Commercial

Introduction and Expertise

Lisa Linklater KC is a leading silk with a very well-established reputation nationally in commercial litigation, a field in which she has specialised for over 30 years. Lisa is valued for her excellence in advocacy, expertise, leadership, strategy and advice, as well as her tenacity and resilience in high pressure situations.

Her commercial litigation practice has a particular focus on complex and high value litigation in the Business and Property Courts in the High Court and Court of Appeal and in alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration involving:

• Company law (particularly shareholder disputes), LLP and partnerships;
• Insolvency, restructuring and related banking and finance;
• Commercial fraud;
• Contractual disputes, particularly post merger and acquisition disputes and
• Related property and trusts issues, particularly involving security, co-owned property or fraud.

Lisa is particularly praised for her excellent and versatile advocacy in trials and substantial applications in the High Court and in the Court of Appeal. Chambers and Partners UK Bar 2026 notes “Her advocacy is top-notch and she is very persuasive” and “she is a clear and concise advocate”.

Legal 500 UK Bar 2026 states “Lisa is an accomplished silk. She gets to grips with complex cases with ease and pace. She is a pleasure to work with.” Chambers and Partners UK Bar 2026 further notes she is “very proactive, very knowledgeable” and “commercially aware”.

She is adept in cases involving expert evidence, particularly of a financial nature. She frequently acts in cases with an international dimension or which set a legal precedent.

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

Recommendations

Lisa has been recommended as a Band 1 silk for three consecutive years by both Chambers and Partners UK Bar Guide 2026 and Legal 500 UK Bar 2026 in three practice areas – Commercial Dispute Resolution, Insolvency and Restructuring and Chancery. Testimonials are in the recommendations section opposite. They recognise Lisa’s many skills and personal qualities that have cemented her reputation in heavyweight and high-profile cases in silk.

Recent legal directories note: “She’s absolutely great in helping steer a matter to a successful conclusion and she’s not afraid of taking the plunge when you have to be decisive,” “Lisa is technically excellent” and “a formidable opponent”.  Further, she is “pragmatic, intelligent, and always calm and considered”, as well as being “tenacious in battle”.

Experience, Skills and Personal Qualities

Lisa brings 30 years of experience in advising and representing diverse clients including companies (plcs, SMEs and household names), banks and other lenders, high net worth individuals (often in their capacity as shareholders, directors, members of LLPs, partners or co-owners of commercial and residential property), insolvency practitioners (as office holders or LPA receivers), central government (Secretary of State for Business and Trade and HM Revenue and Customs), local government, sports clubs, solicitor firms and trustees of substantial trust funds. She is instructed on behalf of clients by and against regional, national and international law firms.

Lisa has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors, including in the technology, energy, financial services, property, retail, healthcare, construction, insurance, hospitality, education, sports and manufacturing sectors.

Lisa is valued for her excellent leadership skills: “she is always challenging us on aspects of the case we might not have thought of. She really raises the game of everyone working with her.”

Lisa frequently works with lawyers who are specialist in other legal jurisdictions (recent examples include Jersey, Isle of Man, Scotland, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia) or other silks and junior Counsel.

Recent Experience and Highlights

Examples of Lisa’s commercial litigation practice in silk include:

Company law (particularly shareholder disputes), LLP and partnerships:

Shareholder Disputes

Lisa is highly experienced in and skilled in the panoply of claims in this field of practice, including unfair prejudice petitions under s994 Companies Act 2006, derivative actions, contractual claims and just and equitable winding up petitions. She has substantial experience of cases involving commercial fraud, complex group structures and shares held on discretionary trust and frequently acts in cases with an international dimension. She is currently instructed by groups of investors in shareholder disputes in respect of listed companies.

• Successfully defended unfair prejudice petition at trial of hard fought and longstanding dispute between two families. The dispute involved a confiscation order following proceedings by the Serious Fraud Office. Lisa was first retained as lead advocate for trial in the High Court (2024 – 2025).
• Successfully and swiftly securing the purchase of shares by majority Respondent shareholders when retained following a protracted dispute between shareholders. The dispute was factually and legally complex involving a related company that had received substantial inter-company loans. The company involved provides brand protection to many household names (2024 – 2025).

Partnership and LLP disputes

Lisa has a particular interest in LLP disputes involving the professional services sector.

• Acting for a retiring member of a very well known accountancy LLP in respect of the arbitration of protracted and fiercely contested disputes relating to the payment of goodwill under a deed of covenant and capital payment under an LLP agreement (2024 – ).

Corporate Disputes

• Retained as advocate for the hearing of a substantial application in a complex and long-running case involving a share sale agreement with complexities in relation to pre-emption conditions in the Company’s articles of association which were not followed. Successfully concluded by commercial settlement (2025).
• Acting for and advising a minority shareholder in respect of share forfeiture provisions flowing from Good Leaver/Bad Leaver clauses in a shareholders’ agreement. The shareholder agreement was part of a complex suite of corporate documentation, created following investment by private equity investors in the company. The company had developed and owns valuable software (2024 – ).

