Usman Roohani to give MBL Lecture on Reflective Loss
30th September 2024
2:30pm - 4pm GMT
Usman Roohani will speak at the upcoming virtual MBL seminar, “Reflective Loss…
Legal 500
“A thorough and commercially astute junior. Usman is exceptionally hardworking, bright and impressive, and his output is outstanding.”
Usman Roohani has a broad commercial and modern chancery practice with a particular focus on company and insolvency law, civil fraud and asset recovery, banking/financial services and offshore litigation. He is ranked as a Leading Junior in Commercial Litigation by the Legal 500.
Usman’s current and recent work includes:
Usman was admitted as a Barrister of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (British Virgin Islands) in 2021 and accepts instructions to act in BVI proceedings. Usman also has experience of commercial and fraud litigation in the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Usman taught property and trusts law as a Visiting Lecturer and Examiner at King’s College London and spent a year working in the Professional Indemnity Department at Linklaters.
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“Usman’s intellectual capacity is extraordinary. He is an incredibly fast thinker and can focus on multiple strands of complex issues at the same time. His humble gentle manner may allow the unweary to underestimate him, which you do at your peril.” – Legal 500
Usman is ranked as a Leading Junior in commercial litigation (Legal 500, 2025). He was formerly recognised as a ‘Rising Star’ in the area (Legal 500, 2024).
Usman is instructed across a wide range of commercial disputes, with the majority of his work involving international elements.
He has particular experience of commercial litigation in the context of company and joint-venture disputes and banking and financial services litigation.
Usman’s commercial cases are typically allocated to the Commercial Court or the Chancery Division of the High Court. However, Usman is increasingly being instructed in relation to commercial disputes in arbitration, where he has experience of international disputes under the ICC, LCIA and SCC rules.
His experience spans a number of industry sectors, including banking and financial services, private equity, asset and wealth management, energy and utilities, telecoms, franchising and hotels and hospitality.
Usman has a substantial practice in civil fraud and asset recovery. He has been instructed in some of the largest and most complex civil fraud actions in recent years, including the Floreat proceedings and offshoots from the BTA Bank v Ablyazov proceedings.
Much of Usman’s work involves making urgent and without notice applications and obtaining interlocutory orders in support of civil fraud claims. Usman has particular experience in obtaining, varying and discharging freezing orders. He has also been instructed in relation to Chabra injunctions, search orders, Norwich Pharmacal orders and Bankers Trust orders.
Usman is familiar with both the urgency and the particular sensitivities involved in making and opposing such applications in the fraud context.
He prides himself on obtaining successful outcomes which, when acting for claimants, means the actual recovery of misappropriated funds. He is experienced in the identification of hidden or disguised assets, including through the use of complex corporate and trust structures (often offshore), obtaining freezing orders and proprietary injunctions to secure assets and the successful enforcement of judgments and orders, both domestic and foreign.
Alongside this experience, Usman also accepts instructions in contempt proceedings and has both prosecuted and defended such allegations.
Usman is also experienced in obtaining and resisting injunctions in a non-fraud context. He has successfully obtained springboard injunctions, injunctions to enforce non-compete agreements and other restrictive covenants and injunctions to restore directors unlawfully removed from office.
Featured Civil Fraud & Asset Tracing cases
Usman has extensive experience of both contentious and advisory work involving company and partnership law. He is frequently sought out for his technical expertise in these areas. His work spans private and public companies, partnerships, limited partnerships, LLPs, unregistered and overseas companies and unincorporated associations.
On the contentious side, featured cases include:
On the advisory side, Usman’s experience includes advising, and contributing to advice given to:
Usman frequently advises on the drafting and construction of company articles, joint venture agreements, investment agreements and partnership deeds.
He has also been instructed to advise on company law matters subject to BVI, Jersey, Gibraltar and Cayman Islands law (see the Offshore & International tab below).
Usman has considerable experience in contentious and non-contentious insolvency and restructuring work.
Usman regularly appears in the Insolvency and Companies Court in relation to both bankruptcy and corporate insolvency proceedings.
He has experience of challenging antecedent transactions and acts for both office-holders and respondents to such applications. He also has experience of a variety of other Companies Act and Insolvency Act applications including, by way of example, those relating to administration orders and officer-holder remuneration.
Usman has been instructed in a number of corporate restructuring matters and has advised on technical company law issues concerning mergers, schemes of arrangement and reductions of capital.
He has also been instructed to advise on insolvency and restructuring matters under the laws of the BVI and the Cayman Islands (see the Offshore & International tab below).
Usman has experience of acting for directors in respect of disqualification proceedings.
Usman appeared as sole counsel at the trial of a disqualification claim in The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy v Tarquin Charles Spencer Barnsby [2022] EWHC 971 (Ch). In a subsequent judgment, ICC Judge Barber praised the quality of Usman’s representation of the defendant: [2023] EWHC 2284 (Ch).
Usman has been instructed to advise on applications seeking permission to act as a director notwithstanding disqualification, and he has succeeded in applications to vary restrictions.
Usman has considerable experience in the areas of banking and financial services. He is also developing a practice in securities litigation and is currently instructed the market-leading shareholder class action against Glencore Plc.
He has particular expertise in claims involving fraud (including money laundering and claims for breach of the Quincecare duty), asset recovery (including under POCA 2002), bondholder and structured finance litigation and insolvency and restructuring issues arising in the financial services industry.
Usman’s experience includes:
Usman was admitted as a Barrister of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (British Virgin Islands) in 2021.
He has also been instructed in relation to proceedings in the Cayman Islands, Jersey, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man.
Featured Offshore cases
In addition to the above examples, Usman’s experience includes:
Usman is frequently instructed in professional liability matters involving claims against a range of professionals, with a particular focus on lawyers (solicitors and barristers), insolvency practitioners, accountants, auditors and financial advisers (including tax and pensions advisers).
Usman’s professional liability practice sees him acting for claimants and defendants in roughly equal measure. Usman also benefits from considerable unled trial experience in the area. Earlier in his practice, Usman conducted a substantial number of trials in the County Court as sole counsel in relation to professional negligence claims.
In view of his Chancery practice, he has a particular interest in claims involving breach of trust and/or fiduciary duty and claims seeking restitution, gain-based remedies and proprietary relief.
Featured cases
Usman has advised on multiple occasions on solicitors’ liability following fraudulent property transactions in light of Dreamvar v Mishcon de Reya [2018] EWCA Civ 1082.
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30th September 2024
2:30pm - 4pm GMT
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