Company
Overview
Lisa Linklater KC is a leading King’s Counsel specialising in shareholder disputes, corporate litigation and insolvency-related disputes. She is widely recognised for her expertise in complex, high-value litigation in the Business and Property Courts and the Court of Appeal, as well as in arbitration, mediation and expert determination.
She is particularly sought after by minority and majority shareholders in high-value, technically demanding and complex shareholder disputes, including unfair prejudice petitions, derivative actions, contractual claims and just and equitable winding up petitions. Her practice frequently involves commercial fraud, intricate group structures and cases with an international dimension.
As well as her advocacy at trial and in urgent interim applications, Lisa is particularly valued for her strategic insight and ability to shape the commercial outcome of disputes. She is also known for working closely with clients and solicitors to advance both commercial and personal objectives in high-pressure disputes.
While frequently retained from before action until the resolution of a dispute, Lisa is also retained as advocate for trial or substantial interim applications in ongoing disputes.
She is Vice‑Chair of the Northern Business and Property Bar Association.
Recommendations
Lisa has been consistently recommended as a Band 1 silk in this field of practice by both Chambers and Partners UK Bar and Legal 500 UK Bar.
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”. Further, she is “very proactive, very knowledgeable” and “commercially aware”.
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 2025 noted that “Lisa is extremely good at unfair prejudice and shareholder disputes” and further “Lisa is great at building rapport with clients,” while “Her input is vital, she’s always considered.”
Legal 500 UK Bar 2024 noted that “Lisa’s knowledge of shareholder disputes and the law on unfair prejudice is outstanding. A strategically astute silk.”
Expertise
Lisa is highly experienced in shareholder disputes across a wide range of sectors, including engineering, manufacturing, technology, retail, mining, property, sport, hospitality and agriculture.
Lisa is frequently instructed in shareholder disputes:
- involving family businesses, close personal relationships or long-established companies
- arising from alleged breaches of directors’ duties or complex corporate documentation
- intersecting with trust or property law issues
- involving allegations of fraud, forgery or issues under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
She is highly regarded for her ability to analyse share valuation evidence and deploy that analysis effectively in advocacy, including cross-examining leading valuation and accounting experts.
Lisa has been a keynote speaker with partners from leading international accounting firms (including Big Four firms) on share valuation issues in shareholder disputes. Her article on “the Art of Share Valuation” was published in the Solicitors’ Journal.
She is a member of the editorial advisory board of the Company Lawyer, a specialist journal published by Sweet and Maxwell.
Recent Experience and Highlights
Shareholder Disputes
Recent examples of Lisa’s practice in this area include:
- Secured the dismissal of an application in the High Court made on short notice to appoint a manager over a business in a highly charged shareholder dispute within a family in a long-established business (2026).
- Successfully defended at trial an unfair prejudice petition in a 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).
- Acting for a minority shareholder in a complex shareholder dispute concerning a valuable and long-established manufacturing business in the North West, listed for trial in the High Court in 2026, as well as in respect of a commercial and residential property portfolio in London and the North West (ongoing).
- Acting for a group of shareholders in respect of a high‑profile business in the technology sector in a complex dispute (ongoing).
- Secured the purchase of the client’s shares in a hard‑fought s.994 petition relating to an online gambling business following the dilution of the client’s shareholding by an allotment of new shares. The case involved a group of companies, including subsidiaries registered in Gibraltar. The client’s shares were valued by an expert valuer from a Big Four accounting firm on the basis that the allotment of the “new” shares had not taken place (2023–2024).
- Acting for and advising a minority shareholder in respect of share forfeiture provisions flowing from Good Leaver/Bad Leaver clauses in a shareholders’ agreement, leading to settlement. The shareholders’ 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 (2024–2025).
- Advising and acting for shareholders and lenders in respect of a proposed interim injunction for breach of a shareholders’ agreement in a dispute involving a substantial property development in the North West with an interface with a planning appeal (2023).
- Successfully deflected the threatened removal of a client as director and secured important strategic success in a bitter dispute between family members and shareholders of a lucrative business in the leisure sector. Lisa acted in parallel with other silks in different fields of specialism (2022).
Prior to taking silk, Lisa’s notable cases include:
- Unwin v Bond [2020] EWHC 1768 (Comm)
Acted from pre-action to trial in this leading case on good faith clauses and deemed transfer of share provisions in shareholder agreements when a director’s employment is terminated.
- MFW Developments Ltd [2019] EWHC 3725 (Ch)
Successfully obtained a rare “Wallersteiner” indemnity order, permission to continue a derivative claim, injunctions and the subsequent appointment of a receiver over £1m. The claim against the director concerned misappropriation of £2.5m from the company. Instructed from 2018 to settlement and successful conclusion in 2022.
Further examples of Lisa’s vast experience in this area both before and after taking silk are in the cases section below.
Company Cases
In addition to the above recent highlights and current case-work, the following are further illustrations of Lisa’s depth of experience in this field of practice:
SHAREHOLDER DISPUTES
Further example cases since taking silk include:
- 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).
- Acting for and advising board of directors (most of whom were volunteers) on strategy on threatened injunction in respect of highly acrimonious dispute between different sections of a very well established sports club (a company limited by guarantee) (2024).
