Commercial litigation concerns and trends – autumn 2023
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Legal 500
“Lucy is an incredibly diligent barrister who has a natural intuition for what will and what will not work in the court room.”
Lucy Colter practices in commercial litigation including complex civil fraud, construction and professional liability claims.
Lucy has recently worked on some of the biggest and most complex cases in the Commercial Court and is also a highly experienced and robust advocate. She is ranked as a leading junior in the Legal 500 for Commercial Litigation, Offshore, Construction and Professional Negligence and in Chambers & Partners for Commercial Dispute Resolution, Construction, Professional Negligence and Professional Negligence: Technology and Construction. Lucy is nominated for Professional Negligence Junior of the Year at the Legal 500 Bar Awards 2024.
Lucy has been described as “Destined to be one of the stars of the English Bar – she is extremely bright, personable and tactically incisive”; “perfect with clients and one of the cleverest barristers I have worked with”; “she has incredible work ethic, forensic attention to detail, excellent responsiveness, and is a team player”; “first-rate – someone who works hard under difficult circumstances and is very approachable and normal”; “extremely hard-working, very bright and has an exceptional mastery of the detail of complex matters. She provides invaluable input.”
Lucy’s practice is dominated by complex litigation, including high-value civil fraud. Led by Justin Fenwick KC and George Spalton KC, she represented Nick Suppipat in his US$billion fraud claims against multiple defendants in the Commercial Court, obtaining a judgment for US$850 million after a 20 week trial (Suppipat v Narongdej and others [2023] EWHC 1988 (Comm)). In 2022, led by Justin Fenwick KC, Lucy represented Beny Steinmetz in an 11-week Commercial Court trial before Mr Justice Andrew Baker, defending deceit and conspiracy claims for c.US$1 billion+ brought by the Brazilian mining company, Vale. The claim collapsed midway through trial. Lucy was instructed for Georgy Bedzhamov in Vneshprombank v Bedzhamov and worked for several years on Deripaska v Chernukhin. Lucy also has a growing practice in commercial arbitration, including in the UAE. She also practices as an arbitrator.
Lucy acts in challenging and high-value claims. She is instructed with Patrick Lawrence KC to defend loss of a chance claims for US$100m+ against a leading private client firm involving issues of international and cross-border enforcement. She was instructed by a UHNW client bringing lost litigation claims worth US$500 million+ against a City firm in respect of claims arising out of a failed joint venture and the dissipation of the client’s funds worldwide. She acted (led by Graeme McPherson KC) in a claim against a senior tax barrister instructed as an expert in respect of the demerger of a property empire, involving allegations of conflict and bias.
Lucy has extensive trial experience in construction and engineering matters (in the TCC, arbitration and adjudication), acting for multinational construction service companies and development companies, usually as lead or sole advocate. She represented the successful defendant on a preliminary issue in terms of duties owed in Multiplex Construction Europe Limited v RNP Associates Ltd (in liquidation) and others [2021] EWHC 590 (TCC), leading Will Cook. She undertakes advisory work in respect of complex contractual issues arising on projects.
Lucy’s practice involves substantial and diverse offshore work in the Channel Islands; Cayman; BVI and Bermuda. She is instructed in trust matters and litigation; construction matters concerning offshore arbitration and on-shore court claims; and contractual disputes. Her commercial litigation practice very frequently involves an offshore element including in respect of enforcement issues. She has excellent experience of sanctions issues and is presently working on contentious sanctions issues impacting trust arrangements in Bermuda.
Details of Lucy’s practice in each area can be found below.
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“Lucy has a great capacity to manage a lot of complex information, and shows wonderful attention to detail.” Chambers & Partners
“Lucy is very meticulous and displays an immense ability to get to grips with a massive amount of factual material.” Chambers & Partners
“Lucy is very responsive, incredibly hardworking, and a fantastic team player. She is a real pleasure to work alongside and to instruct.” Legal 500
“Lucy is an incredibly diligent barrister who knows the bundle backwards and has a natural intuition for what will and what will not work in a court room.” Legal 500
“Destined to be one of the stars of the English Bar – she is extremely bright, personable and tactically incisive.” Legal 500
Lucy has an extremely busy commercial practice and is ranked as a leading junior in Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500. She is particularly interested in matters with an international element and in which fraud, conspiracy and large-scale dishonesty have been alleged. She has deep experience of fighting highly complex and difficult fraud claims at trial.
Lucy’s recent experience includes:
“Wholly committed to the case – diligent and hard working.” Legal 500
“Very bright and good attention to detail. Also very responsive. Worked well as part of a team.” Legal 500
“A very good junior – she thoroughly researches her cases.” Chambers and Partners
Lucy’s practice includes substantial and diverse work in this area. Her commercial litigation practice (particularly Russian/CIS litigation) involves a strong offshore element. Lucy also has extensive experience dealing with contentious sanctions issues in various jurisdictions including Bermuda.
