Harry McGowan

Practice Areas

Harry specialises in securities litigation including statutory claims (s90 and s90A Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA)), bondholder and ISDA derivative disputes. Harry had a 20-year career in investment banking, trading credit and credit derivatives before requalifying as a lawyer.

Harry’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, hedge funds, private equity firms and public and private pension funds.

His experience covers complicated multiparty cases (including group litigation) in relation to mis-selling of financial products, misstatements in prospectuses (s90 FSMA), misleading statements to the markets (s90A) and bondholder and ISDA disputes.

Harry has experience acting for and against banks, and his work often involves multi-jurisdictional issues.

Career

Harry had a 20-year career in investment banking, trading and structuring credit and credit derivative products including synthetic CDOs and hybrid credit products (eg equity-credit, FX-credit). Harry requalified as a lawyer and then joined Stewarts in 2015, becoming a partner in 2022.

Professional Memberships

Harry is a CFA® charterholder and is a member of the London Solicitors Litigation Association.

Work Highlights

- Acting for 313 institutional investors in the first group securities litigation of its kind in England, a claim against RBS in relation to its 2008 rights issue prospectus.

- Acting for sovereign wealth funds, institutional asset managers and public pension funds in a s90A FSMA claim, in relation to Tesco allegedly making misleading statements to the market.

- Acting for institutional investors following alleged misstatements and omissions relating to the Glencore IPO and its merger with Xstrata in 2013.

- Acting for institutional investors in relation to alleged misstatements and omissions to the markets made by Petrofac.

- Acting for an investment bank in a derivative close-out dispute.

- Acting for minority shareholders in a dispute with a private equity firm over the terms of a buy-out.