Anthony Pavlovich

Banking, including retail, commercial and investment banking, particularly mortgages and corporate charges, guarantees, consumer credit, credit-reference agencies / data protection, money laundering, bills of exchange, trusts, LMA terms and ISDA Master Agreements; also complex possession claims and co-ownership

• Sole junior (led by Matthew Hardwick KC) for an investment bank claiming $48 million under an ISDA Master Agreement in respect of foreign-exchange derivatives
• Sole junior (led by Adam Kramer KC) for a payment services provider in a fraudulent payment matter similar to Tecnimont Arabia Ltd (below)
• Senior junior (led by Tony Singla KC) for Leonteq in defending a complex misselling claim in the Commercial Court; the claim involved detailed analysis of the numerous causes of action, as well as of the structured products said to have been missold
• Sole junior (led by Adam Kramer KC) for NatWest Bank in a claim relating to a $5 million authorised push-payment fraud; the judgment helped to develop the law of unjust enrichment in analysing the claimant’s case as to why the recipient bank should be liable: Tecnimont Arabia Ltd v National Westminster Bank Plc [2022] EWHC 1172 (Comm)
• Sole junior (led by Matthew Parker KC) for an Azeri company suing its bank, BNP Paribas, for losses arising from a $7 million authorised push-payment fraud
• Sole junior (led by Andrew Sutcliffe KC) for Worldpay defending claims by customers on the basis of suspected money-laundering
• Sole junior (led by Andrew Sutcliffe KC) in advising a company on the GDPR implications of complying with a request for information from an enforcement agency
• Sole counsel for a major bank defending discrimination claims by customers on the basis of suspected money-laundering
• Sole counsel for the lenders in an appeal against an order for possession, in which the borrower sought to allege on appeal that there was an unfair relationship: Goldhill Finance Ltd v Smyth [2023] EWHC 362 (KB)
• Sole counsel for the lenders in separate four-day and three-day trials of possession claims raising points of consumer-credit law, unfair relationships and the mortgagee’s right to possession: Goldhill Finance Ltd v Berry [2018] 10 WLUK 480
• Sole counsel in the Crown Court in confiscation proceedings resulting from a mortgage fraud (having acted for two years in the parallel civil proceedings)
• Acted pro bono for a beneficiary of a trust over shares that were sold as bona vacantia, including in a three-day Chancery trial
• Appeared pro bono in a four-day County Court trial of a claim for a debt under an oral loan agreement (and advised on disposing of parallel bankruptcy proceedings)
• Acted pro bono over the course of 18 months in defending a party to a co-ownership deed from a claim for possession and sale, and helped to achieve a settlement.

Financial-services regulation, particularly misselling of swaps, investments, pensions, mortgages and PPI, and professional conduct

Anthony also has an interest in pensions law, and took a course with the Association of Pensions Lawyers with a view to undertaking more work in this area.

• Assisted a major bank with the quantum element of the FCA Review, and assisted in the ‘skilled person’ review of another major bank
• Advised a variety of banks and customers on the merits and quantum of misselling claims

Civil fraud, economic torts, proceeds of crime and tracing (appointed to the SFO’s Proceeds of Crime International Assistance Panel B in December 2020)

• Part of the counsel team (led by Adrian Beltrami KC) for Grant Thornton UK LLP and two of its partners in the multi-billion-pound conspiracy claims brought by Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz in the Commercial Court, both of which were ultimately withdrawn (in the latter case only at the beginning of the 12-week trial)
• Sole junior (led by Andrew Sutcliffe KC) in an application by the National Crime Agency for a property freezing order and disclosure order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
• Sole counsel in a €1.3 million claim in the Circuit Commercial Court regarding an international-payment fraud, involving questions of the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and the Money Laundering (etc) Regulations 2017

Commercial contracts, particularly sale-and-purchase agreements, sale of goods, factoring and settlements

