Ernest Leung

Recent and ongoing work includes:

Commercial

• Advising a bank on the legality of providing investment information to a family member of a sanctioned individual under the Russian (EU) (Sanctions) Regulations 2019.
• Opining on the validity of a request for arbitration in the LCIA made by a director acting without the requisite authority under the company’s articles of association.
• Re Corfu Hotel: opining on the proper interpretation of a distribution waterfall provision in a shareholders agreement for a joint venture.
• CFI 030/2022 Mad Atelier International BV v Axel Manes & Anor (DIFC): resisting the enforcement of an English court judgment in the DIFC (with Tim Taylor KC and Jonathan Chew during pupillage).

Civil Fraud

• Project Mountain: instructed to represent the defendant in a €40 million claim in embezzlement and fraud by an overseas listed company; the claim was listed for a 7-week trial in the commercial court and involved matters of Swiss, German and Austrian law (led by Alan Gourgey KC, Bobby Friedman, and Tara Taylor).
• Say Chong Lim & Ors v Chee Kong Ong & Ors [2023] EWHC 321 (Ch): application for an injunction to appoint directors into the corporate structure to prevent the dissipation of assets prior to the execution of a judgment (during pupillage, with James Bailey KC and James Goodwin).
• Advising on whether a bank account subject to security interests amounts to ‘realisable property’ for the purposes of the Guernsey Proceeds of Crime regime (during pupillage, with Tom Robinson).

Insolvency

• Candy Ventures SARL v Tamara Miguel Ralph, a £21 million claim against the former director of a company in liquidation for failure to properly manage the company and for setting up a business in competition; Ernest was instructed as sole counsel for the Claimant in an application to extend the deadline for payment of security for costs.
• Lehman Brothers Holdings Scottish LP 3 v Lehman Brothers Holdings Plc [2021] EWCA Civ 1523: in the Court of Appeal in the latest round of the ‘Waterfall’ litigation to establish the priority of creditors following the collapse of Lehman Brothers (during pupillage, with Lexa Hilliard KC and Tom Roscoe).
• VR Global v Broadsheet LLC (in liquidation) 2DS 2023/06: a two-day hearing in the Court of Appeal of the Isle of Man on the ranking of liquidation expenses, liquidator’s power to create security, and the legality of a subordination agreement (during pupillage, with Tom Robinson).
• Ernest appears regularly in the Companies Winding-up List.

Trusts, Probate, and Private Wealth

Ernest was recently on secondment at the Private Wealth Dispute team in Charles Russell Speechlys. During which time he was involved in the following matters:

• Advising a private wealth advisor to a prominent personal advisor to a Middle Eastern royal family on the duties owed under a power of attorney and the recovery of fees under a private wealth management agreement.
• Advising a trustee bank in the Bahamas on the proper interpretation of an immunity from suit provision under the relevant Bahaman Common Reporting Standard regulations.

During pupillage and in his private practice:

• Advising a charity in setting aside a disposition under section 423 of the Insolvency Act (transactions defrauding creditors).
• Acting for a widow of a deceased in relation to claims under the Inheritance Act, ToLATA, and in postponing possession proceedings brought by the deceased’s mortgagee (led by Harriet Holmes).
• Acting for a high net-worth client in opposing a beneficiary’s challenge to the trustee’s exercise of powers of appointment involving allegations of inadequate deliberation and breach of duty by protectors of a Guernsey trust (during pupillage, with Brian Green KC and Tom Roscoe).

Property

• Tropical Zoo Limited v London Borough of Hounslow [2024] EWHC 1240 (Ch): concerned a 125-year lease over 25 acres of land by Heathrow Airport; issues include whether the returning of rent (mistakenly) to the wrong account amounts to an act of waiver and whether the right to forfeit a lease can be waived during the currency of a s. 146 notice.
• Representing a bank in enforcing a residential mortgage for a £50 million debt involving issues of mental capacity of the defendant and collateral contracts (led by Alice Hawker).
• Adjoin Ltd v Fortytwo House SarL [2022] EWHC 2710 (Ch): a right to light dispute relating to a new development in the City (during pupillage, with John McGhee KC and Harriet Holmes).