Banking and finance; Civil fraud and asset tracing; Commercial dispute resolution; Information technology and telecommunications; Media and entertainment; Professional negligence
Paul is a leading commercial silk in domestic and international litigation and arbitration. A highly experienced courtroom advocate, he has expertise in high-profile, heavy, and sensitive commercial, financial, and international disputes of all kinds. He appears regularly in the Commercial Court, Chancery Division, other specialised courts, and the appellate jurisdictions in England and the Eastern Caribbean; as well as in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), where he is called to the Bar.
He is regularly instructed in complex and ground-breaking international and domestic fraud and asset-tracing cases, often involving pre-emptive injunctions, disclosure, and jurisdictional and choice of law issues. He has substantial experience of litigation involving digital assets, hacking and cyber-fraud; and obtained the first Worldwide Proprietary Injunctions and Freezing Orders against persons unknown in the English courts. Paul has strong and overlapping practices in the fields of banking and finance, information technology and telecommunications and art and antiquities. He firmly believes in maintaining a broad commercial practice and regularly leads teams of barristers both within his core fields of practice and in diverse and specialist areas.
Acknowledged as a formidable trial, interlocutory and appellate advocate and an accomplished cross-examiner, Paul is a team player and expert strategist with a highly commercial approach.
Paul has been listed for many years as a leading silk in several categories in all the principal directories, including commercial dispute resolution, civil fraud, banking and finance, information technology and telecoms.
Paul is regularly instructed in international and domestic arbitration and in English and BVI court proceedings in aid of arbitral proceedings and in connection with the enforcement of arbitration awards and foreign judgments. He also advises overseas lawyers on issues arising in domestic and international litigation and arbitration and gives expert evidence on issues of English law and procedure arising in foreign proceedings.
Paul is a member of the Service sub-committee of the Civil Procedure Rules Committee, and a co-author of its 2022 report on “Proposed Amendments to the PD6B ‘Gateways”, leading to the introduction on 1 October 2022 of the new Disclosure Gateway (PD 6B para 3.1(23)).
He is a qualified Centre for Dispute Resolution (CEDR) mediator and an experienced mediation advocate.
Paul is an active senior advocacy trainer at the Middle Temple and in Chambers and sits as a Chairman of Bar Disciplinary Tribunals. He is Chairman of Trustees of the International Law Book Facility (ILBF), a registered charity that provides used printed legal texts to the developing world. In 2015, Paul was nominated for the Sydney Elland Goldsmith Bar Pro Bono Award for his work with the ILBF.
In addition to his practice at the Bar, Paul is a member of the Investment Committee of Harbour Litigation Funding.
Paul was a nominee both for the ‘Barrister of the Year’ award at The Lawyer Awards (London, 2019) and for the ‘Commercial Advocate of the Year’ award at the Legal Week Awards (London, 2019).
Paul is registered with Rights of Audience in the Astana International Financial Court, Kazakhstan.