Benedict Evans

Recent and ongoing work includes:

Commercial

• Acting for a mobile phone developer resisting an application to lift an automatic stay imposed under CPR 15.11 which has been in place for many years and making an application to strike out the claim as an abuse of process in a high-value claim brought by a well-known mobile phone and software provider (ongoing, led by Bobby Friedman).
• Acting 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 (ongoing) in a dispute between members of a family concerning ownership of and participation in a substantial family business, involving claims in proprietary estoppel, a s.994 petition, and various allegations of breaches of directors’ duties (ongoing, led by Bobby Friedman).
• Instructed as sole counsel by a sports technology company in a dispute with a betting and sports media provider, with claims for breach of contract and various economic torts (ongoing).
• 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.

Civil Fraud

• Acting for the personal representative of a deceased prince in a clam alleging the fraudulent transfer of a high-value property in London (ongoing, led by Zoë Barton KC).

Insolvency

• Benedict regularly appears in the Companies Winding Up List and in the County Court on behalf of petitioning creditors and respondent companies and in respect of bankruptcy petitions.
• Acting 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.

Trusts, Probate, and Private Wealth

• Appearing as sole counsel in the High Court in a claim for rectification of an Employee Ownership Trust.
• Advising and acting for executors of an estate in recovering possession of a property from one of the beneficiaries of the estate.

Property

• Benedict regularly appears as sole counsel in the High Court and 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.

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).