Nico Leslie > Fountain Court Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Fountain Court Chambers Offices
FOUNTAIN COURT, TEMPLE
LONDON
EC4Y 9DH
England
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Nico Leslie
Position
Art & Cultural Property; Banking and Finance; Commercial Litigation; Fraud – Civil; International Arbitration; Offshore; Professional Negligence.
Specialises in commercial litigation with particular expertise in banking and finance, insurance and reinsurance, fraud/asset recovery, jurisdiction and conflict of laws, professional negligence, art law, international and domestic arbitration. Chambers & Partners ‘Banking & Finance Junior of the Year’ 2022.
Recent practice includes a number of high-profile commercial cases, including acting in the US$1 billion PIFSS litigation for a Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund, acting for the administrators of the NMC Group in multi-billion dollar litigation and arbitration across the world, and acting for the successful investors in the Czech Photovoltaic arbitrations in The Hague and Vienna. Has particular experience of litigation in offshore jurisdictions (Bermuda, BVI, Cayman and St Lucia) and in Hong Kong and Singapore, and has extensive experience of international arbitration under the rules of numerous arbitral institutions.
Career
Called 2010; Lincoln’s Inn.
Publications of note: co-author, ‘The Law of Assignment (3rd Edition)’ with Mr Justice Marcus Smith; co-author of chapter on ‘Choses in Action’ for Halsbury’s Laws of England; contributing editor of Gough on Company Charges (2nd edition, forthcoming); contributing editor, Restitution chapter, ‘Bullen, Leake and Jacob’s Precedents of Pleading’.
Languages
Fluent/Near Native French, Italian, Croatian/Serbian; Fluent Spanish.
Memberships
COMBAR.
Education
Eton College (King’s Scholarship); Christ’s College, Cambridge (2007 BA Modern Languages, Starred Double First); City Law School (2009 GDL, Commendation); City Law School (2010 BVC, Outstanding).
Leisure
Football, skiing, travel.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Commercial litigation
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 5Nico Leslie – Fountain Court Chambers ‘Nico is a brilliant lawyer who can express complex points simply. Solicitors enjoy working with him and trust his advice.’
London Bar > Insolvency
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 3Nico Leslie – Fountain Court Chambers ‘Nico is responsive and offers hands-on, practical advice that is useful from an instructing lawyer’s point of view.’
London Bar > Fraud: civil
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 3Nico Leslie –Fountain Court Chambers ‘Nico is very commercial and not shy when it comes to hard work. He is very good at providing strategic guidance to solicitors and underlying clients, and is great in a team setting with other barristers.’
London Bar > Banking and finance (including consumer credit)
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 2Nico Leslie – Fountain Court Chambers ‘Nico is super intelligent, pragmatic, calm, authoritative, user-friendly, commercial, practical and extremely hard-working. He is the complete package. He has no weaknesses.’
Being ‘packed full of some brilliant and incredibly intelligent lawyers,’ Fountain Court Chambers has been at the forefront of some of the recent substantial banking and finance litigation, both domestically and internationally. The set specialises in managing disputes that have a significant impact on the financial sector, with one such example being cases related to the Quincecare duty when banks suspect fraud: these include Federal Republic of Nigeria v JP Morgan Chase NA which saw Rosalind Phelps KC, David Murray and Aaron Taylor instructed in a successful defence of a $1.5bn claim against the bank. Alongside this, Patricia Robertson KC and Christopher Langley were instructed to act for HSBC in defence of a claim in relation to an alleged breach of the Quincecare duty, brought by the liquidators of Allen Stanford’s Ponzi scheme (Stanford International Bank Ltd (in liquidation) v HSBC Plc). Richard Coleman KC has a diverse practice, including acting in a number of cases involving judicial review in the banking space, while Nico Leslie is a standout junior for his work on high-profile banking disputes.
London Bar > Professional negligence
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 4Nico Leslie –Fountain Court Chambers ‘Nico absorbs evidence quickly and provides advice in a concise and measured fashion.’
London Bar > Art and cultural property
(Rising stars)Ranked: Tier 1Nico Leslie – Fountain Court Chambers ‘Extremely bright but also very commercial. Clients absolutely love him and note his ability in hearings to run rings around much more senior opposition. He is a brilliant advocate.’
The English Bar Offshore > The English Bar Offshore
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 2Nico Leslie –Fountain Court Chambers ‘Highly intelligent and articulate with excellent instincts and produces very high quality written work quickly. A real pleasure to deal with and a consummate team player. Very responsive to the client. Overall, a class act.’