Andreas Giannakopoulos

Trusts, probate, and private wealth

• Successfully acting for the trustees of two multi-million pound employee benefit trusts in a blessing application seeking the approval of distributions to beneficiaries and charities and in a related application under s.57 of the Trustee Act 1925 (led by Simon Atkinson).
• Acting for the respondent beneficiary in an application for declaratory relief concerning the alleged revocation of a Guernsey trust and involving parallel proceedings in Guernsey and Switzerland and various questions on the scope of the Guernsey firewall provisions (ongoing; led by Jennifer Seaman).
• Acting for the professional trustees of a Bahamian charitable trust in a Beddoe application and an application for interim injunctive relief against allegedly self-dealing trust protectors (led by Andrew McLeod).
• Advising on the proper construction of a trust deed and the effect of firewall provisions on enforcement of a declaratory judgment in a dispute involving issues of conflict of laws and legitimacy under various foreign laws (led by Simon Taube KC).
• Assisting in the preparation of written submissions on the application of the rules of corporate attribution to the intention to create a trust (led by James MacDougald).
• Advising in various opinions on issues of beneficial ownership of property on death, appointment and retirement of trustees, abatement of legacies, cross-border successions, and related inheritance tax and capital gains tax implications.
• Advising on issues arising from the failed constitution of a trust of land and investments.
• Advising on the enforcement of English judgments and arbitral awards in financial remedy claims against trust assets administered offshore (during pupillage, with Jonathan Hilliard KC).

Commercial disputes

• Catbalogan Holdings SARL v Unik Bond SA: Acting for the Respondent to an application for an interim anti-suit injunction sought to restrain French proceedings brought in alleged breach of a waiver clause (led by Fenner Moeran KC).
• Acting for one of sixteen defendants to a multimillion-pound claim brought against former directors and alleging breaches of statutory duties under the Companies Act 2006, receipt of secret commissions, bribery, and diversion of business opportunities (ongoing; led by Bobby Friedman).
• Advising on a claim to bind parent companies, by piercing the corporate veil and estoppel by convention, to a contract made by a subsidiary for the grant of royalties in relation to an oil extraction venture and to the adjunct arbitration agreement (led by Stephen Brown).
• Advising in a cross-border commercial dispute raising issues about legal and equitable set-off and service out of the jurisdiction of claims in respect of economic torts (led by Andrew McLeod).
• Advising on the validity and effect of a trust created over shares with a situs in Pakistan pending completion of a share purchase agreement governed by English law.
• Advising on the availability of interim relief in aid of Canadian proceedings by way of an order for the sale of land against a non-party company.
• Assisting in an application for an anti-suit injunction to restrain Nigerian proceedings brought in breach of an arbitration agreement (during secondment at Gide Loyrette Nouel LLP).
• Advising on an application for summary judgment on a contractual debt and counterclaim in unjust enrichment on the ground of failure of basis.
• Assisting in an arbitration concerning a claim for wrongful termination raising issues of foreign illegality (during pupillage, with Bobby Friedman).
• Advising on allegations of breach of the no-conflict duty in s.175 of the Companies Act 2006 and ratification of the acts and omissions of conflicted directors (during pupillage, with Zoë Barton KC).

Property

• Transport for London v Persons Unknown: Acting for Transport for London in a claim for the removal of trespassers from the central reservation of Park Lane.
• Advising on the effect of restrictions on the disposal of charity land in the Charities Act 2011 (as amended by the Charities Act 2022) on a claim for an equitable lease and rights arising by proprietary estoppel.
• Acting in the trial of a claim for an order for sale and occupational rent under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996.
• Acting for a large London student housing provider in defending claims by multiple tenants.
• Advising on the protection conferred by and succession to tenancies protected by the Rent Act 1977.
• Advising on the acquisition of rights over an adjoining land by prescription, under the rule in Wheeldon v Burrows and under a Party Wall award (during pupillage, with Zoë Barton KC).
• Regularly appearing in possession proceedings in the County Court.
• Assisting in a claim to restrain breach of restrictive freehold covenants (during pupillage, with Zoë Barton KC).

Insolvency

• Regularly appearing in the Companies Winding Up List and acting in related applications.
• Assisting in Reid-Roberts v Mei Lin [2024] EWHC 759; (Ch) [2024] BPIR 1021 on the test of exceptional circumstances under 335A of the Insolvency Act 1986 and the application of s.2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 and s.53(1)(c) of the Law of Property Act 1925 to contracts made by instant messaging service (during pupillage, with Thomas Robinson KC).
• Preparing an Investigation Report relating to alleged breaches of the International Standards on Auditing by a leading accounting firm (during pupillage, with Thomas Robinson KC).

Pensions

• Assisting in advising on the construction of powers to allocate surplus in a pension scheme trust deed (during pupillage, with Jonathan Hilliard KC).
• Assisting in advising on the exercise of the power to issue financial support directions by The Pensions Regulator (during pupillage, with Thomas Robinson KC).