Band 4
Band 4
Provided by Lara Hassell-Hart
Lara has a busy litigation practice spanning a wide range of commercial chancery work, including commercial, financial services and banking, regulatory, civil fraud, insolvency and company litigation. She has substantial experience of large High Court trials and working in small and big counsel and solicitor teams.
Notable cases include: the Lloyds/HBOS shareholder litigation (a 12 week banking trial arising from Lloyds’ acquisition of HBOS in the 2008 banking crisis); Autonomy and Ors v Lynch and Anor liability trial (10 month £5bn civil fraud trial arising from Hewlett Packard’s acquisition of Autonomy); Travelport & Ors v WEX (a 7 day expedited trial in the Commercial Court; the leading English authority on material adverse change clauses); Re Bulb Energy Limited (the UK’s first ever application for an energy supply company special administration order); Croxen & Ors v Gas and Electricity Markets Authority and Ors (a complex 5-day insolvency hearing regarding the ability of OFGEM and other energy supply companies to prove in the insolvencies of other energy companies); Re Spring Media Investments Limited (3 week trial under ss.994-996 of the Companies Act; later an appeal and cross-appeal to the Court of Appeal); Staley v Financial Conduct Authority (a high-profile Upper Tribunal trial of the FCA’s decision to impose a penalty and prohibition order on the ex-CEO of Barclays); Lopez Gonzalez and Ors v Financial Conduct Authority (a complex 3 week market abuse trial in the Upper Tribunal, arising out of three bond traders’ manipulative trading of Italian futures on the EUREX exchange).
In addition to her private practice, Lara also undertakes work on behalf of the UK Government, having been appointed to C panel in 2022 and B panel in 2025. She regularly advises and appears for other public bodies and regulators, including the Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Reporting Council, and OFGEM.
Lara was one of 19 barristers named in The Lawyer’s ‘Hot 100’ of 2022.
Called 2014 (Middle Temple, Astbury Scholar)
2012: BA History, University of Cambridge (Girton College)
2013: GDL at City University
2014: BPTC at City University
COMBAR, ChBA, FSLA
Contributor to Loose & Griffiths on Liquidators (9th ed.) (2019)
‘Commercial Law and Financial Regulation’, United Kingdom Supreme Court Yearbook vol. 7 (2016) (co-authored with Jonathan Crow KC and Emma Horner)
Provided by Chambers
Lara Hassell-Hart has expertise in a broad range of financial services cases as well as disputes within the regulatory sphere. She regularly acts for the FCA and is particularly skilled in handling investigations and misconduct.
Provided by Chambers
Lara is jaw-droppingly able and provides clarity in her analysis. Her drafting is fabulous and she is a real team player.
Lara is an excellent junior, her drafting is fantastic and she has great judgement. She has a very high level of technical knowledge and handles complex contentious regulatory matters.
Lara is incredibly diligent, has first-rate knowledge and is hugely impressive.
Lara is extremely bright and is able to advise on complex technical legal problems in a practical way that is very user-friendly. She has excellent judgement and litigation strategy skills.
She is a really exceptional junior, very clever and proactive in driving the strategy in a case.
Lara is very diligent and good on the details of a technical case.
Lara is an extremely good junior. She's excellent at the paperwork and is able to devour huge amounts of written material in a short time in order to get on top of things.
Lara is relatively junior but extremely hard-working. She gets into the detail of the case and commands the confidence of clients.
Lara is jaw-droppingly able and provides clarity in her analysis. Her drafting is fabulous and she is a real team player.
Lara is an excellent junior, her drafting is fantastic and she has great judgement. She has a very high level of technical knowledge and handles complex contentious regulatory matters.
Lara is incredibly diligent, has first-rate knowledge and is hugely impressive.
Lara is extremely bright and is able to advise on complex technical legal problems in a practical way that is very user-friendly. She has excellent judgement and litigation strategy skills.
She is a really exceptional junior, very clever and proactive in driving the strategy in a case.
Lara is very diligent and good on the details of a technical case.
Lara is an extremely good junior. She's excellent at the paperwork and is able to devour huge amounts of written material in a short time in order to get on top of things.
Lara is relatively junior but extremely hard-working. She gets into the detail of the case and commands the confidence of clients.