to an allegedly forged will
- Assisting counsel at a financial dispute resolution hearing relating to a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 over an estate worth £8.8 million
- Assisting with an advice as to whether an offshore trust could be validly terminated
- Shadowing counsel in Hilton v Cosnier [2018] EWHC 2728 (Ch) – a claim to determine whether there had been a valid declaration of a trust
Poppy has appeared in possession hearings and drafted possession claims and applications. She also gained experience in property matters during her pupillage, including:
- Assisting with advice on an adverse possession and proprietary estoppel claim
- Assisting with particulars of claim alleging trespass in relation to a neighbour dispute
During pupillage, Poppy gained experience in professional liability matters, including:
- Assisting with an advice on the liability of solicitors who had been involved in the will-drafting and administration of an estate
- Drafting particulars of claim against former administrators of a company in liquidation
Poppy gained experience in pensions matters during her pupillage, including:
- Assisting with advice as to how £1.6 million of surplus assets in a scheme could be paid back to the employer
- Attending the Association of Pensions Lawyers Beginners Course
Poppy gained experience in charities matters during her pupillage, including:
- Shadowing counsel on an application under section 115 of the Charities Act 2006 for permission to bring charity proceedings
- BPTC, City Law School (Outstanding) (2017-2018)
- GDL, City Law School (Commendation) (2016-2017)
- BA in Classics, New College, University of Oxford (First Class) (2011-2015)
Poppy read Classics at New College, Oxford, and graduated in 2015 with a Double First. She then taught Classics (and coached football) at Winchester College before coming to the Bar.
- Wolfson Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn) (2018)
- Buchanan Prize (Lincoln’s Inn) (2018)
- Winner of The Times 2TG Moot 2018
- Lord Denning Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn) (2017)
- Hardwicke Entrance Award (Lincoln’s Inn) (2017)
- Academic Scholarship (City Law School) (2017)
- Lord Haldane Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn) (2016)
- Charles Oldham Scholarship (University of Oxford) (2013)
- Academic Scholarship (New College, University of Oxford) (2013)
During her legal studies Poppy participated in a number of mooting competitions, becoming a finalist in the City Law School GDL Moot 2017 and winning The Times 2TG Moot 2018.
The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn.