Andrew Smith

Areas of experience

• Corporate and company law disputes, including shareholder disputes, transactional disputes, warranty claims and joint venture disputes.
• Electricity and gas disputes.
• Contractual disputes and product liability claims.
• Enforcement of restrictive covenants.
• High Court injunctions, including worldwide freezing orders.
• Claimant professional negligence actions against accountants, solicitors, valuers.

Key experience

• Acting for a private equity firm on a highly involved and complex GBP100 million shareholder dispute involving claims of unfair prejudice, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud.
• Acting for a big six energy supplier, dealing with contractual and commercial disputes including a substantial claim in relation to a disputed contract which involved an analysis of electricity pricing models, and advice in relation to sensitive outstanding contracts.
• Acting for a UK accountancy firm in bringing a claim against an employee who had defrauded substantial sums from clients over a period of years. This included obtaining a worldwide freezing order, followed by judgment and subsequent enforcement proceedings.
• Representing a venture capital firm on various multi-million pound post-M&A claims for breach of warranty, covenant, earn-out disputes, misrepresentation and fraud.
• Acting for a US-based shareholder in parallel court and arbitration proceedings in the UK and US.
• Advising a global plastics manufacturing business in relation to the defence of a multi-million pound product liability claim.
• Representing an international chemical manufacturer in relation to a high value dispute arising from the misuse of their confidential formulae by competitors.
• Acting on a number of applications for urgent High Court injunctive relief, ranging from global freezing orders to enforcement of restrictive covenants.