Carola Binney

Carola has a particular interest in civil fraud. Her experience includes:

• Hotel Portfolio II (In Liquidation) v Ruhan & Stevens (judgement awaited): instructed as sole junior to George Spalton QC in the defence of a £100 million fraud claim in the Commercial Court.
• Currently instructed as sole junior on a major challenge to an arbitration award (in a dispute worth c.£10 million) alleged to have been procured by fraud.
• Burns v Burns & Ors: instructed to appear (as sole counsel) at a High Court consequential hearing ordered following a successful pension fraud claim in the Chancery Division.
• Assisted with responding to a £40 million worldwide freezing order (and various associated orders) made against the defendant to proceedings for breach of fiduciary duty and deceit (during pupillage).

Carola is developing a broad commercial practice, with experience of both litigation and arbitration. Having already been instructed as sole counsel in High Court proceedings, she regularly appears in the County Court in her own right. She is particularly interested in cases with an international dimension, having specialised in the conflict of laws during her LLM and assisted with advising on several conflicts matters as a pupil. Recent examples of her commercial work include:

• Hotel Portfolio II (In Liquidation) v Ruhan & Stevens (judgement awaited): instructed as sole junior to George Spalton QC in the defence of a £100 million fraud claim in the Commercial Court.
• Currently instructed as sole junior on a major challenge to an arbitration award (in a dispute worth c.£10 million) alleged to have been procured by fraud.
• Instructed, as sole counsel, in respect of a successful High Court application to enforce an arbitration award worth over £180,000.
• Instructed, as sole counsel, by a PLC in respect of a successful strike out application brought in respect of a product liability claim.
• Instructed, as sole counsel, in respect of enforcement proceedings (including an examination order) arising from a successful breach of contract claim.
• Assisted in a $150 million international investment arbitration dispute concerning the alleged expropriation of several construction sites (during pupillage).

In addition to her led work, Carola is regularly instructed as sole counsel in Fast Track professional negligence trials in the County Court. Her recent experience includes:

• Instructed in the defence of a claim against a firm of solicitors accused of negligently failing to advise on the tax implications of a conveyancing transaction.
• Instructed on the appeal of a first instance decision finding a firm of surveyors liable to a mortgage borrower, in a case raising interesting questions about the scope and nature of the duty of care in such circumstances.
• Instructed in a claim arising out of the provision of allegedly negligent bookkeeping services.
• Instructed in a complex solicitors’ negligence case centring on the defendant firm’s alleged failure to properly conduct underlying litigation on the claimant’s behalf.
• Instructed in a claim against a developer alleged to have taken insufficient care in respect of plumbing works, causing property damage.

Several of Carola’s recent commercial instructions have had an insolvency angle, and having spent one of her three seats gaining exposure to a wide range of insolvency-related matters during pupillage she is keen to develop this area of her practice further. Her experience thus far includes assisting (as a pupil) with several sets of directors’ disqualification proceedings (both for the Secretary of State and for the respondent director), an appeal against the dismissal of an application to set aside a statutory demand, and a complex £3 million Quistclose trust claim on the assets of a partnership in liquidation.