Roger Laville > Chambers of Rachel Sleeman > London, England > Barrister Profile

Roger Laville

02078153200 rogerlaville@fivepaper.com

Position

Roger specialises in finance, insolvency, company law disputes and civil fraud, and a member of the Commercial Division and our specialist practice groups (Insolvency & Company; Banking Finance (which he is head of group) and Civil Fraud).

His finance and insolvency practice encompasses working for all of the major banks, as well as specialist lenders, and insolvency practitioners from leading firms. He is therefore fully familiar with the commercial and reputational factors which corporate clients must take into account, the regulatory framework within which financial services firms operate and the financial imperatives which apply to insolvencies.

Fraud, dishonesty and breach of duty by directors are a regular feature of the cases Roger works on, sometimes necessitating injunctive relief, and many involve cross-border inter-jurisdictional issues.

Examples of recent matters in which Roger has acted include:

acting for the successful claimant in India Infrastructure Finance Company v Surana Power Limited and others and Indian Infrastructure Finance Company v Abhijeet MACD Nagpur Energy Private Limited and others, both multi-million dollar claims to enforce corporate and personal guarantees given in respect of Indian coal fired power station projects and involving the effect in England of Indian liquidation proceedings;
advising an international lender about attempts to enforce a Malaysian arbitration award by attaching it to payments due from the lender to its government under a guarantee scheme;
obtaining a High Court injunction to freeze a sum of several hundred thousand pounds in a company’s bank account to prevent one of its directors from misappropriating the money;
a successful two-day multi-track trial of a claim involving allegations of fraud and forgery;
advising a private bank about the applicability of consumer credit legislation to a loan worth over a million pounds; and an application to determine the appropriate law and jurisdiction for a cross-border breach of trust claim. Before joining Five Paper, Roger was a finance litigation partner in a firm of solicitors, handling matters ranging from complex small disputes up to multi-million pound claims.

Roger sat on the Bar Council money-laundering working group in 2016 and 2017. Banking and Finance. Roger has for many years dealt with a wide variety of personal, business and corporate banking disputes. His insolvency and company law experience. Proceeds of Crime and Money Laundering.

Roger’s reported cases as a solicitor include:

• John Morris v Royal Bank of Scotland plc
• Obadare v Barton Bridging Capital Ltd
• Gatt v Barclays Bank Plc
• SerVaas Incorporated v Rafidain Bank.

Career

2015 (qualified as a solicitor 2002)

Memberships

Roger is a member of the Chancery Bar Association and the Commercial Bar Association.