Fountain Court Chambers

Referred to as “one of the leading commercial silks at the Bar” by Legal 500, Brian has a broad commercial and civil practice.

He is a trial lawyer with years of experience in handling hard-fought business and commercial cases. He has practised as a Silk in a number of jurisdictions, including England, South Africa and the BVI.

Brian’s specialty is heavy cases, both in court and before arbitration tribunals, which are fact-dependent and involve complex issues of law. Almost all his cases involve conflicts of law, and he has wide experience, in particular, of matters originating in Russia and the CIS.

• Recent cases include:

• VTB Bank v Firtash and others [2021] EWHC 1356 (Comm): discharge of freezing order
• Media Gates Company v Kuwait Projects (KIPCO) – 2020 arbitration in LCIA-DIFC: Dispute between shareholders re option agreement

• Barthelemy Holdings v Duet Group Limited [2019] EWHC 2402 (Comm): breach of warranties under an Investment Agreement concerning the purchase and building of a hotel in St Barts, in the Caribbean
• Deepak Abbhi v Richard Slade [2019] EWCA Civ 2175: whether an oral agreement with a solicitor to pay someone else’s legal fees of litigation constituted a primary obligation to pay, or an unenforceable guarantee because not in writing
• Michael Wilson and Partners v Emmott [2019] EWCA Civ 219: Court of Appeal deals with Angel Bell exception in a freezing order
• ABC Grandeservus v Emmerson International: Decision of BVI Commercial court 27 May 2019: successful application to set aside freezing order.
• BNP Paribas Jersey Trust v Camilla de Bourbon (Jersey): application to set aside freezing order

He also sits as an arbitrator and has extensive arbitration experience as an LCIA and ICC arbitration counsel both here and abroad.

He is registered for Public Access work and can take instructions from members of the public. For more information on this, please click here.

Practised at Johannesburg Bar 1980-92; took silk in South Africa 1990; called Lincoln’s Inn 1991; tenant at Fountain Court 1992; QC 1999.

Afrikaans.

King Edward VII School, Johannesburg; University of the Witwatersrand (1972 BA; LLB); Balliol College, Oxford (1975 BCL).

Theatre, opera, reading.