Mark Whelan

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Mark is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution department in the Commercial Litigation team. He specialises in substantial and complex disputes, often with a cross-border dimension.

Mark regularly acts for clients based in the UK, North America, Europe and the GCC states. He has extensive litigation experience and has conducted leading cases before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the High Court of Justice in London, the First-Tier Tribunal Tax Chamber, as well as international courts and arbitration panels.

Mark's sector experience includes finance and banking, international trade, environmental, aviation, tax and regulatory.

Key Experience

Acting for Mr bin Tarraf, a businessman resident in the UAE, in successfully setting aside a substantial Canadian judgment registered against Mr bin Tarraf in England and Wales. The court heard expert evidence on service in Dubai, and arguments on the statutory basis for registering foreign judgments and the right to a fair trial under Art. 6 ECHR (Siddik Mohammad v Mohammad Hilal Salim Bin Tarraf [2025] EWHC 776).
Acting in concurrent civil and regulatory criminal proceedings for a substantial UK landfill and waste management operator. The proceedings concern former directors' breaches of fiduciary duty and regulatory offences under the Environment Act 2021. Our client successfully obtained freezing orders over the assets of several defendants and associated companies. The freezing orders were the subject of an expedited appeal before the Court of Appeal. Our client was the successful party, with the appeal judgment setting a precedent on the principles for the granting and discharge of Freezing Orders (Mold Investments Ltd v Holloway & Ors [2025] EWCA Civ 986).
Acting for Marex Financial in bringing a substantial claim for damages for unlawful means conspiracy and knowingly inducing and procuring the wrongful violation of our client's legal rights. The defendant challenged the jurisdiction of the English courts with the case ultimately heard on appeal by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which unanimously ruled in favour of our client (Sevilleja v Marex Financial Ltd [2020] UKSC 31). The judgment was described in The Times as “one of the most important company and commercial law decisions of the last thirty years”, overturning the long standing approach to the 'reflective loss' rule (The Times).
Acting for Marex Financial defending a claim for damages for breach of delivery and title obligations under contracts for the sale of nickel, warehoused in Malaysia and the Republic of Korea (Natixis v Marex Financial & Ors [2019] EWHC 2549 (Comm)).
Acting for Medsted Associates Limited in a substantial claim arising from the trading of financial products and breach of an introducer agreement. Medsted succeeded on liability before the Commercial Court ([2017] EWHC 1815 (Comm)) and subsequently before the Court of Appeal ([2019] EWCA 83).
Instructed to defend proceedings brought by a BVI liquidator in the US Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York. This high-profile claim concerned Chapter 15 recognition of foreign proceedings. The Judge dismissed the liquidator’s claim and delivered a ruling significant for cross border insolvency rules (2016, Case No 14-10358(REG)).
Acting for KPMG, as the special administrators of MF Global UK Limited, in proceedings concerning a claim for commissions under an introducing broker agreement. The issue of liability was heard by the Commercial Court and on appeal by the Court of Appeal ([2012] EWCA 1662 (Civ)).
Acting for Blue Sphere Global Ltd in relation to the recovery of VAT input tax in the leading test case before the Court of Appeal on the application of the Kittel test from the European Court of Justice in domestic MTIC fraud cases (HMRC v Blue Sphere Global Limited [2010] EWCA Civ 517).