Group Litigation

Fountain Court has a leading reputation for handling long-running, complex, substantial, and high-profile, multi-party disputes, often with transnational dimensions, including in relation to the complicated and intensive procedural and jurisdictional issues these matters can involve.

Members are often appointed as a part of a larger group of legal and other advisors, either to lead the advocacy in that team and direct the legal strategy, or to bring specific sectoral expertise.

Our instructions include the Ingenious Litigation, pursued by 500+ claimants against financial institutions in relation to investments in supposedly tax-efficient film financing schemes; and claims brought against UK banks by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation involving allegations of fraudulent and anti-competitive behaviour in relation to the setting of LIBOR.

In the automotive sector, we act in the Emissions Litigation for various vehicle manufacturers, which involves hundreds of thousands of claims by consumers in relation to the alleged use of ‘defeat devices’, and in the long-running Trucks Litigation which was one of the first claims to be issued under the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s collective proceedings regime.

Nine Fountain Court members also acted in the FCA Business Interruption Test Case, the first case to proceed under the Financial Markets Test Case Scheme, relating to claims resulting from the global pandemic.

We have also acted in numerous group actions in the medical and pharmaceutical fields including the Hormone Pregnancy Tests Litigation and the PIP Breast Implant Litigation.

In recent times, our expertise has been called upon in matters involving ESG-related issues, include for British American Tobacco in major group litigation brought by Malawian farmers; and in defence of a food and agri-business regarding claims by Ghanaian labourers.

Our work includes acting in the pursuit and/or defence of substantial group claims in a variety of sectors and practice areas including:

• Administrative & Public Law
• Aviation & Travel
• Banking & Finance
• Competition
• Employment
• ESG-related claims
• Financial Services
• Insurance
• Product Liability
• Professional Negligence