Jonathan Hilliard KC

Commercial disputes

Jonathan is consistently ranked in Chambers Global and Chambers & Partners UK Bar for his civil fraud and offshore work. 

A significant amount of Jonathan’s work concerns business and commercial disputes, particularly those relating to:

• Civil fraud
• Asset tracing
• Financial services
• Regulatory issues
• Insolvency
• Company and partnership issues

Jonathan’s work in these areas frequently overlaps with his offshore and trusts practices, many of these disputes having an international element, involving fraud or heavy factual disputes, and involving fiduciaries acting in a financial services context. He also has significant experience on the domestic side of the Upper Tribunal’s financial services jurisdiction and financial services judicial review.

On the civil fraud side, to take some recent examples:

• He is involved in a number of large ongoing currently confidential offshore cases across a range of jurisdictions involving allegations of fraud and other linked wrongdoing.
• He has been involved in obtaining injunctions in offshore asset recovery proceedings.
• He has been involved in a number of pensions liberations fraud and tracing cases, such as the landmark Pensions Regulator v PAYAE & ors [2018] case.

Previously, by way of examples:

• He acted successfully as part of the claimants’ team in ITS v GP Noble [2009-2013], which involved fraud proceedings in a number of jurisdictions, a number of significant hearings and parallel criminal proceedings.
• He acted successfully as part of the claimants’ team in the Court of Appeal in ITS v Susan Morris [2011-2013] in tracing the proceedings of fraud into a divorce settlement.
• He was involved in litigation concerning the largest alleged fraud in recent Latvian history.

On the regulatory side, for example:

• He has been involved in the recent leading cases before the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) concerning the limits of the jurisdiction of the Upper Tribunal in financial services matters.
• He often acts in relation to regulatory investigations.
• He has been involved in a number of pieces of financial services judicial review matters, including in relation to the life insurance industry.

As far as insolvency is concerned, much of his pensions work takes him into the insolvency arena, and he frequently advises alongside or acts together with insolvency counsel. Examples of his reported insolvency cases include:

• Nortel & Lehman v TPR [2010-2013] (first instance, CA and SC- when a statutory debt ranks as a provable debt or expense).
• Singer & Friedlander [2013] (calculation of debts in insolvency).
• Gleave v PPF (proof for s.75 debts in insolvency).

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Pensions

Jonathan advises regularly on pensions restructuring, other corporate pensions issues, moral hazard concerns, RPI and CPI issues and other similar points. He regularly acts in rectification claims and in the compromises of complex pensions disputes.

Over the last few years, his cases have involved the following:

• Dealing with the pensions elements arising in a number of significant and high-profile corporate transactions.
• Dealing with a number of very substantial benefit validity cases.
• Dealing with the destination of surplus.
• Dealing with very significant s.75 issues and disputes.
• Dealing with a number of important regulatory matters.
• Defending an extremely large professional negligence claim in relation to alleged defects in scheme documentation.
• British Airways [2018-2020]- acted successfully in Beddoe and compromise hearings, following involvement in the main litigation for many years.
• BT judicial review litigation [2018-2019]- acted at first instance and in the Court of Appeal for the trustee in relation to the judicial review of HMT’s decision relating to the indexation of GMPs following the change to the new state pension.
• Box Clever [2011 – 2018] acted for the scheme trustee in this long running litigation.
• Pensions Regulator v PAYAE & others [2018] – successfully acted for tPR in landmark pensions liberation fraud case.
• Wedgwood v Salt [2017]- 5-day hearing on whether a rights proviso protects future service rights and consequential issues.
• IBM [2017]- acted successfully for IBM in its appeal over the validity of closing its pension schemes to future accrual.
• Silentnight [2016-2021]- acted for the trustee.

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Professional liability

Jonathan’s professional liability practice focuses particularly on negligence in the context of:

• Trusts
• Pensions (both occupational and personal)
• Actuaries
• Financial services & investment products
• Tax
• Solicitors.

Ever since his first case as a tenant in Chambers, which concerned a long running accountancy and actuarial negligence dispute over the downfall of Equitable Life, his professional liability work has included a significant financial services element.

He is co-author of the Pension Scheme Actuaries chapter in the Professional Negligence and Liabilty looseleaf.

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