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Greg Lascelles

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Greg Lascelles advises clients in high-stakes matters with significant financial or reputational risk. His broad-based practice covers complex international commercial litigation, arbitration, regulatory investigations and Parliament Select Committee hearings.

He acts for major corporates, financial institutions, entrepreneurs and individuals, with a broad range of experience across financial services, life sciences, technology, manufacturing, construction, music, sport, real estate, and consumer goods. His cases involve disputes relating to interpretation, M&A disputes (warranties, indemnities and earn-outs), bonus and remuneration, Companies Act matters, shareholder disputes, data litigation, securities litigation (misselling, mismanagement and close-outs) and disputes involving serious issues of fraud. He has been involved in groundbreaking High Court and FCA disputes relating to, among other things, market abuse and collective selling, as well as in the Supreme Court on the interpretation of standard contractual clauses. Greg's regulatory matters (including at the FCA, FRC, SFO and Insolvency Service) relate to market abuse and financial statement reporting. As well as regular advice to clients on contract drafting and risk avoidance, he has recently been advising on developments in FDI and national security legislation.

Greg's recent High Court cases have been listed in The Lawyer's Top 20 cases of the year in 2019 and 2020 and he is currently advising on one of the most significantly complex corporate investigations the FCA has conducted and one of the largest director disqualification cases to have been brought by the Secretary of State. Greg's pro bono work includes representing a child imprisonment campaigning charity in references to the Supreme Court and ECHR, and Freedom of Information Act requests for other groups. He can and does advise clients in English, French and Spanish.

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On Friday 14 August, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in the FX dispute CFH Clearing Limited v Merrill Lynch International [2020] EWCA Civ 1064.  This appellate success was a comprehensive victory for the clear wording of standard ISDA documentation over creative legal arguments.

Despite, or even because of, the one-sided result, the judgment contains important lessons for market participants on the approach the English Courts will take to future interpretation issues in ISDA disputes.   …
Continue Reading English Court of Appeal Upholds Merrill Lynch’s Reliance on ISDA Standard Terms

On November 10, the FCA issued a Final Notice relating that Capita Financial Managers Limited (“CFM”) had agreed to pay investors £66m over the collapse of a circa £110m unregulated collective investment scheme called the Connaught Income fund.

The decision has garnered interest because the FCA faced political pressure to speed up its investigation into this matter.  The decision demonstrates a willingness to provide meaningful compensation to end-investors.  Further comment has centred on the fact that CFM was not charged any penalty over a public censure and that CFM’s ultimate parent, Capita plc, agreed to fund any shortfall.  The decision has not been received without criticism, however.
Continue Reading UK Regulator Extracts Compensation from Fund Operator and Parent

On September 14, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed that it was making a Market Investigation Reference (MIR) to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in relation to services for investment consultancy and fiduciary management.  This is the first time the FCA, which has significant numbers of competition lawyers within its ranks, has exercised…

The Payment Strategy Forum (PSF) has published a public Consultation Paper (the “Consultation”) entitled “Blueprint for the Future of UK Payments.”  The PSF observes that whilst payment systems in UK are some of the best in the world, they are no longer fit for purpose, given their age and complexity.  The PSF has therefore developed…

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) is undertaking a study of the asset management market, which manages GBP 6.9 trillion, and is the second largest market in the world after the US. The rationale for the study is to ensure, as part of the FCA’s overall purview, that the UK market works well.  As part of the FCA’s new competition remit, the study is also looking at whether the market is sufficiently competitive so as to offer value for money for consumers.  An interim report was published on November 18, 2016, which voiced concerns about charges, performance, and competition in the industry.
Continue Reading UK Regulator Expresses Concerns Regarding Active Asset Manager Charges and Performance