Nik Yeo
Call date
2000
Practice Areas
Nik Yeo has a commercial practice, with a particular emphasis on complex finance litigation and arbitration, professional negligence (especially with a financial element) and insurance/reinsurance.
Current and recent instructions include acting for:
- Lehman Brothers Inc (the principal US Lehman entity) in various applications in the administration of Lehman Brothers International Europe, including determination of ownership of dematerialised securities purchased by LBIE for LBI through European clearance systems (led by Michael Brindle QC)
- HM Treasury, in conjunction with Slaughter and May, on finalisation of the Government’s Asset Protection Scheme, designed as a £300+ billion scheme to protect participating banks against future losses on their riskiest assets. The Lawyer described this as a “genuinely innovative” transaction which “had, and will continue to have, significant ramifications on the national economy and the banks”, and as “the most complex and important mandate of the credit crunch”.
- various groups of mortgage lenders to devise a strategy for over 1,200 cases of professional negligence against valuers, legal advisers and insurers, in light of the securitisation of those mortgage loans
- Terra Firma in the Box Clever securitisation trial (IXIS v WestLB, CIBC & Terra Firma)
- investment banks and for fund managers in numerous court and arbitral proceedings arising from structured financial products and derivatives (such as leveraged hedge fund platforms, complex foreign exchange transactions, commodity derivatives)
- a leading hedge fund in a confidential arbitration concerning an approximately $3 billion transaction; acting for a major telecoms company in an arbitration over patent licence fees
- on the instructions of foreign lawyers, for an institutional investor in a Madoff feeder fund
- high street lenders (such as NatWest, Lloyds TSB, Barclays) in commercial lending disputes
- a large private utility in a series of disputes arising from a £2.38 billion securitisation
- an investor in a professional negligence suit arising out of an action brought by an investment bank against the investor claiming amounts due Russian debt “PRINS” (instruments giving exposure to refinanced Russian sovereign debt)
- Lloyd’s of London, brokers, insurers and reinsurers. Nik is familiar with Lloyd’s market practices and procedures.
These disputes involve allegations ranging from fraud, bribery and conspiracy, to breach of trust, to mismanagement and breach of contractual, tortious and fiduciary duties, to complex questions of contractual interpretation, assignment of debts and limitation. They frequently also involve jurisdictional and choice of law issues, which are of particular interest to Nik.
He is regularly instructed by major City and national firms (such as, at present, Allen & Overy, Hogan Lovells, Ashurst, Norton Rose, Nabarro), as well as directly by overseas law firms.
Nik Yeo has prior experience as a transactional solicitor practising in structured finance (including securitisations), project finance, derivatives, capital markets, collective investments, hedge funds.
He regularly appears (led and unled) in arbitrations, Commercial Court and Chancery Division trials and in the Court of Appeal.
Recommendations (Practitioners' Guides)
Nik is recommended as a leading junior in Banking and Finance by Legal 500 (2009, 2010), in Professional Negligence by Chambers and Partners (2009, 2010) and as an expert in Banking in Legal Experts 2009. The directories state: “Nik Yeo wins support after having impressed in quality matters such as IXIS v Terra Firma & Ors”, and he is described as having a “user-friendly, and ‘get-stuck-in’ approach”.
Education
LLB (Hons), BA (Hons), Melbourne University
BCL, First Class honours, Oxford University
Other Experience
Nik Yeo is a CEDR Accredited Mediator.
He has published on legal professional privilege (B Thanki QC (ed) The Law of Privilege OUP, 2006) and conflict of laws (S Worthington (ed) Commercial Law and Commercial Practice Hart, 2003; also [2003] LMCLQ 525).
Nik undertakes work for the Bar Pro Bono Unit and is a member of the Bar Standards Board Standards Committee.