Benedict Evans

Recent and ongoing work includes:

Commercial

• Acting (ongoing) in a dispute between members of a family which has resulted in four sets of proceedings including an unfair prejudice petition and disputes over the ownership of various assets including shares in valuable companies and properties (led by James Goodwin).
• Acting for the respondents to an urgent application for an interim injunction sought on the basis that a lease of a property owned by a company and granted to the respondent directors was entered into in breach of the company’s articles (led by Daniel Lewis).
• Working with Charles Russell Speechlys on a claim brought in the DIFC concerning the calculation of performance related bonuses. The claim was the largest ever bonus dispute in the DIFC.
• Acting (as sole counsel) in the trial of a claim for unpaid invoices.
• As a pupil, assisted Ian Croxford KC and James Walmsley in a large shareholder dispute including allegations of breach of director’s duty concerned with the ownership of a supermarket business.
• Advising a shareholder of a BVI company on the jurisdiction of the BVI Courts to hear an unfair prejudice petition in the context of a shareholders’ agreement containing an arbitration clause (during pupillage, with Tom Roscoe).

Civil Fraud

• As a pupil, assisted Tim Matthewson in Voltaire Capital Holdings Limited v Watson, a US$100 million fraud claim alleging fraudulent misrepresentations, breaches of fiduciary duty and good faith, and conspiracy in respect of investments in an FX business.

Insolvency

• Benedict regularly appears in the Companies Winding Up List and in the County Court on behalf of petitioning creditors and respondent companies.
• Acting (ongoing) for the trustees of a pension scheme in bringing a winding-up petition against the two employers of that scheme on the basis of debts owed to the scheme in excess of £30 million (led by Fenner Moeran KC).
• Acting (as sole counsel) for a former trustee in bankruptcy in respect of an application by the bankrupt to challenge the former trustee’s remuneration and expenses and other actions taken by the trustee.
• Advising in relation to a proposed agreement between the liquidators of various companies involved in cryptocurrency trading to harmonise the cross-border liquidation processes (during pupillage, with Tom Roscoe).

Trusts, Probate, and Private Wealth

• Assisting Andrew Mold KC and Elizabeth Houghton with detailed legal and historical research in a significant offshore trusts appeal (during pupillage).
• Advising the trustees of a high-value offshore trust in relation to a Beddoe application (during pupillage, with Elizabeth Houghton).
• Drafting pleadings, skeleton arguments and draft orders on behalf of trustees in a Part 8 Claim seeking orders from the Court replacing certain of the trustees and substituting a new trustee (during pupillage, with Elizabeth Houghton).
• Assisting Brian Green KC and Tom Roscoe, acting for a high net-worth client in opposing a beneficiary’s challenge to the trustee’s exercise of powers of appointment involving allegations of inadequate deliberation and breach of duty by protectors of a Guernsey trust (during pupillage).

Property

• Benedict regularly appears in the County Court in residential and commercial possession proceedings, 1954 Act renewal proceedings, and applications for injunctive relief.
• Acting (ongoing) for a well-known retailer in a series of disputes with landlords concerning a tenant in administration’s attempts to assign various leases as part of a pre-pack administration, and the landlords’ attempts to forfeit those leases (led by Zoë Barton KC and Thomas Robinson KC).
• Acting as sole counsel in a dispute between joint tenants of a lease concerning alleged liabilities arising under or in relation to the lease.
• Advising a developer on a complex rights of way dispute.
• Milani v St George West London Limited: successfully resisted a resident’s application for an injunction against the freehold owner of a block of residential apartments. The application was dismissed and marked “totally without merit” and the claim was struck out.
• Assisting code operators in relation to disputes with site providers arising under the Electronic Communications Code (during pupillage, with Emer Murphy).

Pensions

• Assisting in relation to pensions regulatory matters concerning the exercise of moral hazard powers under the Pensions Act 2004 and concerning the significant event regime under s.16 of the Pensions Schemes Act 2017 (led by James Walmsley).