Adam Collins
Team Leader
+44 (0)20 7842 3798
Click here to email
Call 2015
“Daniel’s written advocacy is superb.”
The Legal 500
Adam Collins
Team Leader
+44 (0)20 7842 3798
Click here to email
Katie Palmer
Team Leader's Assistant
+44 (0)20 7842 3709
Click here to email
Daniel has a wide range of expertise in commercial, competition, and regulatory cases.
He has recently acted in professional disciplinary proceedings connected with the audits of Carillion, High Court proceedings about the recovery of money from the Lebanese banking system, civil proceedings in England and Abu Dhabi connected with alleged fraud at the NMC group, and a successful challenge before the Commercial Court of an arbitral tribunal’s jurisdiction. He is currently instructed in proceedings in collective proceedings in the Competition Appeal Tribunal and an appeal to the Court of Appeal about the law of assignment and the validity of a request for arbitration.
Daniel has experience of a wide range of dispute resolution procedures, including administrative proceedings instigated by the Competition and Markets Authority, judicial review claims before the EU courts, litigation in the ADGM, and arbitrations conducted under LCIA, LMAA, ICC, and SIAC rules. He is also a member of the Serious Fraud Office’s proceeds of crime panel B.
Daniel is one of the contributing authors to the book “Brexit and Financial Regulation”.
Before being called to the Bar, Daniel was a solicitor-advocate at Slaughter and May.
Banking and the Lebanese crisis: Bitar v Banque Libano-Française SAL [2021] EWHC 2787 (QB), [2022] 2 All ER (Comm) 298 (jurisdiction), and [2023] EWHC 17 (KB) (trial); and Bitar v Bank of Beirut SAL [2022] EWHC 2163 (QB) (trial), and [2022] EWHC 2930 (KB) (consequentials)
In two sets of parallel proceedings, acting for the claimant in successful claims for the recovery of money from the Lebanese banking system via specific performance of instructions to make international money transfers. As well as involving multiple issues of Lebanese law, the claims raised complex questions of English law, such as the choice of law governing the rate of interest applicable under the Rome I regulation and the application of the post-Brexit consumer jurisdiction provisions in the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982. Each claim culminated in a two-week trial in King’s Bench Division of the High Court.
Civil fraud: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC v Shetty [2022] EWHC 529 (Comm), [2022] EWHC 1020 (Comm); and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC v Manghat [2022] ADGMCFI 0007
Acting for Mr Prasanth Manghat, the former director of NMC plc (the London-listed healthcare business), in relation to claims for fraud and conspiracy brought against him and five others by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. In a four-day hearing, Daniel represented Mr Manghat in a successful challeng to the jurisdiction of the English court. Thereafter, the claim was moved to the ADGM, where Daniel continued to appear for Mr Manghat.
Competition: Dr Sean Ennis v Apple Inc
Acting for Dr Sean Ennis, the proposed class representative, in collective proceedings against Apple before the Competition Appeal Tribunal. Dr Ennis is seeking to recover damages on behalf of UK-based app developers for payment of excessive and unfair prices in the form of Apple’s commission on sales made via the App Store.
International arbitration: Dassault Aviation SA v Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co Ltd [2022] EWHC 3287 (Comm), [2023] 2 WR 1061
Acting for Dassault (the French aerospace company) in a successful challenge before the Commercial Court to the jurisdiction of an ICC arbitral tribunal. The tribunal had been constituted pursuant to a request made by an insurer seeking to enforce rights said to have been acquired from the assured (which was the counterparty to the arbitration agreement) by a transfer under Japanese law. Dassault successfully argued that a prohibition on assignment in the contract with the assured prevented the rights under the arbitration agreement from being transferred to the insurer. The judgment is the first authority in over a century squarely addressing the application of contractual prohibitions on assignment to transfers “by operation of law”. The matter was nominated by Global Arbitration Review for the “Most Important Decision” award in 2023.
Professional discipline: Executive Counsel to the Financial Reporting Council v KPMG LLP (accountancy scheme tribunal, 30 May 2022)
Acting for the Executive Counsel to the FRC in successful prosecutions against KPMG and six individual auditors for dishonestly misleading the regulator in the context of an inspection into the quality of KPMG’s audits of Carillion and Regenersis. One auditor settled before trial; the remaining auditors and KPMG were found guilty of misconduct after a five-week trial. The case was one of The Lawyer’s top 20 cases of 2022.
