Shail Patel KC

Practice Areas

Commercial litigation with a particular focus on financial services, fraud, insurance, professional liability, funding and costs. He also advises in regulatory and disciplinary investigations and enforcement proceedings. He is ranked in the directories across seven practice areas.

His caseload spans multi-jurisdictional disputes in court and arbitration proceedings. It includes corporate and shareholder disputes and claims against officers, trustees and recipients of funds, particularly where those claims have an off-shore element.

He is a leading specialist in securities fraud actions under s.90 and s.90A of FSMA and has been instructed in more than 10 separate actions including Tesco, RBS and other confidential matters.

He is also experienced at obtaining and defending applications for urgent injunctive relief, including freezing, evidence preservation and Norwich Pharmacal orders.

Prior to talking silk, he was nominated for commercial litigation junior of the year, financial services and insurance junior of the year and professional negligence junior of the year.

Key recent cases include:

•Various Investors v G4S; standing to sue ([2021] EWHC 524 (Ch)), case management in s.90A group cases ([2022] EWHC 1742 (Ch)), the meaning of PDMR under FSMA ([2022] EWHC 1081 (Ch)), the application of the shareholder-privilege exception ([2023] EWHC 2863).

•Al Jaber v Al Ibrahim ([2023] EWHC 2831 (Comm)) – 4 week trial in a $30m case involving serious allegations of fraud and dishonesty, as well as applicable law and Sharia Law issues.

•Mercy v Standard Chartered [2024] EWCA Civ. 674, now the leading authority on pleading fraud allegations in ‘information imbalance’ cases.