Insolvency, restructuring and related banking and finance

Insolvency and restructuring

Lisa’s practice in insolvency is predominantly contentious, involving issues of high value and/or complexity and/or high-profile companies or individuals, precedent issues, an international dimension (recent work has involved cross-border issues in the Cayman Islands, Jersey and the Isle of Man) and/or issues of reputational importance to the client.

Lisa also has depth of experience in claims involving breaches of directors’ duties in an insolvency context.

Her wider experience and expertise in other areas of practice, such as property and trusts, enables her to give clients holistic advice and representation.

• Currently acting for liquidator of companies within a group, including an FCA regulated company, in respect of issues relating to security, directors’ duties and a trust required by the FCA’s Client Assets Sourcebook (2025 – )
• Currently acting for administrators of companies in the energy sector in a highly complex and high value matter involving issues as to accounting within a very substantial group of companies with subsidiaries based both in England and overseas (2025 – ).
• Acting for and advising the administrator of a company owning substantial land, including a partially completed residential development, giving rise to complex legal and practical issues involving both insolvency and property law (2025 – ).
• Successfully securing the early and favourable settlement of substantial alleged claims against directors of companies in liquidation. The claims were brought by liquidators or assignees who had purchased claims from liquidators and alleged breach of the creditor duty, recognised by the Supreme Court in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana (2024).
• Advised and successfully acted for long established vehicle bodybuilder in a dispute with the joint administrators of a high profile insolvent company concerning a payment, described as a deposit, of £5m. The dispute centred on novel issues relating to the application of a provision, introduced by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (2023 – 2024).

Banking and Finance

• Acting on behalf of one of the world’s largest banking and financial organisations in respect of substantial claims under guarantees and indemnities of commercial lending in respect of company in administration and LLP in liquidation (2024 – ).
• Advising guarantors of and shareholders in a company carrying out a substantial residential property development in East Yorkshire on strategy in dispute with lender of a bridging loan of £4m for the development. The dispute involved the alleged sale of their shares in the company to a third party by the lender further to a charge over the shares (2024 – ).

Commercial fraud

Lisa’s recent experience in this field includes cases involving the Serious Fraud Office and related criminal proceedings, including orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Lisa gained considerable experience of heavyweight matters involving fraud from a very early stage in her career, having been appointed as Junior Counsel to the Crown on the prestigious Attorney General’s Regional Panel of Counsel (civil) for three consecutive terms (18 years) prior to taking silk.

• Acting in High Court claim involving allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation relating to a share sale agreement (2025 – ).
• Acting in the High Court in London for Defendant to very high profile, factually and legally complex alleged claim of £12m by company administrators. The claim is for alleged dishonest assistance and knowing receipt of breach of trust and alleged breaches of directors’ duties, relating to a share sale by the Defendant of his shares in the company. Lisa has collaborated closely with Jersey lawyers in respect of a freezing order obtained in the Royal Court of Jersey (2023 – ).

Contractual disputes, particularly post merger and acquisition disputes

Lisa is very experienced in a very wide range of contractual disputes, with particular expertise in shareholder agreements, as well as share and business sale disputes.

Post merger and acquisition disputes

• Acting for seller of shares in a company in the technology sector in hotly contested claim against purchaser for earn-out of up to £11m under a share purchase agreement, involving disputes as to the construction of the contract (2023 – ).

Contractual Disputes

• Advising local authority and private sector partner 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).

Substantial Interim Applications

Lisa frequently acts in a wide range of interim applications in a commercial litigation context, such as applications for emergency interim injunctive relief, challenges to jurisdiction or security for costs. For example, she recently acted in the London Circuit Commercial Court on an application as to whether After the Event Insurance was adequate security for costs in the context of a long-running dispute to recover unpaid commission of £2.35m due to the Claimant, as appointed representative for independent insurers.

Related property and trusts issues, particularly involving security, co-owned property or fraud

Lisa has practised in this area of practice for over 30 years. Lisa’s practice in this field often links with shareholder, partnership and joint venture disputes, corporate insolvencies, Law of Property Act receiverships, commercial fraud or banking and finance.

• Currently acting in respect of dispute relating to jointly owned commercial and residential property portfolio in London and the North West with a value of over £10m and related allegations of unfair prejudice under s994 Companies Act 2006 (2023 – ).

Further detail

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.

Experience before taking silk

Examples of Lisa’s significant experience in this field before taking silk are in the commercial cases list below.

Further Expertise

Lisa is very widely published in her areas of specialism, as set out in the publications section above.

She is regularly invited to chair or speak on topical legal developments in commercial litigation to regional, national and international law firms. In 2023 Lisa was chair of a prestigious panel of international experts at the 40th Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime and in 2024 she chaired at the Artificial Intelligence and Digital Security Conference in Manchester. She was a keynote speaker at “Reforming Corporate Insolvency Law for the 21st century” in 2025, a joint collaboration between the Society of Legal Scholars and Lancaster University.

Recent presentations by Lisa at Exchange Chambers’ Insolvency and Commercial Litigation conferences include “In the Shadows? Fraud and Insolvency” (2025) and “Recent Developments in Corporate Litigation” (2024).