Mourant Ozannes & South Square Litigation Forum

On Wednesday 27 September, our global litigation team, in conjunction with South Square, hosted the annual Litigation Forum in London to deliver an update on key developments in financial litigation and insolvency and restructuring.

The event was well attended by delegates drawn from UK and US law firms, in-house counsel and insolvency practitioners. Jeremy Wessels acted as co-chair alongside William Trower QC from South Square, with Peter Hayden, Abel Lyall and Simon Dickson delivering sessions throughout the conference. Guest speakers hailed from Stephenson Harwood, BDO, Ashurst, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, Enyo Law, Kalo and telecommunications company, Talk Talk.

The first panel provided a whistle stop case study of the Primeo Fund Liquidation, including the events that led to the discovery of what has been described as the largest Ponzi scheme in history and the resulting litigation.

This was followed by a session on directors' duties which explored the impact of cyber security, regulatory requirements and insolvency. The panel discussed the complexity in these situations of striking the balance between the duty towards both clients and customers and to the business and its shareholders, and which to prioritise.

The last panel of the day offered practical tips and lessons from their recent most complex and noteworthy cases, including the Libyan Investment Authorities' $1.2 billion claim against Goldman Sachs and $2.2 billion claim against Societe Generale SA, a high profile case in relation to the Credit Suisse building in Canary Wharf and the restructuring of an oil and gas drilling business listed on the NYSE.

The conference rounded off with an insightful and entertaining keynote address from The Times journalist and Radio 4 broadcaster, David Aaronovitch. He shared his thoughts on Britain 14 months on from the referendum, six months from triggering article 50 and three months after the election, combined with the first year of the 'Trump era'. His address provided the context of recent global and political affairs which have acted as the backdrop to the litigation discussed throughout the afternoon.

We would like to thank all those who attended for continuing to make this such a successful event and we look forward to seeing you again next year.