Company & Partnership

We pride ourselves on the multi-disciplinary skills of our barristers and our ability to offer the right mix of seniority and experience to deal with any dispute within our fields of expertise, ranging from the largest and most complex pieces of litigation and arbitration to smaller disputes, thus providing our clients with an advantage when different areas of specialism overlap.

Maitland has a long tradition of providing advocacy and advice in company and partnership disputes of all shapes and sizes, in England and globally, in litigation or arbitration.

These disputes regularly throw up complex issues involving a wide range of legal disciplines including fraud, insolvency, directors’ and other fiduciary duties, trusts and property rights.  Maitland is able to put together a team which can readily cover all such issues.

Recent reviews of Maitland’s work include: “teeming with very bright and hard-working barristers who are all commercially minded and very easy to deal with”; “...a first class Chambers”;  “... an exceptional set which improves each year ...”;  “... a leading commercial set at the top of their game”;  “ahead of the game and will always make your opponent sweat”;  “... a set going from strength to strength”.

Maitland has been instructed in relation to many of the major domestic and international company and partnership disputes in the last few decades across a wide variety of industries, including banking and financial services, private equity, hedge funds, sport, retail, tech, fishing, construction and charities.  Key highlights include: British American Tobacco v Sequana, Broad Idea v Convoy Collateral (concerning the Black Swan jurisdiction), Tugushev v Orlov, the Tesco shareholders’ dispute, the Liverpool Football Club shareholders’ dispute and F&C Alternative Investments.

In addition to heavy trials and arbitration hearings, Maitland is regularly instructed in the appellate courts on complex and important questions of company and partnership law.  Recent examples include appearances in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal in the Lehman Brothers Waterfall proceedings, Jetivia v Bilta, FHR European Ventures and Sinclair v Versailles.

Maitland has provided company and partnership advice and assistance in a range of overseas jurisdictions, including the BVI, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.  Several members are already called to the Bar in these jurisdictions and others are willing to be called on an ad hoc or permanent basis where the need arises.  The clerks will be pleased to provide further information: clerks@maitlandchambers.com.

  • GENERAL COMPANY WORK

    Maitland’s general company work includes:

    • The formation and operation of companies: company formation, operation and dissolution, share registration and ownership, corporate governance, company meetings, takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, cross-border mergers and loan capital and banking securities
    • Shareholder disputes: unfair prejudice petitions, derivative and double derivative claims, claims for just and equitable winding-up and share valuation issues
    • Director disputes: issues relating to nominee, de facto, non-executive and shadow directors, and their duties and potential liability, breach of directors’ statutory and fiduciary duties, unlawful distributions/dividends and other restitution claims and misfeasance proceedings
    • Corporate insolvency: winding-up petitions, liquidations, administrations, CVAs, schemes of arrangement and reductions of capital, directors’ and other officeholders’ misfeasance proceedings and proceedings under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. For full details of Maitland’s insolvency expertise, please see the Insolvency and Asset Recovery page here.

  • GENERAL PARTNERSHIP WORK

    Maitland’s partnership work includes:

    • The formation and operation of partnerships: the formation, terms, operation and dissolution of partnerships, LLPs and limited partnerships
    • Disputes between partners: unfair prejudice, breach of fiduciary and statutory partnership duties and the winding-up of partnerships, including actions for accounts and inquiries
    • The liability of partners and partnerships to third parties
    • Partnership insolvency and bankrupt partners: for full details of Maitland’s insolvency expertise, please see the Insolvency and Asset Recovery page here.

  • DIRECTORS’ AND OTHER FIDUCIARY DUTIES

    Maitland’s commercial chancery expertise means it is a go-to choice for cases involving the breaches of directors’, partners’ and other fiduciary duties.

    Our barristers have appeared in some of the most significant cases on fiduciary duties, including British American Tobacco v Sequana, Tillman v Lloyds Bank & Better Capital LLP, FHR European Ventures, Sinclair v Versailles and The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (UK).

  • SHAREHOLDER DISPUTES AND UNFAIR PREJUDICE

    Shareholder disputes, unfair prejudice petitions, derivative claims and just and equitable winding up petitions are often some of the most hotly contested cases.

    Maitland been involved in some of the most important and complex shareholder disputes in recent years, across a wide variety of business sectors.  Recent notable examples include the £700 million claims arising out of Tesco’s accounting scandal, and Tugushev v Orlov, a significant and hugely publicised “mega-money Russian dispute” (as described in the press) over the ownership of stakes in a huge international fishing business run through companies in Russia, England and Hong Kong.

  • CORPORATE INSOLVENCY

    Maitland advises on and provides advocacy services in disputes involving all aspects of insolvency, including winding-up petitions and administration applications, matters arising in or related to compulsory and voluntary liquidations, asset recovery and office holder claims, disputed creditor claims, expenses and distribution of assets, and corporate restructuring.

    Asset recovery and office holder claims often involve extensive crossover with company law, including allegations of breach of fiduciary duty, unlawful distributions/dividends and other restitutionary claims, and issues relating to nominee, de facto, non-executive and shadow directors and their fiduciary and statutory duties.

    The depth and breadth of our experience in company law matters, coupled with our wide-ranging expertise in insolvency, has seen Maitland instructed in many of the major domestic and international insolvencies of the last few decades (including Lehman Brothers, Greensill Capital, MF Global, Cambridge Analytica, GAME, Carillion, Debenhams and Kids Company). Maitland is particularly well-placed to handle these types of cross-disciplinary matters.

    For full details of Maitland’s insolvency expertise, please see the Insolvency and Asset Recovery page here.

  • DIRECTORS’ DISQUALIFICATION CLAIMS

    For many years Maitland have advised and appeared for the Secretary of State and the Official Receiver as well as for defendant directors in relation to many and varied claims under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

    Our barristers have acted in some of the most high-profile disqualification claims in recent years, including Kids Company, Competition and Markets Authority v Martin (the CMA’s first ever claim for a competition director disqualification order to reach trial), Farepak, Barings, Blackspur, Atlantic Computers, Blue Arrow and Allied Carpets.

  • INTERNATIONAL AND OFFSHORE COMPANY AND PARTNERSHIP WORK

    One of Maitland’s core practice areas is international and offshore work and we are known as one of the preeminent sets in this area.  Our barristers are regularly instructed in international disputes involving company and partnership matters across a wide variety of industries and regularly appear as advocates before foreign courts and tribunals from first instance through to the higher courts such as the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean, the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal and the Privy Council.

    For more details on our offshore expertise, please click here.