Andreas Giannakopoulos

Trusts, probate and estates: non-contentious

Recent and ongoing work includes:

• Advising executors on mitigation of capital gains tax payable on the sale of land and investments and on the availability of the nil-rate band and transferable nil-rate band, and drafting related memorandum of appropriation.
• Advising on the effect of restrictions on the disposal of charity land in the Charities Act 2011 (as amended by the Charities Act 2022) in relation to a claim for an equitable lease and rights arising by way of proprietary estoppel.
• Advising on the construction and effect of indemnity provisions in deeds of appointment and retirement of trustees.
• Advising on the vested or contingent nature of interests under a testamentary trust and on the application of the doctrine of abatement to specific and general legacies.
• Advising on proposed exercises of the statutory powers of maintenance and advancement under s.31 and s.32 of the Trustee Act 1925 for the benefit of a minor.
• Advising on a proposed exercise of the statutory power to appoint new or additional trustees under s.36 of the Trustee Act 1925.
• Advising on issues arising from the failed constitution of a trust of land and investments.

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Commercial disputes

Recent and ongoing work includes:

• Culina Group Ltd & Ors v Van Mourik & Ors: 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 KC).
• 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).
• 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 from an oil extraction venture and to the adjunct arbitration agreement (led by Stephen Brown).
• Advising in a cross-border commercial dispute involving allegations of forgery and raising issues of legal and equitable set-off and service out of the jurisdiction of claims for various economic torts (led by Andrew McLeod).
• Acting for the judgment creditor in an application for registration of a Cypriot judgment under the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements raising issues as to the personal scope of a jurisdiction clause in a franchise agreement.
• 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.
• Acting 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.

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Civil fraud and asset recovery

Recent and ongoing work includes:

• Culina Group Ltd & Ors v Van Mourik & Ors: 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 KC).
• Advising in a cross-border commercial dispute involving allegations of forgery and raising issues of legal and equitable set-off and service out of the jurisdiction of claims for various economic torts (led by Andrew McLeod).
• Advising the beneficiary of an Isle of Man discretionary trust on potential claims arising from a transfer of crypto assets out of an underlying company allegedly procured through misrepresentations by a member of the trustee’s advisory committee (during secondment at Mishcon de Reya LLP).

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