Daniel practises across the full range of banking and finance disputes, both for and against financial institutions.
Bitar v Banque Libano-Française SAL [2021] EWHC 2787 (QB), [2022] 2 All ER (Comm) 298 (jurisdiction), and [2023] EWHC 17 (KB) (trial); and Bitar v Bank of Beirut SAL [2022] EWHC 2163 (QB) (trial), and [2022] EWHC 2930 (KB) (consequentials)
In two sets of parallel proceedings, acting for the claimant in successful claims for the recovery of money from the Lebanese banking system via specific performance of instructions to make international money transfers. As well as involving multiple issues of Lebanese law, the claims raised complex questions of English law, such as the choice of law governing the rate of interest applicable under the Rome I regulation and the application of the post-Brexit consumer jurisdiction provisions in the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982. Each claim culminated in a two-week trial in King’s Bench Division of the High Court.
Other Lebanese banking claims
Acting for other claimants in claims to recover money from the Lebanese banking system.
Acting for various financial institutions
Acting for Barclays, Funding Circle, Lloyds, and the Royal Bank of Scotland in various claims relating to alleged frauds, wrongful payments, breaches of financial regulation, alleged failures to detect frauds, misappropriated funds, stolen goods, and unpaid debts (including the enforcement of security).
Corporate/M&A
Advising on cross-border loan documentation.
Expert evidence
Assisting an expert witness on English law in preparing evidence for foreign proceedings about the legal effect of transfers of securities from one bank to another.
Mis-selling
Acting for the claimant in a claim for the mis-selling of interest-rate hedging products against a bank.
Daniel is regularly instructed in disputes involving alleged frauds, conspiracies, deceits, misrepresentations, false accounting, and other forms of commercial wrongdoing.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC v Shetty [2022] EWHC 529 (Comm), [2022] EWHC 1020 (Comm); and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC v Manghat [2022] ADGMCFI 0007
Acting for Mr Prasanth Manghat, the former director of NMC plc (the London-listed healthcare business), in relation to claims for fraud and conspiracy brought against him and five others by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. In a four-day hearing, Daniel acted for Mr Manghat in a successful challenge to the jurisdiction of the English court. Thereafter, the claim was moved to the ADGM, where Daniel continued to appear for Mr Manghat.
Gaia River SA v Behike Limited
Acting for the claimant lender in claims in the Commercial Court against a borrower and a guarantor. Following judgment, the claims resulted in two days of debtor questioning under CPR 71.
Bribery and deceit
Acting for the defendant and counterclaimant in a cross-border dispute involving allegations of bribery, deceit, and employee misconduct.
Claims against banks
Acting for claimants against banks in fraud and conspiracy claims involving allegations of deceit and misappropriation of assets.
Daniel also acts in a broader range of commercial disputes, including those that engage technical questions having to do with competition law, financial regulation, and insurance.
JD Williams & Co Ltd v Allianz Insurance PLC
Acting for JD Williams (the online retailer) in its dispute with Allianz (the insurer) over liability to customers (including under the consumer credit regime) for allegedly unfair and mis-sold insurance products.
Assignment
Advising and acting on cases involving question of champerty, maintenance, and the law of assignment.
Aviation
Acting for British Airways, EasyJet, and Emirates in relation to a variety of customer claims against them.
Corporate/M&A
Advising the seller of a business in relation to third-party rights under the purchase agreement.
Debt
Acting for claimants and defendants in debt actions. For example:
Financial services
Acting in various commercial disputes raising questions of financial regulation. For example:
Family/chancery
Acting for individuals and families in relation to commercial/financial disputes. For example:
Mis-selling
Acting for a defendant in a dispute over liability for allegedly unfair insurance products.
Securities litigation
Acting for businesses/representors in relation to claims for allegedly-false statements made to actual/potential investors.
Daniel started his career as a solicitor in the competition department at Slaughter and May, where he took a particular interest in the then-emerging field of private enforcement of competition law and the then-proposed collective proceedings regime. His practice now covers the full range of public and private enforcement, including collective proceedings.
