Sinead Harris > Withers LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Withers LLP Offices

Withers LLP
20 Old Bailey
LONDON
EC4M 7AN
England
Visit website +44 20 7597 6364 +44 20 7597 6543

Living Wage

Sinead Harris

Sinead Harris photo
020 7597 6269 [email protected] View profile

Work Department

Litigation and arbitration

Position

Sinead is a dual qualified and practising lawyer (England & Wales and British Virgin Islands). Sinead advises in a wide range of commercial disputes in litigation and arbitration, with a particular focus on disputes involving contentious insolvency, fraud, asset recovery and enforcement.

Sinead’s work includes shareholder and joint venture disputes, creditor claims and enforcement actions, asset tracing and recovery matters – frequently involving elements of dishonesty, fraud or breaches of fiduciary duties. She also advises a range of clients including companies, officeholders, creditors, and directors in relation to all aspects of contentious insolvency and non-contentious insolvency and restructuring. Working collaboratively with colleagues, Sinead draws on the firm’s expertise in a range of disciplines such as corporate law, wealth planning and employment law to develop creative strategies and solutions to resolve disputes.

She is particularly well-versed in the strategic use of tools such as freezing orders, receiverships and other officeholder appointments, disclosure orders and Norwich Pharmacal relief to maximise prospects of recovery. Sinead has also frequently acted for respondents to similar applications, successfully achieving discharges and setting aside interim orders.

Most of her cases include a cross-border element, with particular expertise in British Virgin Islands law and a broad familiarity with offshore practice. Sinead has worked for a range of both UK and overseas clients in international disputes before an array of arbitral tribunals and courts including the English High Court and Court of Appeal, the UK Supreme Court, the Commercial Court of the Virgin Islands, Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. She has also worked collaboratively with foreign lawyers on disputes before the Courts in a range of jurisdictions as diverse as the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Ireland, Russia and various offshore jurisdictions (such as the Channel Islands, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus and many others).

Prior to joining Withers in 2017, Sinead worked at an offshore firm in the British Virgin Islands. In that role, she worked on a number of high profile commercial disputes and contentious insolvency proceedings – most notably the ground-breaking Fairfield Fund liquidations in the BVI (and related Ch 15 proceedings in the US), recovering money for the benefit of victims of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.

Career

Partner

Memberships

Recovery and Insolvency Specialists Association (BVI) Limited

Lawyer Rankings

London > Dispute resolution > Commercial litigation: mid-market

A ‘fantastic firm with quality from top to bottom’, Withers LLP is ‘very well placed to deal with commercial disputes’. The sizeable practice represents family offices, HNW individuals and large corporate entities in multi-jurisdictional disputes, including asset recovery and enforcement matters, and contract, company and financial services disputes. The team is also highly experienced in disputes involving fraud, white-collar crime, professional negligence, insurance, and insolvency. It is additionally experienced in challenging decisions through judicial review claims. Company disputes specialist Peter Wood is global dispute resolution CEO and the ‘excellent’ Stephen Ross is civil fraud head. Roberto Moruzzi is an expert in domestic and international contractual disputes, mis-selling claims, fraud and asset tracing and Andrew Wass is also experienced in financial mis-selling work. The practice further showcases Eleni Polycarpou, who acts in commercial litigation claims alongside her commercial arbitration work, commercial disputes practitioner Sinead Harris, and financial services, banking and corporate litigation expert Henry Farris. Lesley Timms is experienced in contractual and shareholder disputes, and fraud and asset recovery matters. ‘Great strategist’ Tatiana Menshenina is a specialist in disputes involving Russia, Ukraine and the wider CIS region. Daniel Gore, Joshua Swift and Ruzin Dagli are also experienced litigators.

British Virgin Islands > Dispute resolution

At the helm of the disputes practice at Withers, Sara-Jane Knock ‘brings her substantial experience in commercial and trusts litigation to the table‘. She is the key senior contact at the BVI office and co-leads the department with London-based Sinead Harris, who is admired as ‘direct on the relevant legal matter‘. The team is counsel to HNWIs, trustees, corporates, insolvency practitioners, national governments and financial instructions. Lauren Peaty in Tortola is another ‘impressive‘ contact to note.

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