- Acting in respect of a dispute between shareholders that had simmered for many years, involving alleged substantial misappropriation of assets from a company in the agricultural services sector in the Midlands (2024).
- Advising shareholders in respect of a shareholder dispute relating to a long established complex group of companies whose business interests include a very substantial retail park in the South West and property with development potential (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).
- Successfully securing purchase of the shareholdings of minority shareholders in privately owned companies following the presentation of an unfair prejudice petition under s994 Companies Act 2006 in the following situations:
- Petitioner inherited shares from her late husband in company in the engineering sector, involving six companies in the Midlands and a lengthy factual history (2021 onwards, case settled before trial in the High Court in Manchester on liability in 2023). Case involved complex legal issues as to whether there was a quasi-partnership and whether a minority shareholder discount should be applied.
- Company in the hospitality sector in London. The petition included allegations of potential tax evasion (2021 onwards, case settled before trial in the High Court in Manchester in 2023).
- Dispute between former friends in hard-fought combined unfair prejudice and just and equitable petitions in respect of two substantial property developments in Manchester (2019 onwards, case settled in 2023 before trial in the High Court in Manchester).
- Successfully securing settlement for three shareholders of threatened unfair prejudice petition under s994 Companies Act 2006, valued by the Petitioner in excess of £6 million involving complex factual issues spanning 30 years and a discretionary trust. The allegations included excessive remuneration and failure by directors to recommend dividends. Complex and valuable legal issues on whether or not a minority shareholder discount should be applied, as well as issues as to how to forecast the company’s performance for the purposes of valuing the Petitioner’s shareholding in light of the Covid pandemic. Company in the manufacturing sector, operating internationally from Yorkshire (2021 – 2022).
Example cases (all in the High Court) prior to taking silk include:
- Hopkinson v Hopkinson: unfair prejudice petition involving a substantial company in the retail sector in North Yorkshire, alleged exclusion from management and cross-claim for proprietary estoppel of shareholding. Resolved favourably at mediation before two week High Court trial in Leeds on liability (2020 – 2021).
- Acted in multi-million pound unfair prejudice petition for a Petitioner relating to company in the oil sector, operating from Dorset, valued at over £7 million and involving complex issues relating to Petitioner’s share in the company being held on trust and assets misappropriated into numerous offshore jurisdictions (2020 – 2021).
- Securing a favourable settlement for the Respondents to an unfair prejudice petition relating to a well-known national restaurant chain (2020 – 2021).
- Hague v Greenwood & ors [2019] EWHC 699 (Ch): Acted for director/shareholder, alleged to have diverted contract for supply of materials for construction of flood defences in North Yorkshire, in successfully defending derivative action and related claims to land owned by the director/shareholder in 2 week trial. Instructed from 2016 and in respect of connected issues until 2021.
- Secured settlement of just under £1 million for a shareholder in unfair prejudice petition proceedings involving a company in the North West specialising in niche pipeline product supplies, just before a 5-day trial (2016 – 2018).
- Successfully advised and acted for shareholders in valuable crowd-funded property development company in Cheshire in realising their investment by just and equitable petition (2018)
- Akyol v Icel [2017] EWHC 3280 (Ch): 2-week High Court trial of unfair prejudice petition before HHJ Klein sitting as a High Court Judge. Very complex factually, involving 3 companies & 27 claims spanning 30 years, cross-examination of factual and expert witnesses and very high emotions. Lisa secured the dismissal of 90% of the claims and the reduction of the claim of over £1 million by 50%.
- Advised and represented an equal corporate shareholder of a special purpose company whose business was to install and operate a wind turbine on a remote island in Scotland in just and equitable petition and alleged breach of shareholders’ agreement (HHJ Kaye QC sitting as a High Court Judge) (2016).
- Lisa successfully acted for the Claimant in obtaining just under £1 million in a contractual dispute between equal shareholders in companies with the benefit of options to develop land for housing in North Yorkshire. The case settled on the first day of a 7-day trial in the Chancery Division before HHJ Behrens sitting as a High Court Judge (2015).
- Successfully acted (with Mark Cawson QC of Exchange Chambers) for a minority shareholder in a major print business in Yorkshire, obtaining a share sale order by an unfair prejudice petition (2013).
PARTNERSHIP AND LLP DISPUTES
Further example cases (all in the High Court) prior to taking silk include:
- Successfully acted for defendant to claims of approximately £1m in respect of solicitors’ partnership in legally and factually complex claim. Case involved complex limitation issues and an entangled factual history (2020 – 2022).
- Acting in a factually and legally complex property dispute spanning 40 years within a family in respect of a property portfolio valued at c. £4m and alleged partnership, in which she led other Counsel (2020).
- Representing a partner in a family farming partnership in a dispute involving an enviable Yorkshire Wolds arable farm valued in excess of £6m in which a proprietary estoppel claim was made (2018).
- Representing a partner in a family farming partnership in a dispute with assets valued at in excess of £2m (2018).
- Advising a liquidator of a LLP in respect of recoveries against members (2017).
- Defending claim brought against retired partner of a partnership between solicitors based on construction of retirement deed (2016).Acting for finance director of solicitors’ limited liability partnership in dispute as to whether or not he is a “good” or “bad” leaver and can reclaim capital introduced (2016).
- Acted for doctor in a partnership in respect of liabilities for shared expenses of the medical practice (2015).
