Noted for its ‘cohesive approach between clerks and barristers’, 4 Stone Buildings offers comprehensive support in contentious insolvency, with the ability to draw on its broader company law expertise when necessary. The chambers is also well-versed in advising the government on insolvency matters, with numerous juniors sitting on Attorney General’s panels. Leading another silk, Jonathan Crow KC acts for in a case going to the Supreme Court concerning the disposition of a hotel portfolio from a company in liquidation: Mitchell v Sheikh Mohamed bin Issa al Jaber. Christopher Harrison stood as sole counsel in Re Fraher, which concerned the ownership of a cross-border investment with Allied Irish Banks following the Irish banking crisis. Donald Lilly KC took silk in March 2025.
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Profile
Position
Chancery Commercial, including Company Law and personal and corporate Insolvency, with a particular emphasis on disputes involving offshore and civil fraud aspects. Recent reported cases include: Magomedov v TPG Group [2025] EWHC 59 (Comm), Wang v Tianjin Lantian Gerui [2024 EWHC 2059 (Ch), Sian Participation v Domidias [2024] EWHC 458 (Comm), Gill v Thind [2023] EWCA Civ 1276, SFO v Harbour Fund II LLP [2022] EWHC 3053 and Faulkner v Vollin Holdings Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 1371.
Career
Called 2006; Middle Temple. Called to the BVI Bar in 2013 and the Gibraltar Bar (on a case specified basis) in 2019. Publications of note: contributor to Oxford Journal of Trusts & Trustees; Tolley’s Company Law Service; and Butterworth’s Journal of International Bank and Financial Law.
Publications:
“Investigations by BIS”, Tolley’s Company Law Service
“It’s a real privilege: common interests in trust disputes”. Trusts and Trustees, T. & T. 2013, 19(1), 68-78.
“A Tale of Two Insolvencies”, Butterworth’s Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, (2012) 6 JIBFL 348.
Featured in The Lawyer, “Judgment Call”, 21 May 2012.
Memberships
Chancery Bar Association and COMBAR.
Called to the Bar of the British Virgin Islands (2013)
Called (on a case specific basis) to the Bar of Gibraltar (2019).
Education
Wadham College, Oxford (MA, BCL), Scholar.
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- ‘Donald is an excellent insolvency lawyer. He has top rate legal ability and judgement. He is also very hard-working, and is always a pleasure to work with.’