Anna is a Legal Director in the Fraud Group and specialises in defending or pursuing complex domestic and multi-jurisdictional commercial disputes which centre around serious allegations of civil fraud or misconduct, asset tracing & recovery (including luxury assets) and injunctive relief.
Her practice centres on commercial disputes for a variety of clients including UHNW & HNWI's, high profile individuals, family or owner-managed businesses and entrepreneurs.
Anna has experience of director/shareholder claims and business and partnership disputes across a range of sectors and which often contain allegations of breach of fiduciary duties, claims of deceit, breach of confidence, conspiracy, fraud by misrepresentation, wrongful and fraudulent trading, asset tracing, bribery and secret profits. Anna has experience in obtaining and defending worldwide asset freezing injunctions, delivery-up orders and search orders. She works on complex, high value fraud cases and investigations with a view to tracing assets, often through trust entities and involving multi-jurisdictional elements, working with lawyers in multiple jurisdictions and often with large scale document review.
Many of Anna's cases involve working in circumstances where the Defendant/Respondent is also under investigation by criminal, tax or regulatory authorities in the UK or overseas.
She is a member of the Fraud Lawyers Association, Fraud Women's Network, Female Fraud Forum and London Solicitor Litigators Association.
Key Experience
- Acting for UHNW in relation to a multi-jurisdictional, multi-billion dollar civil fraud claim involving allegations of unlawful means conspiracy, misrepresentations and forged documents.
- Acted for a UK director and successfully defended an injunction brought in support of a company dispute brought by his co-director including breach of fiduciary duties and misappropriation of assets in the region of £14.5m. Advised in relation to subsequent civil proceedings and a parallel unfair prejudice petition. The claim involved multiple jurisdictions and complex offshore structures in Jersey, Isle of Man and the BVI.
- Acted for the main individual defendant in one of the most aggressively pursued and largest claims brought before the Commercial Court (quantum – US$2.1bn), which was listed for a 13 week trial in April 2017 (number 6 in The Lawyer's Top 20 Cases 2017). The case involved complex developing legal issues, including the use of confidentiality clubs in order to protect the physical security of people based in Libya. The action, which included allegations of bribery and intimidation, was discontinued with an agreed payment of £16.5m in respect of our client's costs.
- Acted for a HNW claimant to obtain a freezing order
- Acted for an individual against his former tax advisers, including an application for an account, breach of fiduciary duties, breach of FSMA 2000, and asset tracing.
- Acted for an individual against his former employer and successfully defended against a freezing order in a civil High Court fraud claim for breach of employment contract and wrongful trading. Acted alongside parallel criminal proceedings.
- Acted for an individual Defendant against a freezing and delivery up order, including a civil High Court claim for breach of fiduciary duty.
- Acted for a company who was the victim of a vishing fraud including liaising with the Financial Ombudsman.
- Assisted with the defence of an individual against claims for breach of fiduciary duties, fraudulent misappropriation, an equitable account and forgery.
- Acting for a defendant in a UK based ancillary claim to US proceedings for the civil forfeiture of assets involving international money laundering with the traceable proceeds of misappropriated funds and an international freezing injunction.
Career History
Legal Director, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Managing Associate, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Associate, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Solicitor, Mishcon de Reya
Trainee, Mishcon de Reya
Legal Practice Course and Graduate Diploma in Law, BPP Law School
MA Joint Honours in English and Art History, University of St Andrews