Dr Sean Ennis v Apple Inc
Acting for Dr Sean Ennis, the proposed class representative, in collective proceedings against Apple before the Competition Appeal Tribunal. Dr Ennis is seeking to recover damages on behalf of UK-based app developers for payment of excessive and unfair prices in the form of Apple’s commission on sales made via the App Store.
Instaplanta (Yorkshire) Limited v Leeds City Council [2023] CAT 11 (fast track), [2023] CAT 37 (security for costs)
Acting for the claimant—as sole counsel against a three-counsel team led by a senior silk—in a case before the Competition Appeal Tribunal about alleged exclusionary and abusive behaviour by Leeds City Council in the advertising market.
Bombardier Transportation UK Ltd v London Underground Ltd and Alstom Transport UK Ltd v London Underground Ltd
Acting for London Underground in the claims brought against it by Alstom, Bombardier, and Hitachi in the Technology and Construction Court for breach of the public procurement rules in its decision to award a £1.5 billion contract for new underground trains to Siemens.
Advising the CMA
As part of an integrated case team, advising the Competition and Markets Authority in relation to three separate enforcement cases under the Competition Act 1998.
Advising complainants to the CMA
Acting for the complainant in a complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority about allegedly anticompetitive conduct in the transport sector.
Appellate
Acting for an applicant to intervene in an appeal to the Supreme Court in a case relating to the private enforcement of competition law.
Corporate/M&A
Advising corporates on potential competition exposures arising in relation to corporate/M&A transactions. For example:
Public procurement
Advising the successful bidder in relation to an allegedly defective public procurement process.
State aid and subsidies
Advising businesses and public bodies on various questions of state aid and subsidies. For example:
Daniel’s practice has a strong international element: he has worked on proceedings in various jurisdictions, including the ADGM, Brussels, London, Luxembourg, and Singapore. Much of his international work today is in the field of arbitration. The nature of arbitration means that most of his cases in this field are confidential. However, he has a wide range of experience, examples of which are given below.
Dassault Aviation SA v Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co Ltd [2022] EWHC 3287 (Comm), [2023] 2 WR 1061
Acting for Dassault (the French aerospace company) in a successful challenge before the Commercial Court to the jurisdiction of an ICC arbitral tribunal. The tribunal had been constituted pursuant to a request made by an insurer seeking to enforce rights said to have been acquired from the assured (which was the counterparty to the arbitration agreement) by a transfer under Japanese law. Dassault successfully argued that a prohibition on assignment in the contract with the assured prevented the rights under the arbitration agreement from being transferred to the insurer. The judgment is the first authority in over a century squarely addressing the application of contractual prohibitions on assignment to transfers “by operation of law”. The matter was nominated by Global Arbitration Review for the “Most Important Decision” award in 2023.
LCIA
Acting as secretary to the tribunal in two international arbitrations under the LCIA rules about long-term contracts in the hospitality sector. The cases raised issues of good faith, employee misconduct, and repudiatory breach.
LMAA
Acting for the claimants in an international arbitration under the LMAA rules about a claim for under a policy of marine insurance. The claim raised issues about the scope of the indemnity, the doctrine of ex turpi causa, and the need to prove actual loss.
SIAC
Acting as secretary to the tribunal in an international arbitration under the SIAC rules.
Daniel acts primarily in the field of accountants’ and auditors’ discipline (which also informs his civil fraud, commercial, and competition practices, since those too often raise questions of accounting).
Executive Counsel to the Financial Reporting Council v KPMG LLP (accountancy scheme tribunal, 30 May 2022)
Acting for the Executive Counsel to the FRC in successful prosecutions against KPMG and six individual auditors for dishonestly misleading the regulator in the context of an inspection into the quality of KPMG’s audits of Carillion and Regenersis. One auditor settled before trial; the remaining auditors and KPMG were found guilty of misconduct after a five-week trial. The case was one of The Lawyer’s top 20 cases of 2022.
BHS
Acting for the Financial Reporting Council in its investigation into the collapse of BHS.
BT
Acting for the Financial Reporting Council in proceedings in its investigation into the audit of BT’s 2017 financial statements.
Carillion
Acting for the Financial Reporting Council in its investigations into the auditing and accounting aspects of the collapse of Carillion PLC.
Adam Collins
Team Leader
+44 (0)20 7842 3798
Click here to email
Katie Palmer
Team Leader's Assistant
+44 (0)20 7842 3709
Click here to email