Emmanuel Sheppard

Emmanuel Sheppard

Call: 2013

"Emmanuel is extremely intelligent, engaging, responsive, meticulous, and creative."

- The Legal 500 UK Bar (2024)

"He becomes an expert on the subject matter of the dispute, regardless of how obscure they sometimes are, and gets to grips with issues quickly and effectively."

- The Legal 500 UK Bar (2024)

'He is very quick to see points and determined in chasing them down. He is an extremely hard-working and committed junior.'

- The Legal 500 UK Bar (2024)

Practice Overview

Emmanuel’s practice spans commercial, regulatory and public law.

His commercial practice covers international arbitration and litigation, concentrating on civil fraud, banking, and financial services often involving issues of private international law, including jurisdiction and conflict of laws. He has recently been working on a series of business interruption cases. His notable fraud cases include acting for a group of defendants in the £1.5bn fraud claim brought by the Danish authority SKAT (2020) and acting for the defendant in The LIA v SocGen (2017).

Emmanuel’s public law practice includes highly sensitive national security and extremism matters under closed material procedures (see HMAG v BBC [2022] EWHC 380 (QB) and the Inquests arising from the Fishmongers’ Hall Terrorist Attack (2021, instructed by GLD)).

His financial regulatory work encompasses actions for and against the main regulators and agencies. He is currently on the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) B Panel and acts regularly in enforcement actions brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). He acted unled for the applicant on a pro bono basis in the recent significant case of Frensham v The Financial Conduct Authority [2021] UKUT 0222 (TCC) concerning the topical question of regulatory action for conduct outside the professional sphere.

Emmanuel has an active pro-bono practice and was nominated by Advocate for Young Pro Bono Barrister of the Year at the Bar Pro Bono Awards 2019.

Emmanuel acts in commercial arbitrations and arbitration related court applications as well as advising on investor-state claims.

Emmanuel’s arbitration experience includes:

  • Junior counsel in a hotel dispute concerning an alleged sham transaction in the DIFC (2022-)
  • Junior counsel in a dispute concerning breach of warranty under an SPA under LCIA rules (2022).
  • Junior counsel in an arbitration under LCIA rules concerning allegations revenue suppression by a hotel operator in a long running dispute with the franchise owner (2021).
  • Junior counsel in a three-day arbitration under LCIA rules to determine whether the claimant could imply a termination right into a series of long-running hotel franchise contracts (2019).
  • Junior counsel for the claimant in a £33.7m claim for breach of contract – four day hearing under LCIA rules (2019).
  • Junior counsel in a one-day preliminary hearing to determine the contractual rights of a party seeking to terminate under LCIA rules (2019).
  • Advising on options for resisting enforcement of an investment treaty arbitral award allegedly obtained by fraud.
  • Providing public international law advice for an environmentalist group in a West African state which was challenging a large infrastructure project on environmental grounds.
  • Advising in several anti-suit injunctions.
  • Advising on prospects in relation to investor state arbitrations.
  • As a judicial assistant: Belhaj and another v Straw and others [2017] 2 W.L.R. 456 concerning the ambit of the foreign act of state doctrine and indirect impleader in state immunity.
  • As a judicial assistant: Rahmatullah v Ministry of Defence and another [2017] 2 W.L.R. 287 concerning the doctrine of Crown act of state.

In 2018, Emmanuel was seconded to the litigation funder Augusta Ventures where he advised on bilateral investment treaty claims.

Emmanuel’s litigation practice includes:

  • Advising policyholders on business interruption claims arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic before and in light of the Supreme Court’s judgment in The Financial Conduct Authority v Arch [2021] A.C. 649.
  • HMAG v BBC [2022] EWHC 380 (QB) – junior for the claimant in seeking an injunction for breach of confidence, led by James Eadie KC and Oliver Sanders KC.
  • Skatteforvaltningen v Solo Capital Partners (2020) – acting for a group of parties defending a £1.5bn claim brought by Danish authority, Skatteforvaltningen (‘SKAT’), against 38 defendants in the Commercial Court.
  • Advising on the issue of legal privilege in regulatory investigations in the Vincent Tchenguiz & Ors v Grant Thornton litigation (2018).
  • The Libyan Investment Authority v Société Générale & Ors (2017) – as a junior on the main counsel team led by Adrian Beltrami KC acting for Société Générale in one of The Lawyer’s ‘Top 10 Cases of 2017’. The Libyan sovereign wealth fund alleged that investments in structured products totalling circa USD 2bn were procured by bribery and the exertion of undue influence on its executives in Gaddafi-era Libya. The claim was settled in the first week of an eleven-week trial in the Commercial Court.
  • Acting for the appellant in the Appeal of AHAB v SICL (Cayman Islands) regarding the first instance application of the illegality defence to the allegations of fraud post-Patel v Mirza.
  • Instructed by Slaughter and May on the counsel team to the skeleton argument in a billion-dollar commercial dispute involving allegations of defamation, conspiracy and fraud.
  • Assisting in an appeal to the Supreme Court in a PPI and consumer credit matter concerning undisclosed commission.
  • As a judicial assistant: the Supreme Court decision of Belhaj and another v Straw and others [2017] 2 W.L.R. 456 concerning the ambit of the foreign act of state doctrine and indirect impleader in state immunity.
  • As a judicial assistant: the Supreme Court decision of Rahmatullah v Ministry of Defence and another [2017] 2 W.L.R. 287 concerning the doctrine of Crown act of state.

