Andrew Brown

Partner
Commercial Disputes

With over 23 years’ experience of resolving high value and complex commercial disputes, including 12 years of providing litigation funding solutions and alternative fee arrangements for clients, the Legal 500 has described Andrew as one of the “forerunners in the use of third-party funding”.

He specialises in multi-party actions, court applications to freeze assets, breach of trust and fraud claims, claims against other professionals and directors’ misfeasance claims. Andrew helps claimants find greater access to justice through litigation finance and other contingent fee arrangements.

Andrew focuses on shaping potential claims and their cost budgets into viable litigation funding opportunities, securing the most competitive terms for his clients, and managing their claims to a successful conclusion whether through the courts or other commercial means.

Andrew often advises litigation financiers and other solicitors on aspects of litigation funding, alternative fee arrangements for their clients, and how to structure their litigation management, funding, insurance and fee agreements.

Through ‘outsourced’ underwriting arrangements, Andrew has also advised litigation funders on the merits of funding applications made by other law firms and has assisted funders to monitor and manage those cases to successful conclusion. Andrew has spoken about litigation funding at the Legal 500 Commercial Litigation Conference, provides training on litigation funding and alternative fee arrangements, and has published material in this area in Financier Worldwide, In-House Lawyer magazine and Huffington Post.

There is a lot of steel in him.

Chambers & Partners UK  

  • Advising a litigation funder on a claims portfolio funding and profit-sharing arrangement and designing the legal framework for the arrangement and the supporting documents.
  • Acting as an outsourced underwriter for litigation funders ensuring that applications from other law firms were suitable for funding.
  • Drafting litigation funding agreements, checking litigation management and fee agreements drafted by applicant lawyers and/or drafting ‘standard’ funding agreements and the related suite of documents (including budget presentations and recovery scenarios) for the funder.
  • Advising a ‘start up’ litigation funder looking to finance claims through a crowd funding platform.
  • Negotiating and formulating a competitive ATE insurance portfolio arrangement for a funder.
  • Liaising with litigation funders and ATE insurers, drafting and/or negotiating favourable terms and arranging for bespoke insurance products, such as cross-undertaking insurance for freezing injunctions (where the claimants do not have sufficient assets to provide the cross-undertaking to the court), checking ATE policy wording, and drafting Deeds of Indemnity and draft Anti-Avoidance Endorsements.
  • Hired by a US firm and former City firm lawyers to structure their £multi-million class actions and to ensure that all their legal documentation complied with English law. Drafting documents for them which included draft CFAs, DBAs, litigation management agreements, drafting rules for the Litigation Committee to whom each claimant in the action delegated authority, and plain English explanatory notes for the claimants.
  • Arranging litigation funding for, running, and winning a £50million breach of trust claim against a rogue director of a corporate trustee company who stripped the Trust of its assets.
  • Arranging funding and insurance terms and managing a class action for over 170 claimants (most of whom are based outside the UK) in respect of a £17.5million claim based on an unregulated collective investment scheme. We have already obtained an interim freezing injunction to secure the opponents’ assets.
  • Negotiating and obtaining litigation funding to pursue a US based telecoms company in respect of a £24million breach of contract claim. I also advised how to exit – at no cost – what was an unenforceable DBA with their previous lawyers.
  • Sourcing and negotiating competitive litigation funding terms to pursue a £19.5million claim for insolvency practitioners against rogue directors running a ‘Ponzi’ scheme to defraud hundreds of creditors. We secured freezing injunctions against the directors, which forced a favourable settlement, and successfully obtained s.236 Insolvency Act disclosure orders against the company’s (negligent) auditors, who are also now being sued using litigation funding.
  • Running a £7.5miliion claim for over 50 investors who have fallen victim to a fraudulent investment scheme involving care homes.
  • Acting for a group of Geneva based investors who had fallen victim to a £8million fraud. Obtaining suitable litigation funding and insurance terms to pursue the claim and drafting all key documentation.
  • Acting for a corporate trustee to recover over £14million from HMRC in a proprietary and equitable tracing claim (concerning the extent of HMRC’s duties to third parties who weren’t the original ‘taxpayer’).
  • Obtaining litigation funding (including taking the adverse cost risk) to successfully pursue a £4.5million breach of contract and undisclosed commission claim on behalf of a training company against the Government.
  • Acting for an Administrator of a company in a £82million professional negligence claim against an accountant and auditor who failed to detect a ‘Ponzi’ scheme being run through the company’s accounts.
  • Arranging competitive funding and insurance terms and running a claim for a pensions trustee to restore over £5.8million to the Trust.
  • Acting for a bank in a £28million multi-faceted trusts and property dispute involving former Government properties. Arranging litigation funding so that the bank could offset the risks associated with funding its own claim.
  • Arranging litigation funding for a mining company in a £38million professional negligence claim against a City law firm.
  • Acting for an insurance syndicate on contingent terms (part funded by a litigation funder) in a £multi-million claim, brought out of the jurisdiction, for negligence and breach of contract against multiple defendants for losses arising from an event cancellation due to a fire.
  • Representing a Trustee in a complex tax dispute with HMRC where they were looking to tax the Trust on £42million.
  • Financial litigation
  • Business ownership disputes
  • Urgent injunction work (particularly in employment related claims)
  • Breach of director’s duties claims
  • Corporate fraud
  • Property and construction disputes
  • Professional negligence
  • Advice on policy coverage and subrogated recoveries for insurers
  • Insolvency
  • Directors’ duties and misfeasance claims
  • Personal insolvency and bankruptcy
  • Contested insolvency proceedings
  • Liquidator’s reporting duties
  • S.236 applications
  • Insurance policy disputes

Career

  • Partner, Capital Law Limited (Jun 2007 – present)
  • Associate, Capital Law LLP (Jun 2001 – Jun 2007)
  • Solicitor, Eversheds LLP (Apr 1998 – Mar 2001)

Education

  • University of Wales, Cardiff: LLB (Hons) Law, First Class Hons
  • Award for the best overall performance

Memberships / Trustee Positions

  • The Law Society of England and Wales