3 Verulam Buildings is praised as ‘a go-to set for commercial litigation and civil fraud work’, and other areas of expertise for the members of the set include banking and finance, insolvency and restructuring, and insurance-related disputes. Freezing and disclosure orders, as well as injunctive relief mandates, are also areas of activity for the set. Among its strong roster of silks, Hodge Malek KC is a key name; called to the Bar in the BVI, he has also represented clients before courts in the Isle of Man and Gibraltar. David Quest KC is particularly skilled in handling contentious offshore mandates with financial elements, while Hefin Rees KC frequently appears before the BVI and Cayman Islands Privy Council and Courts of Appeal, as well as the Grand Court in Cayman. Matthew Hardwick KC represented a number of defendants in Joint Stock Company ’BTA Bank’ v 54 defendants, defeating allegations of fraud made by the Kazakh bank against, among others, members of its former leadership. Turning to the juniors, Philip Hinks is strong in commercial, civil fraud, financial services, and insolvency-related disputes. James Potts is reputable for his expertise in large fraud cases, and of recent note, he acted for the claimant in Morina v McAleavey, a dispute over the ownership of shares that requires expert evidence on the history of the BVI.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Mentions
Business and regulatory crime (including global investigations)
Leading SilksFinancial services and fintech regulation
Leading SilksBanking and finance (including consumer credit)
Leading SilksCrypto and blockchain assets
Leading SilksCommercial litigation
Leading SilksFraud: civil
Leading SilksSanctions
Leading SilksCommercial
Leading SilksThe English Bar: Commercial
Leading silksProfile
Position
Barrister with an impressive academic and practical background with a successful and heavyweight commercial practice which includes commercial dispute resolution; banking and financial services; fraud and corruption; professional disciplinary, energy, insurance/reinsurance and procurement. He is particularly known for cases with an international element. Hodge travels widely on cases, including Europe, Caribbean, the Far East and the Middle East.
He is the general editor of the leading book on the law of evidence, Phipson on Evidence (19th ed. 2018) and the joint author of Disclosure (5th ed. 2017, with Paul Matthews), both of which are often cited in judgments in common law jurisdictions. He is also a contributor to Mithani, Directors Disqualification (Human Rights chapters with James Potts) and various volumes of Atkins Court Forms (Human Rights, Disclosure and Information Requests, Financial Services, and Administrative Court). He was a member of the Commercial Court working party chaired by Lord Justice Cresswell on Electronic Disclosure.
Hodge is Chairman of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. He sits as a Recorder in both civil and criminal cases. He regularly sits as chairman of disciplinary panels of the Bar. He is a member of the Inn’s Conduct Committee and a Bencher of Gray’s Inn.
Memberships
Bar Sports Group, ALBA, COMBAR, PEBA, Franco-British Lawyer Society.
Education
Undergraduate and postgraduate law degrees from Oxford University.
Bedford School Keble College, Oxford – BA (Jurisprudence) 1981; BCL 1982 Sorbonne, University of Paris 1978.
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Shout out to Lucy Burrows, James Kelly, Jack Wheeler, Ed Tolfts and Florence Sharpe.'
- '3VB is a top-tier set of chambers with an outstanding reputation.'
- 'A very reputable set with talent that is both wide and deep.'
- '3VB are excellent. They are a go-to set for commercial litigation and civil fraud work.'
- '3VB have now firmly established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in terms of offshore fraud and asset tracing matters. You see them popping up on all sorts of matters in this space and they have become a set to go to when you don't know what you want, but you know they will have someone. '