Mr Jeremy Scott > LK Law LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Mr Jeremy Scott

Position

Consultant

Career

Expertise and Practice

Jeremy Scott is one of the most experienced and astute international litigators in the City of London. He specialises in cross-border corporate insolvency, fraud, asset tracing, art and cultural property law, trust disputes, urgent interim remedies and enforcement of judgments. He is frequently instructed by insolvency practitioners, governments and other lawyers on some of the most challenging international projects.

Jeremy has had a major role in disputes arising from some of the largest corporate frauds and insolvencies of the last 30 years, from the UK property collapse in the 1980s to the liquidation of BCCI, the downfall of Australia’s Bond Corporation, and the fallout from Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme.

Given the international nature of his practice, Jeremy has deep experience with the jurisdictional disputes that inevitably arise in cross-border matters and the enforceability of judgments and orders across jurisdictions. He was involved in the European effort to harmonize insolvency procedures among EU member states, and has been actively engaged in cases calculated to extend the scope of international cooperation between courts in the fields of fraud, insolvency and cultural property.

Jeremy is one of a few lawyers to have served as a court appointed receiver, and he has been appointed by courts in England and Hong Kong to find and secure assets in the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and elsewhere. As an officer of the appointing court, this role carries unusual powers to investigate, obtain evidence and block assets with the assistance of courts of other jurisdictions.

Jeremy also has significant experience of acting on behalf of states, in particular the Republic of Italy and the Islamic Republic of Iran, in matters concerning the misappropriation or unlawful export of items of their national cultural heritage. He is adept at navigating the national, political, cultural and religious sensitivities associated with these cases, as well as complex issues of private and public international law when cultural objects have been smuggled or traded through multiple jurisdictions. He also acts for regional museums, galleries and owners.

Before joining LK, Jeremy was a partner of Withers LLP for 16 years, during which time he established their first offshore office in the British Virgin Islands. Before Withers, he was Head of Litigation at Mackenzie Mills and a partner in the London office of Italian firm Studio Carnelutti.

Project Highlights

Jeremy is recognized as a leader in the area of international commercial litigation, leading the successful resolution of a broad range of cross-border disputes. Examples of his projects include:

• The Kingate Funds

Representing the liquidators of the second-largest of the “feeder funds” that channelled billions of US dollars into Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC, and litigating substantial actions in New York and Bermuda, as well as other proceedings in the British Virgin Islands and London. (Kingate Global Fund Ltd v Knightsbridge (USD) Fund [2009] Bda LR 59 (CA); PricewaterhouseCoopers Bermuda v Kingate Global Fund Ltd [2011] Bda LR 32 (CA); Re Kingate Management Ltd [2012] Bda LR 63). Jeremy was also retained to protect the BVI interests of the administrator of other large Madoff so-called feeder funds.

• Alphasteel Limited

Representing the administrators and liquidators of a steel production company in the United Kingdom, where the purchaser of assets alleged against the administrators an unlawful means conspiracy to breach a pre-administration contract. The court considered the circumstances in which an administrator may be liable for dealing with property to which there was a dispute over title ([2013] 2 All ER Comm 54).

• Teekay Corp v Diamond Pacific

Representing the subsidiary of an Indonesian shipping group subject to Penundaan Kewajiban Pembayaran Utang proceedings in Jakarta in an action in England for enforcement of security, which involved arguments about the proper basis for valuation of LNG carrying vessels on long-term charter.

• Akai Holdings Limited

Appointed by the Hong Kong Court as joint receiver of worldwide assets frozen by that court at the instance of the liquidators of Akai (Akai Holdings Ltd v Ho Wing On Christopher [2009] HKEC 1437).

• Reserve International Liquidity Fund

Represented the insolvency office holders of the BVI sister fund of the largest and oldest “money market” fund in the US, which faced a run of redemption demands of more than US$60 billion following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, resulting in proceedings in the BVI and New York and the seizure of substantial funds discovered in the Cayman Islands. (Reserve International Liquidity Fund Ltd v Caxton International Ltd No.09 Civ 9021 (PGG), WL 1779282 (S.D.N.Y. April 29, 2010) and Reserve Management Co Inc v Branch Banking & Trust Co and Société Générale [2010] CILR (1) 531).

