St Philips Chambers

Business & Property

Avtar was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1985. Having completed a master’s degree in commercial law and a commercial pupillage in London, it gave him the practical experience to develop a commercial, company and insolvency practice in the Midlands.

Over the course of the last 25 years he has been involved in general commercial litigation within the fields of banking, company law, insolvency, professional negligence, franchising, shareholder disputes, disciplinary proceedings before regulatory bodies, tax and VAT cases before the special commissioners and VAT tribunals and product liability. The claims have ranged from tens of thousands to multimillion pounds.

His client base is also varied, from major institutions such as banks, to professional clients such as accountants and solicitors, to individuals and companies. He has lectured in the field of commercial law and insolvency to solicitors, bankers and to insolvency practitioners and was the chairman of the Midland Commercial and Chancery Bar.

Over the last few years Avtar has acted in a large number of cases involving very high value claims, including the following:

• Multi-million pound shareholder disputes
• Multi-million pound commercial disputes involving the motor-car industry
• The insolvencies of large companies, including those listed on the stock exchange and trading in other jurisdictions
• Capital reductions – cases involving trusts and fiduciaries
• Banking, in particular, piercing the corporate veil so as to render individual directors liable to a major bank in respect of invoice discounting agreements
• Derivatives and hedging products
• Corporation Tax disputes before the Special Commissioners
• VAT disputes before the VAT Tribunal
• Civil Fraud, including: – applications for freezing and search orders
• Applications for Insolvency Practitioners seeking to recover assets fraudulently dissipated whether in the UK or outside
• Applications on behalf of Banks against individuals who have committed a fraud upon them
• Civil Asset recovery in the Crown Court
• Applications for Customs and Excise

Avtar has acted for Banks in many types of cases involving bank securities, including guarantees, letters of credit, bills of exchange, invoice discounting, insolvency, breach of trust and knowing / dishonest assistance in the dissipation of assets, fraud, etc. He was involved in a number of cases acting for a bank in which he successfully recovered large sums of money from directors of companies where the banks had no form of security.

Recent Cases:

• A lengthy trial involving intellectual property;
• A court of appeal hearing involving issues as to the personal liability of an administrator of a company;
• A professional negligence case against a firm of solicitors;
• Partnership disputes;
• An alleged £22,000,000 fraud;
• A derivative action;
• Mis-selling of derivatives and hedging products;
• A high profile directors’ disqualification case;
• Proceedings in DIFC in Dubai;
• An international arbitration in Dubai

Called 1985; Gray’s Inn; assistant recorder 1998; recorder 2000; Silk 2003.

Chancery Bar Association; Commercial Bar Association; Midland Chancery and Commercial Bar Association; Dubai International Financial Centre.

University of Cambridge (BA; LLM).