Katherine Wakeham

Corporate Disputes

• Acting for a co-founder and substantial minority shareholder in a software company in cross-border unfair prejudice claims against the directors following a sale of underlying business to a related party.
• Acted for a leading IFA aggregator in several related claims and other dispute resolution processes brought by and against the sellers of a business following a bolt-on acquisition.
• Acting for a UK property developer in a multimillion-pound dispute arising from the expulsion of a member from a limited liability partnership established to develop a £75 million UK residential development site.
• Acted in LCIA arbitration proceedings against a venture capital investor arising from a fund-raising round.
• Advising on both the buy and sell-side of warranty and indemnity claims arising following corporate acquisitions.

Commercial Disputes

• Acting for a food products manufacturer in breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation claims in the Commercial Court and on appeal. Our team was shortlisted for Commercial/Corporate Litigation Team of the Year at the Legal Week Commercial Litigation and Arbitration Awards for its work on this case.
• Advising for a Middle Eastern public body on the successful, early strike out of a circa £50 million claim involving parallel proceedings in the UK and New York courts, arising out of a consulting agreement with a US-based firm.
• Advising an importation and distribution company in London High Court proceedings relating to repayment of finance, leading to a favourable settlement.
• Advising employers on a range of restrictive covenant breach cases arising out of employee team and individual moves, including involving misuse of confidential information.
• Acting for a number of high-net-worth individuals in a Commercial Court professional negligence dispute arising from a £30 million company sale.
• Advising a marketing agency in litigation and arbitration proceedings in connection with disputes over digital advertising space.
• Advising consumer-facing companies in respect of litigation alleging non-compliance with the GDPR.

Contentious Financial Services and Investigations

• Assisting an FCA regulated business in dealing with over 300 claims arising out of the failure of one of its authorised representatives and the collapse of a well-known mini-bond issuer. This included designing and using innovative case management systems to cost-effectively handle the volume of cases.
• Defending a business owner in High Court proceedings brought by the FCA alleging that the individual was knowingly concerned in the operation of unauthorised Collective Investment Schemes.
• Advising a provider of co-working facilities on claims exposure and the defence of mis-selling claims arising out of a series of financial promotions, and potential actions for negligent advice relating to the same events.
• Advising regulated firms on their regulatory disclosure obligations in connection with disputes.
• Working on large-scale bank investigations to review potential breaches of AML and compliance regulations. Each of the investigations was conducted in the bank’s jurisdiction and included a number of banks in the Middle East, as well as banks in Europe (including Malta) and the UK. The investigations involved targeted reviews of the bank’s documents and systems in order to prepare reports for and liaise with the relevant authorities.

Other Experience

• Undertook secondments to a multinational events business, and boutique financial institution, advising on contentious, commercial and regulatory matters.