Lucy’s recent experience includes:
Lucy has been instructed in some of the largest civil fraud claims in the Commercial Court in recent years, including at trial, and she also has experience of LCIA and ICC arbitration in particular. Lucy’s cases are frequently extremely high in value and highly contested proceedings involving serious and very complex allegations and issues.
Over the last 4 years, she has worked on Suppipat v Narongdej and others (a 17 week trial); Vale v Steinmetz and others (an 11 week trial in which Vale discontinued); and Vneshprombank LLC v Bedzhamov and others. She was involved for several years in the long-running dispute between Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Chernukhin, representing Mr Deripaska in the LCIA; trial in the Commercial Court; and the Court of Appeal. She acts for both claimants and defendants. She has extensive experience acting for UHNW clients and associated entities. She also has extensive experience of proceedings concerning complex company and trust structures including offshore.
“Lucy is extremely good with clients and a reassuring presence. She is completely on top of the facts and legal issues.” Chambers & Partners
“Great to work with; she’s a team player, who is down to earth and very bright.” Chambers & Partners
“Fantastic on the detail and produces very good advocacy.” “She’s very able and gives very pragmatic advice.” Chambers & Partners
“She is on a different planet in terms of brains and the ability to absorb vast quantities of information quickly. She does all of that but she’s also great with clients, which is a rare combination.” Chambers & Partners
“Brilliant. Works hard to cover every angle. Lucy is one to watch.” Legal 500
“She is very bright and has great attention to detail. Calm under fire.” Legal 500
“Provides very quick and commercially focused advice and inspires confidence in clients.” Legal 500
Lucy is very experienced in the most large-scale and challenging professional liability matters, including claims alleging fraud and with a heavy commercial or international context. She acts for and against lawyers, financial advisors, valuers (and other professionals). She also has particular expertise in technology and construction related claims against professionals in particular engineers, architects and project managers. She is frequently instructed unled or as lead advocate against KCs.
Lucy’s recent cases include:
Lucy was shortlisted for the 2020 Chambers & Partners Construction Junior of the Year award.
“She’s impressive, confident and has ability beyond her call. She’s extremely good with clients and a reassuring presence.” – Chambers & Partners
“She is exceptional at what she does. She is highly organised, tough, determined and yet highly accessible.” – Legal 500
“She’s impressive, confident and has ability beyond her call. She’s extremely good with clients and a reassuring presence.” – Chambers & Partners
“Lucy is meticulous in her analysis of the facts and the law. She’s a very capable advocate.” – Chambers & Partners
“Lucy is incredibly able and a pleasure to work with. Her written work is of the highest quality.” “Lucy Colter is very hands-on and easy to work with.” Chambers & Partners
“Lucy is extremely bright, highly personable, and very hard working. Her drafting is first class, and she advises with exceptional clarity. She also has a detailed technical understanding of the subject matter.” Legal 500
“Brilliant. Works hard to cover every angle – she is one to watch.” Legal 500
“She has incredible work ethic, forensic attention to detail, excellent responsiveness, and is a team player.” Legal 500
“She is on a different planet in terms of brains and ability to absorb vast quantities of information quickly.” “She’s excellent to work with, very personable and down to earth, but also delivers concise and relevant advice.” Chambers and Partners
Lucy works on complex construction disputes, including the TCC, arbitration and adjudication. She acts for leading construction engineering companies and development companies and has dealt with the major forms of contract. She has worked extensively on construction disputes in Jersey and Guernsey. Lucy has exceptional ability in respect of complex technical and scientific evidence.
Lucy has equal experience of professional negligence claims against construction professionals, acting for and against architects, project managers and quantity surveyors. She has acted on multiple claims against heritage architects / architects working on listed or protected buildings.
She is an experienced advocate in all relevant forums and is usually instructed alone or as lead counsel in this area of work.
Recent experience includes:
Lucy has extensive experience of arbitration and an unusual amount of experience of section 67/section 68 challenges under the Arbitration Act. She has recently acted for Cypriot entities in an arbitration arising out of a failed joint venture in waste metal processing plants in Russia; and in an arbitration arising out of another failed joint venture in a shopping plaza in Bulgaria. She also accepts appointments as an arbitrator.
Lucy particularly enjoys insurance coverage disputes – and disputes purely concerning the construction of insurance policy wording. She also has experience of professional liability claims which require a thorough understanding of multiple issues of insurance law.
Recent experience includes:
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Lucy is a member of Lincoln’s Inn. She is a member of COMBAR, TECBAR and PNBA.
Lucy sits on COMBAR’s Equality & Diversity Committee and is a former chair of the Young COMBAR committee.
Education
Lucy read English Language & Literature at Trinity College, Oxford, where she achieved a First Class Degree (coming top of her year in Moderations). She was a Percival Exhibitioner and Scholar at Trinity College, and won the Mrs Claude Beddington and the Violet Vaughan Morgan university prizes. She obtained a distinction in the law conversion (CPE), and took a year out to travel in Russia, China, Hong Kong and South East Asia, before the Bar Vocational Course.
4 New Square’s commercial litigation networking breakfast provided a useful forum to…
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