• Sole junior (led by Andrew Sutcliffe KC) acting for a package-holiday organiser in claiming £2 million in refunds for the cost of flights that were not provided as booked following the coronavirus pandemic, culminating in a successful two-day summary-judgment hearing; the judgment included the first judicial analysis of Regulation 29 of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018: On the Beach Ltd v Ryanair UK Ltd [2023] EWHC 2694 (Comm)
• Advised a national retailer on the implications of different methods of terminating a contract with a supplier
• Sole counsel in a Circuit Commercial Court claim for unpaid invoices, repudiatory breach of contract and negligence, with a £1 million counterclaim: Vissim AS v Nesspoint Ltd
• Sole counsel in a three-day Circuit Commercial Court trial and four interlocutory hearings regarding a claim for commission that had been clawed-back: Wales v CBRE [2020] EWHC 16 (Comm)
• Sole counsel in a three-day Chancery trial of a £6 million claim resulting from the settlement of a fraud dispute: Sait v Durbar [2017] 4 WLUK 438
• Sole counsel in a $2.5 million LCIA arbitration regarding the factoring of international-trade receivables

Insolvency, both individual and corporate, particularly statutory demands, winding up, administration, enforcement by liquidators / trustees in bankruptcy, and claims involving insolvent companies

• Sole junior (led by Matthew Hardwick KC and Daniel Bayfield KC) for an investment bank responding to an application under the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 and an associated application to sanction a scheme of arrangement
• Sole counsel for investors in an application by administrators for an order for sale of property under paragraph 71, schedule B1, Insolvency Act 1986
• Sole counsel for a pension provider in resisting a claim by a trustee in bankruptcy for the bankrupt’s pension, including questions of the anti-deprivation principle and Scots law
• Appeared pro bono for the debtor in a Chancery appeal against the dismissal of a bankruptcy petition, and in respect of a subsequent petition that raised issues under the Equality Act: HMRC v Freitas [2016] EWHC 1433 (Ch), [2016] BPIR 1179 and [2022] EWHC 1946 (Ch), [2022] BPIR 1470
• Appeared for the creditor and (alleged) debtor in various applications to restrain presentation of winding-up petitions

Company and partnership disputes, particularly questions of agreements between the shareholders or partners, company valuation, directors’ duties / disqualification and the register of companies

• Sole counsel in £1.4 million unfair-prejudice proceedings and co-counsel in related contract and copyright proceedings, resulting in an eight-day trial of liability and five-day trial of quantum: Potamianos v Prescott [2018] EWHC 1924 (Ch) and [2020] EWHC 3465 (Ch); sole counsel in the three-day appeal in the Court of Appeal [2019] EWCA Civ 932
• Advised various companies contemplating a change of ownership as to the implications of defective share buybacks and (in one case) the lack of a shareholder register
• Sole junior counsel (led by Hefin Rees KC) in an eight-day trial of an unfair prejudice claim, raising issues of property- and company-valuation: Yusuf v Yusuf [2019] EWHC 90 (Ch)
• Sole counsel in a four-day Chancery trial concerning the existence of a partnership
• Appeared for a company seeking to remove unauthorised references to it in the register of companies
• Drafted a 24-page Defence in a directors’-duties claim relating to an alleged international investment-fraud
• Advised a former director pro bono on proceedings to disqualify him

Professional negligence by investment managers, accountants, valuers and solicitors

• Drafted a 19-page solicitors’ negligence claim
• Drafted a 40-page auditor’s negligence claim (led by a KC at another commercial set)
• Advised investors on a negligence claim against an investment manager and drafted particulars of claim
• Advised a bank on a potential negligence claim in respect of a pension plan

Director in Deutsche Bank’s Equity Derivatives Strategy Group

• Advised on investments in mergers and other special situations
• Worked on the valuation of companies and of derivatives (including a peer-reviewed article for Risk magazine)
• Twice voted a top-ranked analyst in Institutional Investor’s All-Europe Research Team surveys
• Received the internationally recognised ‘Chartered Financial Analyst’ Charter

• French
• German (reading)