Adam is a Partner and member of the Finance and Banking Department. He focuses primarily on disputes and dispute prevention, part of which involves him leading the Firm's highly regarded practice defending clients against the FSA. 

A major part of his practice is concerned with regulatory proceedings. Over the years, he has worked on some of the biggest enforcement cases to emerge. These range from the enforcement proceedings brought in relation to Barings in the 1990's to recently defending one of the biggest market abuse cases brought by the FSA in recent years. He knows the FSA prosecution well and has practical hands on experience in front of the decision makers. His work often takes place in the pre investigation and pre enforcement stages, helping clients protect themselves against FSA action or, if it commences, helping them to convince the FSA to drop the cases or to settle. He represents both individuals and institutions.

The other major plank to his practice is acting in Court or arbitral proceedings. His experience encompasses acting in disputes involving substantial sums of money across arenas as diverse as funds, finance, private banking, spread betting, foreign exchange, structured products, pensions, insurance and capital markets. He combines almost 20 years experience of litigating with an in-depth knowledge of the industry and the relevant rules.

Most recently, he has acted in numerous "credit crunch" cases, many of them with an insolvency focus.

Key Experience

In summer 2009, in support of an SEC action, the FSA sought to obtain documents relating to our client from its UK accountants. We applied to the Court to challenge the FSA’s right to do so. Whilst there are several hundred cases a year in which the FSA acts to assist an overseas regulator, ours was the first ever challenge in Court to its right to do so. The case was ultimately decided by the Court of Appeal.

Our client had claims against a foreign exchange company for improperly dealing with his money. The company's insolvency meant the client would rank equally with other creditors. We framed a case personally against one of the directors in fraudulent misrepresentation. We first successfully obtained an injunction to freeze the director's assets. Then, in a contested trial, demonstrated that the director had misled our client and that he should be personally liable to him.

Acted for investor Michael Walker in the first ever Judgment against a product provider for providing advice where it was not permitted to do so. The High Court awarded a substantial sum of damages in Mr Walker's favour.

Appointed by the Court to be a representative respondent in the first case (Global Trader to come before the Courts on the complex articulation of the FSA rules and the insolvency rules. The case was a substantial piece of work and Judgment was given in March 2009.

Acted successfully in numerous disciplinary cases against the FSA, both for individuals and institutions.  The details of these cases and the names of clients are confidential.

Career History