3 Verulam Buildings is praised as ‘a go-to set for commercial litigation and civil fraud work’, and other areas of expertise for the members of the set include banking and finance, insolvency and restructuring, and insurance-related disputes. Freezing and disclosure orders, as well as injunctive relief mandates, are also areas of activity for the set. Among its strong roster of silks, Hodge Malek KC is a key name; called to the Bar in the BVI, he has also represented clients before courts in the Isle of Man and Gibraltar. David Quest KC is particularly skilled in handling contentious offshore mandates with financial elements, while Hefin Rees KC frequently appears before the BVI and Cayman Islands Privy Council and Courts of Appeal, as well as the Grand Court in Cayman. Matthew Hardwick KC represented a number of defendants in Joint Stock Company ’BTA Bank’ v 54 defendants, defeating allegations of fraud made by the Kazakh bank against, among others, members of its former leadership. Turning to the juniors, Philip Hinks is strong in commercial, civil fraud, financial services, and insolvency-related disputes. James Potts is reputable for his expertise in large fraud cases, and of recent note, he acted for the claimant in Morina v McAleavey, a dispute over the ownership of shares that requires expert evidence on the history of the BVI.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • 'Shout out to Lucy Burrows, James Kelly, Jack Wheeler, Ed Tolfts and Florence Sharpe.'
  • '3VB is a top-tier set of chambers with an outstanding reputation.'
  • 'A very reputable set with talent that is both wide and deep.'
  • '3VB are excellent. They are a go-to set for commercial litigation and civil fraud work.'
  • '3VB have now firmly established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in terms of offshore fraud and asset tracing matters. You see them popping up on all sorts of matters in this space and they have become a set to go to when you don't know what you want, but you know they will have someone. '

Silks

Leading Silks
KCs at the very top of their field, with a long-established record of market-defining cases, and widespread endorsement from clients and peers. All silks appointed in the last two rounds are listed further below.
1
3 Verulam Buildings
‘He rolls up his sleeves and does all of the work in preparing for each trial, and knows the issues and facts intimately. Most importantly, he can turn a seemingly hopeless situation into a winning situation and is always willing to go to the ends of the earth for the client in trying to achieve victory.’
1
3 Verulam Buildings
 ‘Hodge is truly excellent. He is completely unflappable, calm and focused, he can analyse huge amounts of information very quickly, and he guides the client to the best result.’
1
3 Verulam Buildings
‘David is a highly effective and ultra-prepared advocate who reads a courtroom very well. He has an admirable ability to digest and synthesise huge amounts of complicated information very quickly.'

Juniors

Leading Juniors
Leading juniors are those with significant experience of key cases, strong market recognition from both peers and clients, and are seen as future candidates for silk.
3
3 Verulam Buildings
‘Philip has a silk’s sense of where to focus his energy, his drafts are refreshing as they cover the ground, but are not bogged down in incidental detail, and he is also very calm and confident on his feet.’
3
3 Verulam Buildings
‘James is a great tactician, able to devise legal arguments even in the most challenging litigation, goes the extra 10 miles to deliver excellent legal service, and is definitely someone to have on your team in the most difficult cases.'
4
3 Verulam Buildings
 ‘Yash is extremely knowledgeable, user-friendly and pragmatic. He is approachable, responsive, intelligent and thoughtful in his approach.’