3 Verulam Buildings is well-versed in professional negligence cases spanning the financial, insurance and legal sectors. The set is also known for its expertise in tax-related negligence. Andrew Onslow KC is acting for the solicitors in Clifford Chance v Société Générale, a dispute involving allegations of negligence in Commercial Court litigation, with an issue involving if the firm’s relationship with the bank required the negligence case to be heard by the French or English courts. Hefin Rees KC leads on Goodman v DMS Governance Limited, a high value claim alleging professional negligence and fraud, which raises questions on how vicarious liability Supreme Court cases in England should be applied in the Cayman Islands – the matter is the latest round of the long-running imbroglio concerning The Axiom Fund, a supposed litigation funder, whose founder was sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment in England in 2022. Timothy Killen joined the team in October 2025.
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Andrew Onslow KC specialises in commercial litigation, banking and financial services, fraud, professional negligence and arbitration. He was leading Counsel for claimants in the multibillion pound claim against RBS, Fred Goodwin and others arising from RBS’s 2008 £12bn Rights Issue. He acted for the Defendants in ENRC v Gerrard & Dechert LLP (Judgment May 2022: [2022]EWHC 1138 (Comm)); in SKAT v Solo Capital Partners (acting for lead defendants in US$2bn claim by Danish tax authorities, alleging cum-ex dividend fraud); and in a claim for hundreds of millions of pounds against Clydesdale Bank and its parent company, National Australia Bank. He has also been involved in a number of FSMA s.90A claims; successful at trial and on appeal in Byers v Saudi National Bank (formerly Samba Financial Group), and in two appeals to the Court of Appeal (Libyan Investment Authority v King (acting for LIA) in claim for fraud in relation to Maple Cross hotel development, and Strategic Technology Pts Ltd v Procurement Bureau of the Republic of China (acting for the appellant Taiwan), now the leading case on enforcement of a foreign judgment under Administration of Justice Act 1920). He was Counsel for the SFO in civil/commercial aspects of R v Barclays (2008 capital raising), R v Hayes (LIBOR), R v Bittar (EURIBOR).
Andrew is also renowned for art disputes, appearing for the auction house in two of the leading cases this century (Thomson v Christie’s (trial and appeal 2004 and 2005); Thwaytes v Sotheby’s (trial 2014, judgment 2015).
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