Commercial

Introduction

Lisa Linklater KC is a leading silk.  She is an expert commercial barrister with an established reputation nationally for her expertise, advocacy, advice and strategic excellence in the following fields of practice:

• Company, LLP and Partnership disputes, particularly shareholder disputes
• Insolvency and Restructuring
• Commercial Fraud
• Property and Trusts

(Please see Lisa’s bespoke CVs opposite for each of the above practice areas.)

• Commercial litigation and
• Commercial Contract litigation and advice.

As a silk, Lisa has rapidly established a heavyweight litigation and advisory practice, acting for high profile clients nationally and internationally, being sought after as a result of her reputation and the results she has achieved in her cases.  Lisa’s practice is often high value, high profile and/or with complex legal, factual or valuation issues and/or cross border issues. The breadth and depth of Lisa’s experience and expertise in related areas of law is of value to clients in the context of commercial dispute resolution, enabling her to bring a commercial and holistic approach to cases and to secure a successful resolution as efficiently as possible.

Lisa is recommended as a Band 1 silk by both Chambers and Partners UK Bar 2024 and Legal 500 UK Bar 2024, which recognise the strength of Lisa’s skills in Commercial Dispute Resolution, Chancery  and Insolvency and Restructuring. Recent clients also note the high quality of Lisa’s service and client care.  For example, a client Lisa successfully represented in a shareholder dispute that concluded in 2023 stated “Lisa provided a great service and her insight into the case was very helpful. Her communication was always prompt.”

Lisa brings over 25 years of experience in advising and representing a diverse range of companies (SMEs and plcs), Government departments, local authorities and other public sector bodies, banks and other lenders, LLPs, partnerships, individuals (often high net worth), insolvency practitioners and Law of Property Act receivers. She is highly experienced in dispute resolution in both the private and public sectors, including in the technology, energy, financial, property, retail, healthcare, education and manufacturing sectors.

Lisa works closely with clients and instructing solicitors to tailor strategy to clients’ objectives and to succinctly and clearly advocate on behalf of clients. Lisa’s advice in this technical area is practical, creative, commercial and accessible. She is adept in effectively leading teams of different sizes, often including specialists in complementary fields of practice or specialist in the law and civil procedure of offshore or overseas jurisdictions, for the benefit of clients.

Lisa has expertise and an excellent practice and reputation in commercial litigation of all types, particularly commercial disputes involving shareholders, directors, partners, joint ventures or companies in insolvency.

She is also very highly regarded and sought after in high value contractual claims of all types where a breach of contract has taken place (including share and business sale agreements, shareholder agreements, LLP agreements, joint venture agreements, contracts involving the public sector, finance agreements and the supply of goods and services contracts), including the arbitration of such disputes or their resolution by expert determination.

Lisa is valued for her excellent oral and written advocacy, tenacity in long-running cases, as well as holding her nerve and exercising sound judgment in high-pressure situations.  Lisa is also prized for prompt action, thorough preparation, communication, teamwork and effective case-strategy.

Lisa’s experience and expertise as lead trial Counsel in the Business and Property Courts of the High Court of Justice and in the Court of Appeal underpins the strength of her oral and written advocacy and strategic excellence at all stages of commercial disputes. While a substantial part of Lisa’s work is in the Business and Property Courts of the High Court of Justice in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle, Lisa is also regularly instructed in cases in London, Birmingham and Bristol and she takes cases from across England and Wales.  Lisa is regularly instructed in cases in the Commercial Court and Circuit Commercial Court, the Insolvency and Companies Court, the Business List and the Property, Trusts and Probate List.

Recent Highlights

Highlights of Lisa’s commercial litigation and commercial contract practice since taking silk include:

Commercial Litigation

• Acting in alleged claim by company administrators of £12 million for alleged knowing assistance and knowing receipt of breach of trust and alleged breaches of directors’ duties. Lisa is collaborating with Jersey lawyers in respect of a freezing order obtained in the Royal Court of Jersey (2023 – ).
• Successfully securing the dismissal of an application for an interim injunction to prevent a finance house from enforcing its security in respect of a substantial property development, involving a debt of over £1 million (2023).
• Successfully securing the discontinuance of a claim in restitution against a director in respect of tax liabilities relating to an employee benefit trust, shortly before the trial of the claim (2023).
• Advising and acting for shareholders and lenders in respect of proposed interim injunction for breach of a shareholders’ agreement in dispute involving a substantial property development in the North West with an interface with a planning appeal (2023).
• Successfully deflected threatened removal as a director of a company of client who was accused of tax evasion, securing important strategic success in bitter dispute between family members of a business in the leisure sector. Lisa acted in parallel with other silks in different fields of specialism (2022).

Commercial Contract

• Acting on behalf of and advising a supplier to a high profile company in administration in respect of termination of the contract and the provisions of section 233B Insolvency Act 1986 (2023 – ).
• Acting for a retiring member of a LLP in respect of the arbitration of disputes relating to the LLP (2024).
• Acting for and advising a minority shareholder in respect of Good Leaver/Bad Leaver provisions in a shareholders’ agreement and related share forfeiture clauses (2024).
• Acting on behalf of a bank in respect of a substantial claim under a guarantee (2024).
• Acting in respect of claim for earn-out of up to £11 million under a share purchase agreement in the technology sector (2023 – ).
• Advising in respect of a public contract relating to a very substantial joint venture property development in the North West, involving issues relating to public procurement law (2023).
• Advising shareholder in substantial retail business in Yorkshire on exit strategy involving points of construction and application of shareholders’ agreement, in particular how “fair value” was defined (2023).
• Acting in claim for specific performance of shareholders’ agreement, requiring shares to be transferred for nil consideration, including responding to claim that the shareholders’ agreement is forged (2022 – 2023).
• Advising in respect of the construction of a contract relating to the supply of test kits for coronavirus (2022).

Examples of Lisa’s significant experience in this field before taking silk are in the commercial cases list below.  Please see the bespoke CVs opposite for details of Lisa’s practice, expertise and experience in company (particularly shareholder disputes), insolvency, commercial fraud and property and trusts.

Further Information

Lisa is a member of the editorial advisory board of the Company Lawyer, a specialist journal, published by Sweet and Maxwell. She is widely published in company and insolvency law including in R3’s Recovery and Sweet & Maxwell’s Insolvency Intelligence. Recent seminars presented by Lisa to leading insolvency practitioners, accountancy firms and regional, national and international law firms include shareholder disputes, legal professional privilege and directors’ duties. In 2023, Lisa was chair of a prestigious panel of international experts at the 40th Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime.

She is Vice-chair of the Northern Business and Property Bar Association.