Christopher Ahearne

Christopher is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution department. He specialises in civil fraud and asset tracing work. He regularly obtains and defends against a variety of High Court injunctions, including asset freezing orders and third party disclosure orders.

Christopher also has extensive experience in insolvency litigation, acting both for and against administrators and liquidators.

His general commercial disputes practice includes claims relating to breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, minority shareholder disputes and director disqualification claims.

Key Experience

• Acting for the defendant, against whom a US$3.5 billion claim has been brought alleging breach of fiduciary duty and conspiracy relating to the assets of a BVI company in liquidation.
• Acting for large Greek bank in EUR40 million NPL claim.
• Acting for large Kazakh bank in liquidation on USD50 million fraud claim across 3 jurisdictions.
• Acting for Kazakh financial institution in US$40 million embezzlement / fraud matter across 3 jurisdictions.
• Acting for a group of directors in relation to a claim brought by a liquidator for recovery of substantial sums arising from alleged misfeasance/breach of fiduciary duty on the part of the directors. The claim included an application for security for costs (CPR r25.13(2)(c)), which was issued as a result of concerns that the insurers could avoid the ATE policy for non-disclosure or misrepresentation.
• Acting for the Defendants in a claim for breach of duty, fraudulent misrepresentation, unlawful misrepresentations and breach of trust. This included successfully defending an application for a freezing injunction.
• Acting for various Defendants in claims brought by liquidators in relation to Employment Benefit Trust Schemes.
• Acting for the successful petitioner in a Section 994 Petition involving allegations where a company acquired assets where the directors were in a position of conflict and knowingly assisted in the wrongful diversion of assets of the company.
• Acting for numerous directors in proceedings brought by the Secretary of State under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.
• Advising and acting for petitioners and debtors in relation to bankruptcy proceedings, including applications to set aside statutory demands.
• Experience in obtaining or opposing asset freezing orders.
• Experience in obtaining third party disclosure orders from Banks and internet providers.
• Experience enforcing foreign judgments in England and Wales and recovering against Defendants ' assets in this jurisdiction.

Career History

Partner, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Managing Associate, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Trainee solicitor, Gepp & Sons
Associate/Senior Associate, Francis Wilks & Jones
Oxford Brookes University, Law LLB