• Bond Corporation

Represented the liquidator of Southern Equities Corporation Ltd (formerly Bond Corporation) in English court proceedings, including over 40 applications for international judicial cooperation under what were then new cross-border assistance procedures under s.426 Insolvency Act 1986. This assistance was obtained in support of asset freezing orders and production of documents and examination of witnesses in aid of substantive proceedings in Australia (e.g. Re JN Taylor Finance Pty Ltd [1998] BCC 197; England v Smith [2001] Ch 419 (CA)). Jeremy’s work was instrumental in a number of successful substantive recovery actions pursued in Australia against the company’s former auditors, directors and various third parties, including those enabling the acquisition of celebrated portraits of Captain Cook and Captain Flinders by the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of South Australia.

• Enforcement of Orders – Commercial Proceedings

See for example Phillips v Nussberger [2008] UKHL 1 – English freezing order, Swiss action for declaration, which court first seized under Lugano Convention; Belletti v Morici [2009] 2 CLC 525 – freezing order in England, criminal proceedings in Monaco, no Chabra jurisdiction extending to related parties in Italy; Leonardo Private Equity Fund Ltd v Loscalzo [2006] EWHC 30 – successful defence at English trial in context of concurrent Italian criminal proceedings; Società Finanziaria Industrie Turistiche SpA v Lefebvre [2004] All ER (D) 97 – discharge of freezing order under s.25 Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act on grounds of expediency given over thirty Italian proceedings.

• Bank of Credit & Commerce SA

Represented the provisional liquidators of Bank of Credit & Commerce SA in their legal relationship with the Bank of England, the informal deposit protection scheme established by the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, and other special assignments.

• Southern Cross Commodities

Represented the liquidator of Southern Cross Commodities Pty Ltd in the English proceedings for one of Australia’s most colourful corporate insolvencies. This entailed securing a freezing order over dozens of properties in Britain bought by the directors with money stolen from Australian investors in fake bullion futures, while tracing it to the properties through hundreds of transactions via Switzerland, the US and the Channel Islands. Following contested English and Scottish proceedings, these properties were eventually realised for the company’s creditors (eg. [1991] SLT 83).

• 11th Century Manuscripts of the Archdiocese of Benevento

Jeremy has represented the Italian state, Italian national and municipal museums and galleries and religious institutions in efforts to recover misappropriated antiquities, works of art and items of national historical interest. For this work he has been awarded the Silver Medal ai Benemeriti della Scuola, della Cultura e dell’Arte and appointed Cavaliere of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

He recently recovered an 11th century manuscript for the Archdiocese of Benevento from the British Library, which (as the British Museum) had acquired it very shortly after World War II, following a hotly contested claim before the Spoliation Advisory Panel (Reports of the Spoliation Advisory Panel to the UK Parliament 23 March 2005 and 15 September 2010). His pro bono work on this case was recognized with honorary citizenship of the City of Benevento.

• Persepolis Frieze and Jiroft Artifacts

Represented the Islamic Republic of Iran in cases relating to a sizeable fragment of the frieze on the eastern staircase of the Apadana at Persepolis (Iran v Berend [2007] 2 All ER (Comm) 132), and the recovery of 18 ancient items said to have been looted from the archaeological sites at Jiroft in Iran. The latter case has helped to clarify the law in England and Wales on torts in respect of movable property transferred across international borders and the justiciability of claims brought by sovereign states (Iran v Barakat [2009] QB 22 (CA)).

Memberships

• Member, INSOL International
• Member, Institute of Art & Law
• Member, JUSTICE
• Member, London Court of International Arbitration
• Fellow, Royal Society of Arts
• Diploma di Medaglia d’Argento ai Benemeriti della Scuola della Cultura e dell’Arte, Rome, 1994, awarded by Italian Minister of Culture
• Cavaliere of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
• Honorary Citizenship of the City of Benevento
• Member, British-Italian Law Association
• Member, International Bar Association
• Member, Professional Advisers to the International Art Market

Education

• English Language and Literature, University College, Oxford (MA) (1972)
• College of Law