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South Square

3-4 SOUTH SQUARE, GRAY'S INN, LONDON, WC1R 5HP, ENGLAND

Tel:: Work 020 7696 9900
Fax:: Fax 020 7696 9911
DX:: 338 LONDON CHANCERY LANE WC2

Web:: www.southsquare.com
Email:

Michael Crystal QC

Tel:: Work +44 20 7696 9900
Email:

Position

Specialist areas of practice include: corporate commercial, insolvency and corporate reconstruction; litigation - commercial; banking; company law; financial services; international commercial arbitration; offshore trust litigation. Recent important cases include: Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Company v Saad Investments Company Limited, Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, Financial Servises Division (Smellie,CJ), 2011; Re HSH Cayman I GP Ltd and others (2010) ICILR 157; GFN SA and Others v Liquidators of Bancredit Cayman Ltd (in official liquidation) [2010] 3 LRC 495; Re Expro International Group plc [2010] 2 BCLC 514; White v Withers LLP and Dearle [2010] 1 FLR 859; Jefferies International Ltd v Landsbanki Islands HF [2009] All ER (D) 222 (Apr); Westacre Investments Inc v Yugoimport SDPR [2009] 1 All ER (Comm) 780; Parmalat Capital Finance Ltd v Food Holdings Ltd (in liquidation) [2008] BPIR 641 (PC); Wilkinson v West Coast Capital [2007] BCC 717; Jones v Ministry of the Interior of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [2007] 1 AC 270 (HL); Re Legend International Resorts Ltd [2006] 3 HKLRD 270; Sisu Capital Fund Ltd v Tucker [2006] BPIR 154; and Re MyTravel Group PLC [2005] 2 BCLC 123 (CA).

Career

Qualified 1970, Middle Temple; made QC 1984. Deputy High Court Judge 1995-to date; Lecturer in Law Pembroke College, Oxford, 1971-76; member Joint Working Party of Law Reform Committees of the Senate and the Law Society on the Draft EEC Bankruptcy Convention 1975-76 and on the Reform of Insolvency Law 1977-81; Department of Trade and Industry Inspector into County Nat West Ltd and County Nat West Securities Ltd 1988-89, and into National Westminster Bank plc 1992; Chairman Banking Appeal Tribunal 1993-98; Hon. Fellow Queen Mary College, University of London 1996; Chairman Insolvency Practitioners Tribunal 1996-to date; Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary College, University of London 1996-to date; Hon. Fellow, Society for Advanced Legal Studies, 1997; Visiting Professor, Department of Laws, University College London 2002-to date. Current directorships: Governor, RSC 1988-2006; Honorary Governor RSC 2006 to date. Recent publications of note include: Joint Editor 'Butterworths Insolvency Law Handbook' (1987; 13th ed 2011); Joint Editor 'Halsbury's Laws of England' (Companies, 4th ed, reissue, Vol 7 (3) 1996).

Member

Insol Europe 1982 to date; Insolvency Rules Advisory Committee 1993-97; Advisory Council Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary College, University of London 1996 to date; Financial Law Panel 1996-2002; The International Arbitration Institute, Paris 2002 to date; FA Premier League Panel for Insolvency Matters 2004 to date; fellow of the Royal Institution of Great Britain 2004 to date; member International Insolvency Institute 2005 to date; fellow American College of Bankruptcy 2006 to date.

Education

Leeds Grammar School; Queen Mary College, University of London (1969 LLB Hons); Magdalen College, Oxford (1971 BCL).

Leisure

Travel, music, theatre.

Practice Areas

Commercial; Insolvency and corporate reconstruction; Litigation - commercial

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