Personal
Stephen is a partner in the commercial dispute resolution team. He is a commercial litigation and contentious insolvency specialist advising on complicated, high value matters that require in-depth knowledge across multiple disciplines.
Stephen has significant experience in litigating in the High Court and Court of Appeal where he has successfully acted for a number of clients in several reported cases. He advises large international corporations as well as owner managed businesses. His sectors include Automotive, Energy, and Financial Services with an in-depth knowledge of mobile and residential home parks. He also advises some of the largest restructuring and insolvency firms in the UK.
Stephen is the Deputy Vice President of R3 the trade association for the entire community of the UK's insolvency and restructuring profession where he also chairs the Smaller Practitioner Group. He is the current Chair of R3 Midlands.
Work Highlights
• company and partnership law where he has been involved in two Court of Appeal cases concerning unfair prejudice and dissolution of partnerships (Loveridge v Loveridge [2020] EWCA Civ 1104 and Loveridge v Loveridge [2021] EWCA Civ 1697)
• civil fraud where he successfully defended two directors in claims brought by a litigation funder exceeding £33 million (Henderson & Jones Ltd v Ross (and others) [2023] EWHC 1276 (Ch)) as well as successfully defending an individual alleged to have been involved in a £18 million Ponzi scheme (Town & Country Properties (GB) Limited v Black Capital and Others [2022] EWHC 2914 (Ch)
• pursuing claims against directors for breach of duty as well as defending individuals against those claims (Henderson & Jones Ltd v Ross (and others) [2023] EWHC 1276 (Ch))
• acting for business owners in successfully opposing injunctions that would have prevented them from running a business they had developed over 40 years (Loveridge v Loveridge [2020] EWCA Civ 1104)
• successfully opposing a freezing injunction brought by a provisional liquidator resulting in a Court of Appeal authority on the requirement to provide an unlimited cross undertaking in damages (Hunt v Ubhi [2023] EWCA Civ 417)
• cross border litigation including interim applications to contest jurisdiction of proceedings in a breach of contract claim (Alliance Automotive Procurement Ltd v Auto Zatoka Spolka Z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnoscia [2025] EWHC 1697 (Ch))
• acting for both creditors and debtors in insolvency proceedings with him successfully defending a bankruptcy petition for over £18 million against an individual. The proceedings involved four reported cases including Town and Country Properties (GB) Limited and others v Patel and Others [2023] EWHC 1168 (Ch)