Poppy Rimington-Pounder
Call: 2018
Barrister
Poppy has a broad chancery practice spanning all of chambers’ core practice areas. She has developed particular experience in offshore litigation, following a secondment at a leading international law firm where she worked 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 law matters. Her recent work includes:
- Acting on behalf of a trustee in bankruptcy in a private examination; at its conclusion, she successfully argued that a personal costs order should be made against the examinee
- Acting on behalf of administrators in an application to lift the moratorium
- Acting in applications to re-use company names
- Acting in an application to rectify the Companies House register
- Assisting senior junior counsel in an unfair prejudice petition
- (As a secondee) assisting with applications to appoint soft touch provisional liquidators in the BVI
Poppy also gained experience in a broad range of insolvency and company law matters during her pupillage, including:
- Assisting with advice to liquidators as to whether the pari passurule could be disapplied where there were some 150,000 creditors and administering each claim would exhaust all funds
- Assisting with an application to pool the assets of three companies in liquidation whose affairs were closely connected
- Assisting with an advice on the individual liability of the trustees of a company limited by guarantee
Poppy is regularly instructed to appear as an advocate, advise and settle pleadings in commercial disputes. Her recent work includes:
- (As a secondee) settling pleadings in a claim for unjust enrichment worth US $1.2 million
- Settling pleadings in disputes over the sale of property, including claims for the return of deposits or for damages following failure to complete
- Settling pleadings for breach of contract in disputes over the provision of software and software engineering services
- VTB Bank v Miccros Group Ltd BVIHC (COM) 2018/0067 – (as a secondee) assisting on an application to continue an interim receivership in the BVI
Poppy also gained experience in a broad range of commercial matters during her pupillage, including:
- Assisting with an advice on the conflict of laws, specifically in relation to the concept of “universal succession”
- Assisting with an advice on the completion of a contract which had occurred some 11 years late and which caused one of contracting entities to go into liquidation
- Courtwood Holdings SA v Woodley Properties Ltd[2018] EWHC 2163 (Ch) – assisting counsel during the costs and consequential directions hearing following judgment on a claim for the recovery of the proceeds and profits from a £27 million sale of an investment property
Poppy is regularly instructed in a broad range of private client matters. Her recent work includes:
- Dixon Coles & Gill (A Former Firm) v Baines, Bishop of Leeds & Anor [2021] EWCA Civ 1097 – assisting Thomas Dumont QC, who successfully argued that law firm partners could rely on the innocent trustees’ 6-year limitation period under section 21 of the Limitation Act 1980, even when their fraudulent partner had stolen the proceeds of conveyancing transactions
- Olga Vladimirovna Scherbakova et al v Brigita Morina et al BVIHCM 2018/0134 – (as a secondee) drafting submissions on behalf of certain beneficiaries of an estate in relation to the costs of an application by an estate’s administrators for the assessment of their remuneration, expenses and disbursements, which had been unsuccessfully opposed by another beneficiary
- Acting in an application for a vesting order under section 44 of the Trustee Act 1925
- Advising on probate claims concerning testamentary capacity, knowledge and approval, undue influence and fraudulent calumny
- Advising in relation to the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
- Advising on a claim for an account against the de facto trustees of a will trust
- Advising on and drafting applications for the removal of personal representatives
Poppy also gained experience in a broad range of wills, trusts and estates matters during her pupillage, including:
- Burgess v Penny [2019] EWHC 2034 (Ch) – assisting counsel in a probate dispute concerning the due execution of a will and want of knowledge and approval; assisting counsel at the costs and consequential directions hearing following judgment
- Assisting counsel at the mediation of a dispute over an allegedly forged will
- Assisting counsel at a financial dispute resolution hearing of a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 in relation to an estate worth £8.8 million
- Hilton v Cosnier[2018] EWHC 2728 (Ch) – shadowing counsel in a claim to determine whether there had been a valid declaration of a trust
Poppy regularly attends possession hearings and has experience in a broad range of property matters. Her recent work includes:
- Settling pleadings in a dispute involving the co-ownership of a property following a relationship breakdown
- Acting on behalf of the landlord in possession proceedings relating to a Rent Act 1977 tenancy
- Appearing in applications for charging orders
Poppy also gained experience in property matters during her pupillage, including:
- Assisting with an advice on an adverse possession and proprietary estoppel claim
- Assisting with particulars of claim for trespass in relation to a neighbour dispute
In her first year of practice Poppy was seconded to Ogier in Jersey where she worked in their BVI dispute resolution team.
In 2019 she was called to the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (BVI) and she has also held a BVI practising certificate.
As a secondee, Poppy worked on a number of civil fraud, company law and trust disputes, and also gained considerable experience in freezing injunctions, interim receiverships, Norwich Pharmacal orders, and service out applications.
Her work includes:
- K et al v Z et al BVIHCM 2020/0016 – drafting submissions in a successful application for Norwich Pharmacal relief, in which the BVI High Court accepted that it did have jurisdiction to grant Norwich Pharmacal relief in aid of foreign proceedings
- Olga Vladimirovna Scherbakova et al v Brigita Morina et al BVIHCM 2018/0134 – drafting submissions on behalf of certain beneficiaries of an estate in relation to the costs of an application by an estate’s administrators for the assessment of their remuneration, expenses and disbursements, which had been unsuccessfully opposed by another beneficiary
- VTB Bank v Miccros Group Ltd BVIHC (COM) 2018/0067 – assisting on an application to continue an interim receivership
- Settling pleadings in a claim for unjust enrichment worth US $1.2 million
- 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.