The members at Serle Court have wide ranging expertise across chancery commercial litigation; this offering includes representation in international fraud, asset tracing, insolvency, company and shareholder, professional negligence, and financial services disputes. Among the silks at the set, Elizabeth Jones KC boasts a thriving commercial and private client practice, while Philip Marshall KC has substantial experience appearing before the courts of the BVI and Bermuda in civil fraud proceedings and cases surrounding the freezing and disclosure of assets. He is acting for the claimant liquidators of an international construction company in a claim for $1bn concerning fraudulent trading and conspiracy to defraud (Joannou Paraskavides Overseas Limited v Joannou). John Machell KC frequently handles offshore company and partnership disputes, and Jonathan Adkin KC is a highly sought after silk for large minority shareholder disputes, as well as share appraisal actions, in the BVI, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands. Ruth Jordan and Emma Hargreaves are both notable juniors; Jordan has expertise in challenging large development and infrastructure projects, while Hargreaves is acting for the claimant in Wong v Grand View Private Trust Company Ltd, who is seeking to recover company shares worth $22bn. Adil Mohamedbhai is representing various dissenting shareholders in a case involving compulsorily acquired shares after the merger of numerous companies that form part of the Hong Kong-headquartered Jardine Matheson conglomerate.
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Profile
Position
Adil has a broad commercial chancery practice. He has particular expertise in high-value, multi-jurisdictional commercial, civil fraud, offshore and trust disputes. He is recognised by the main directories (Legal 500, Chambers UK Bar, Chambers Global, Who’s Who Legal and Private Client Global Elite) as a leading junior in civil fraud, commercial, commercial chancery, offshore, trust and private client work. He has been described as “very strategic, commercially minded and pragmatic." "Adil is phenomenally smart and extremely astute on very complex court matters. He is excellent at cutting to the heart of issues and superb on black-letter law". Adil has also been recognised as "easy to work with and very responsive, he's commercially minded and very strategic and pragmatic in his approach. Great with clients, he uses commercial language with them rather than legal jargon. He's very good on his feet, very persuasive, and a barrister who fights really hard for his client." Adil was selected by Legal 500 as one of the top ten commercial barristers under eight years' call in both 2016 and 2017 and has since been ranked by Who's Who Legal as one of the three most highly regarded juniors at the English Bar for civil fraud work.
Adil acts both as sole counsel and junior counsel as part of a team of barristers. In addition to regular appearances in both the Chancery Division and the Commercial Court, Adil has appeared in the Court of Appeal, the UK Supreme Court and the Privy Council. He also has substantial experience appearing in, or assisting with, arbitrations and cases in other jurisdictions, including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, the Bahamas, Singapore, the DIFC, Mauritius and Malta. He has developed a particular expertise in private international law issues. He is also one of the few juniors at the English Bar with experience in shareholder appraisal actions in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.
In 2021, he was the lead junior for the defendant Trustees in Wong v Grand View PTC & others, believed to be one of the largest ever civil claims brought in a common law court. The trial lasted six months.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Adil qualified as a solicitor at Freshfields, where he was involved in a broad range of transactional and contentious work (including public and private M&A deals, IPOs, share buybacks, rights issues and corporate restructurings). He is therefore very familiar with "City" work.
During 2009 - 2010, Adil was appointed as one of the first judicial assistants to the Justices of the UK Supreme Court, where he worked for Lords Rodger and Brown.
Career
Called 2010; Lincoln’s Inn; former solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (2005 – 2009; 2010 – 2011); UK Supreme Court judicial assistant to Lords Rodger and Brown (2009 – 2010).
Languages
French, Creole, Gujrati, Hindi, Urdu
Memberships
COMBAR; Chancery Bar Association; Association of Partnership Practitioners.
Education
Girton College, Cambridge (MA Law, first class; LLM, first class); Oxford Institute of Legal Practice (LPC, distinction).
Content supplied by Serle Court
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Nicholas Hockney, Daniel Wheeler and Arron Snipe are excellent and extremely responsive, offering a 24/7 service.'
- 'Clerks are always quick and easy to deal with, particularly Daniel Wheeler, Colin Bunyan and Georgina Affor.'
- 'They understand commercial imperatives for the matters and never have any issue with them.'
- 'Nicholas Hockney is outstanding.'
- 'Serle Court is a superb set. They have a range of commercial and chancery expertise which is absolutely top tier. The barristers there are uniformly excellent.'