Ms Nicola Timmins > Chambers of George Bompas KC > London, England > Barrister Profile

Ms Nicola Timmins

Work Department

Practices in the commercial chancery field, focusing on commercial litigation, banking, oil and gas/natural resources, company and insolvency. 

Position

Nicola specialises in commercial chancery and commercial litigation. Many of her cases involve working as part of a large team in complex high-value litigation, particularly in matters concerning elaborate financial products or natural resources. Nicola also has a busy commercial, insolvency, company and trust dispute practice of her own. In addition to regularly appearing in the High Court in London, Nicola is regularly instructed in disputes in offshore jurisdictions, with recent significant experience in the BVI, the Cayman Islands, and Bermuda.

Nicola is particularly appreciated by clients for her high degree of numerical, economic and scientific literacy and consequently is often deployed to work closely with expert witnesses to assist with turning highly technical reports into easy to understand reports suitable for trial. Her prior experience as a litigation solicitor also places her in the unique position of fully appreciating the pressures on those instructing her, which makes her an excellent team player and a “go to” barrister for her professional clients.

Major cases include:

• RZB v RBS (misrepresentation in relation to a loan to Enron);
• Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG v JP Morgan (breach of contract of a tri-partite repo agreement following the collapse of Lehman Brothers);
• McGraw-Hill International (UK) Limited v Deutsche Apotheker und ArzteBank and RBS and Portigon AG v RBS (misrepresentation in relation to the rating of CPDO notes by S&P and Moody’s);
• Desmond & Ors v Credit Suisse International & GLG Partners LP (misselling of complex derivative products);
• Excalibur Ventures LLC v Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited (right to oil concessions in Iraqi Kurdistan);
• Tullow Uganda Limited v Heritage Oil & Gas Limited and Heritage Oil plc (tax liability for oil transaction);
• series of four connected arbitrations arising out of breach of a loan agreement for development of a copper mine.
• MF Global UK Limited v MF Global UK Services Limited (attributing liability between group companies for the deficit in a pension scheme arising upon insolvency);
• In the matter of Laep Investments Ltd (winding up proceedings in Bermuda);
• In the matter of George’s Bay Limited (provisional liquidation in Bermuda);
• St Johns Trust Company (PVT) Limited v Medlands (PTC) Limited (Bermuda trust dispute).

Career

Second Lieutenant, Royal Artillery (Short Service Limited Commission): 1998-1999

Researcher, The Hague Conference on Private International Law: 2004-2005

Trainee and Associate Solicitor in the dispute resolution department, Baker & McKenzie LLP: 2005-2008

Judicial Assistant to the Court of Appeal: 2007

Qualified as a solicitor: 2007

Year of Call: 2008

Called to the BVI Bar: 2022

Languages

French

Memberships

COMBAR; Chancery Bar Association.

Education

Harrogate Grammar School; Emmanuel College, Cambridge (BA 2002; LLM 2003; MA, 2005).

Leisure

Running, cycling, ballet/contemporary dance.