Ian McDonald

Ian is regularly instructed, as both junior and sole Counsel, in a broad range of commercial proceedings. His experience ranges from high-value shareholder disputes to claims for breach of contract and restitution.

Featured Commercial Litigation cases:

• Suppipat & Ors v. Narongdej & Ors [2023] EWHC 1988 (Comm): Acting for Nick Suppipat and his companies in their $US 2billion fraud claims against multiple defendants in the Commercial Court (one of The Lawyer’s ‘Top 20 Cases of 2022’).
• Acting in a multi-million-pound Commercial Court claim connected to the disputed purchase of a financial institution in Africa.
• Acting for a public sector services provider in commercial litigation against a local authority.
• Acting in a claim arising out of a services agreement for the provision of certain tax and VAT services.
• Advising on a multi-million-pound breach of contract claim brought by a financial practitioner.
• Assisting with shareholder claims under section 90A and Schedule 10A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
• Trial Counsel in a commercial dispute in respect of the interpretation of contractual terms agreed in a property marketing contract.
• Acting for a security services firm in proceedings for breach of a security services agreement.
• Acting in a claim for breach of fiduciary duty/restitution, arising out of a contract for the provision of online payment solutions.
• Advising upon and defending a substantial debt claim arising out of a business-to-business facilities management contract.

Ian is regularly instructed in international commercial and investment arbitrations, including under the UNCITRAL, ICC, and LCIA Rules and the ICSID Convention. His experience includes:

• Representing a Central American entity in an international commercial arbitration, under the ICC Rules, against a major energy company.
• Advising investors in relation to UNCITRAL arbitral proceedings against a foreign State.
• Güriş İnşaat v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (ICSID Case No. ARB/23/36): Acting for the investor in substantial investor-State arbitral proceedings under the ICSID Convention, alleging unlawful expropriation and denial of justice.
• Advising in relation to the application of the European Convention on Human Rights to refusals by Member State Courts to enforce arbitral awards.
• Part of a legal team instructed in an international commercial arbitration, under the ICC Rules, arising out of a construction project in South America.
• Acting in an international commercial arbitration, under the LCIA Rules, in connection with a share purchase agreement relating to a renewable energy project in eastern Europe.
• Advising on questions of illegality arising in a UNCITRAL arbitration relating to a construction project in Africa.
• Instructed in an arbitral dispute over the procurement, construction, testing, and commissioning of a power plant in Africa.

Ian has particular expertise in private international law. He has worked as a teaching assistant on the Conflict of Laws module on the BCL at the University of Oxford and has delivered tutorials in the same subject to visiting students at St Catherine’s College, Oxford.

Ian has also taught BPTC Commercial Dispute Resolution classes on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments at BPP University Law School. In 2017 he won The Bar Council’s Law Reform Essay Competition, for his paper “One rule for all: An end to the Abouloff double standard on fraud and foreign judgments”.

Ian has also recently contributed a chapter (focusing on the “proper law” of a contract) to The Common Law Jurisprudence of the Conflict of Laws (edited by Sarah McKibbin and Anthony Kennedy), published by Bloomsbury in May 2023.

Featured Private International Law cases:

• VP Fund Solutions (Luxembourg) SA v. GI Globinvestment Ltd [2022] EWHC 1872 (Comm): Successfully resisting a jurisdiction challenge (under both the recast Brussels I Regulation and the common law rules) in a multi-million-pound unlawful means conspiracy claim.
• Ang v. Reliantco Investments Ltd [2019] EWHC 879 (Comm): Involving a jurisdiction challenge under the recast Brussels I Regulation (in particular, the choice-of-court and consumer contract provisions).
• Advising investors on the obtaining of permission for service out of the jurisdiction and pursuit of injunctive relief against a foreign State.
• Advising a travel and lifestyle services provider on a jurisdiction challenge under the recast Brussels I Regulation (in particular, the choice-of-court and lis pendens provisions).
• Advising on service out of the jurisdiction in a large multi-jurisdictional action for deceit.
• Advising on private international law questions – in particular, the applicable law pursuant to Article 4 of the Rome II Regulation – arising in a multi-million-pound unlawful means conspiracy claim.

Ian has a strong interest in international human rights law, and the rights to liberty and security and freedom of expression in particular. He is routinely instructed in applications to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg; petitions to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; and submissions to other Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council.

Ian is currently acting for the Moscow bureau of the international media group Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and its general director, Andrey Shary, in their Article 34 application to the European Court of Human Rights, challenging Russia’s use of ‘foreign agent’ laws against them (instructed by the New York and Washington D.C. offices of Covington & Burling LLP). He is also presently part of the Counsel team representing the British-Egyptian writer and pro-democracy activist, Alaa Ahmed Seif al Islam Abd el-Fattah, before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Ian is an officer of the Human Rights Law Committee of the International Bar Association.

Before coming to the Bar, Ian originally trained and worked as a journalist and then spent five years at Liberty, the human rights organisation, in senior media and campaigns roles. In 2015 he won the Law Society’s Graham Turnbull Human Rights Essay Competition, for his entry on human rights and the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.

Ian is regularly instructed in a range of civil fraud claims as part of his broader commercial practice, his experience of which includes:

• Suppipat & Ors v. Narongdej & Ors [2023] EWHC 1988 (Comm): Acting for Nick Suppipat and his companies in their $US 2billion fraud claims against multiple defendants in the Commercial Court (one of The Lawyer’s ‘Top 20 Cases of 2022’).
• Discovery Land Company LLC & Ors v. AXIS [2023] EWHC 779 (Comm): Acting for the Defendant insurer in a multi-million-pound coverage dispute arising out of a former solicitor’s fraudulent misconduct.
• Instructed in an urgent application for freezing and proprietary injunctions and a Norwich Pharmacal order, arising out of a former solicitor’s fraudulent misconduct.
• Acting for a foreign government in proceedings against a former government lawyer for recovery of secret commissions and fraud and deceit.
• Assisting with the defence of a multi-million-pound unlawful means conspiracy claim against a Russian businessman.
• An application for a worldwide freezing injunction, arising out of a multi-million-pound fraud.

Ian is frequently instructed, as both junior and sole Counsel, in a wide variety of professional liability disputes, including actions against solicitors and barristers – in particular, “lost litigation” claims invoking “loss of a chance” principles – involving a range of underlying matters (such as property and partnership disputes, personal injury claims, and criminal proceedings).

Featured Professional Liability cases:

• Trial Counsel in proceedings involving a solicitors firm’s claim for unpaid legal fees and its former clients’ counterclaim for professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Standard Life Assurance Ltd v. Gleeds (UK) & Ors: Acting for a development manager in a multi-party claim arising out of the procurement and development of a multi-million-pound retail and residential project.
• Instructed in a high-value claim brought by a former client against a firm of chartered accountants and auditors.
• Acting in proceedings concerning the introduction of investment and tax planning opportunities.
• Sole Counsel in Clarke v. Arc Legal Assistance & Others [2020] EWHC 56 (QB), a successful strike out/summary judgment application on behalf of a legal expenses insurance manager.

Ian is also an editor of Jackson & Powell on Professional Liability (9th edition, Sweet & Maxwell 2021).