As a Judicial Assistant to the Supreme Court, Emmanuel also worked on the following commercial law cases:

  • Patel v Mirza [2016] 3 W.L.R. 399 which restated the test for the illegality defence.
  • Willers v Joyce [2016] 3 W.L.R. 477 on the liability for maliciously prosecuting a civil claim.
  • Versloot Deredfging v HDI Gerling Industrie Versicherung AG [2016] 3 W.L.R. 543 on the application of the fraudulent claim rule to a fraudulent device in an insurance claim.

Emmanuel is on the SFO’s B Panel and acts for the SFO in forfeiture proceedings. His civil fraud practice includes:

  • Acting for the defendant in a multi-million-pound claim concerning an alleged sham transaction (2022-)
  • Acting for the defendant in proceedings brought by the GFSC concerning a large-scale fraudulent investment scheme in Guernsey (2021-2).
  • Skatteforvaltningen v Solo Capital Partners (2020) – acting for a group of parties defending a £1.5bn claim brought by Danish authority, Skatteforvaltningen (‘SKAT’), against 38 defendants in the Commercial Court.
  • The Libyan Investment Authority v Société Générale & Ors (2017) – as a junior on the main counsel team led by Adrian Beltrami KC acting for Société Générale in one of The Lawyer’s ‘Top 10 Cases of 2017’. The Libyan sovereign wealth fund alleged that investments in structured products totalling circa USD 2bn were procured by bribery and the exertion of undue influence on its executives in Gaddafi-era Libya. The claim was settled in the first week of an eleven-week trial in the Commercial Court.
  • Acting for the appellant in the Appeal of AHAB v SICL (Cayman Islands) regarding the first instance application of the illegality defence to the allegations of fraud post-Patel v Mirza.
  • Instructed by Slaughter and May on the counsel team to the skeleton argument in a billion-dollar commercial dispute involving allegations of defamation, conspiracy and fraud.

Emmanuel acts in financial regulatory matters. He was seconded to the PRA’s enforcement and litigation division in the Bank of England (2019) where he focused on various matters from money laundering and bribery regulations to regulatory reporting. He worked on the investigation which resulted in the PRA fining Citigroup Inc’s UK operations £44m for regulatory reporting failures.

His regulatory and financial services work includes:

  • Acting for the FCA and PRA in a large enforcement action concerning conduct which took place in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis (2022).
  • Acting for the defendant in proceedings brought by the GFSC concerning a large-scale fraudulent investment scheme in Guernsey (2021-2).
  • Frensham v The Financial Conduct Authority [2021] UKUT 0222 (TCC) concerning the topical question of regulatory action for conduct outside the professional sphere.
  • Advising the Bank of England on the impact of Brexit on aspects of financial service regulations.
  • Acting for the Insolvency Service in seeking to maintain the confidentiality of parts of a judgment and witness statement which cited an Investigation conducted by BIS under s447 of the Companies Act 2005.
  • Assisting in an appeal to the Supreme Court in a PPI and consumer credit matter concerning undisclosed commission.

Emmanuel acts for claimants and defendants in human rights and public law matters. He is a member of the Attorney General’s C-Panel where his work covers national security and extremism:

  • HMAG v BBC [2022] EWHC 380 (QB) – junior for the claimant in seeking an injunction for breach of confidence in a national security/ extremism context and to protect the rights of an individual under Articles 2, 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (instructed by GLD, led by James Eadie KC and Oliver Sanders KC).
  • Acting for the Home Office and Ministry of Justice in the Inquests arising out of the Fishmongers Hall Terrorist Attack (2021).
  • Acting for the National Probation Service in the Inquests arising out of the Streatham High Street Terrorist Attack (2021).
  • Pal v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2018] EWHC 2988 (QB) – acting on an appeal for the claimant in a dispute concerning the lawfulness of her arrest for harassment for online speech in light of Article 10 of the ECHR.
  • Acting for GLD on the Lord Harris Review concerning self-inflicted deaths in prison.

As a Judicial Assistant to the Supreme Court, Emmanuel worked on the following public law cases:

  • Belhaj and another v Straw and others [2017] 2 W.L.R. 456 concerning the ambit of the foreign act of state doctrine and indirect impleader in state immunity.
  • Al-Waheed v Ministry of Defence [2017] UKSC 2 about the application of art. 5(1) of the ECHR to a power of detention in a non-international armed conflict.
  • Rahmatullah v Ministry of Defence and another [2017] 2 W.L.R. 287 concerning the doctrine of Crown act of state.

Emmanuel is also instructed by GLD in employment related matters.

Winner: UK Bar Awards 2023
The Lawyer Awards 2022: Chambers of the Year