John McDonnell KC

December 2, 2015

In 2004 John McDonnell founded Thirteen Old Square Chambers which merged with 3 Stone Buildings in 2016 to form Three Stone where he is now Head of Chambers.

He is one of the most senior Chancery Silks.

He has always enjoyed an unusually varied practice as can be seen from the list of his reported cases.

He has been admitted to the Bar for the purpose of local cases in Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.

He has been appearing regularly in Hong Kong since 1978 and has won a succession of landmark property cases in the Court of Final Appeal.

The cases which have given him most satisfaction were

  • Lloyds Bank Pension Trust  Lloyds Bank plc [1996] PLR 263 where he appeared for a representative member of the Bank’s Pension Scheme and defeated an attempt by the Bank and the Trustees to level down the benefits of female pensioners, earning the editorial comment in the Pensions Law Reports: “There have been some bizarre decisions recently in the pensions field, but this one takes the biscuit!”
  • Re OT Computers Ltd [2004] Ch 317 where he established that the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 1930 applies to all insurable liabilities and is not limited to motor insurance.
  • Fok Lai-ying The Governor in Council [1997] HKLRD 810 where he persuaded the Privy Council to make a landmark decision about the Hong Kong Bill of Rights only weeks before Hong Kong was returned to China
  • Barclays Bank TOSG Trust Fund [1984] AC 626 which his Leader (now Lord Millett) still describes as the most difficult case he ever argued and which explains the Rule against Double Proof in the law of insolvency
  • Brackenbank Lodge Ltd v Peart [1996] NPC 124 (HL) in which Lord Browne-Wilkinson said “Mr McDonnell’s written case is an outstanding piece of research and scholarship” and
  • The two leading cases of Gillet v Holt [2001] Ch 210 and Thorner v Major [2009] 1 WLR 776 (HL) which have definitively laid down the modern law of proprietary estoppel.

Michael Jefferis

Michael is an experienced advocate with a very wide field of practice.

Michael has been in busy full time practice at the Chancery Bar for over 40 years. His work involves all possible aspects of broad Chancery practice including company, insolvency, landlord and tenant, (residential and business), mortgages, guarantees, trusts, conveyancing, Inheritance Act claims, probate, will construction, rectification, boundary disputes, party walls, joint property disputes, professional negligence, commercial contracts and building disputes. He has considerable experience in high value matrimonial property disputes. He also specialises in Town and Country Planning and Local Government work, including Judicial Review.

Whilst he is very experienced in all these fields, his practice has developed a particular focus at times. For example, he spent much of his time from 1992 to 1996 acting for one very well known client in a mass of company related matters and from 1997 to 2001 acting for Lloyd’s Names and groups of Names. He represented a number of Names in the preliminary stages of the well-known Society of Lloyd’s v Jaffray trial. He has appeared in many proprietary estoppel cases including appearing in the House of Lords, with John McDonnell QC in the leading case of Thorner v Majors.

He also has an international element to his practice working for a major French shipping line and, through them, other French clients.


Francis Collaço Moraes

December 30, 2015

Francis is a commercial chancery practitioner. His practice covers the following areas:

General Chancery:

Including real property, trusts, mortgages, charges, probate, commercial leases, the Inheritance Act and property-related torts. He advises on civil fraud and asset tracing and recovery. Francis advises on the administrations of trusts and Court of Protection work, including dealing with the assets of patients and their attorneys/deputies.
He is listed in the Legal 500 in the category of property litigation, which notes that he is ‘much appreciated by clients for his user friendly approach and commercial advice’.

Commercial Law:

Including companies, partnerships, commercial agreements, and sale of goods, misrepresentation, and mistake. He has advised on ISDA agreements.

Insolvency:

Both corporate and personal, though he principally acts for office holders. He was Counsel instructed in the first administration of a firm of Solicitors and in the first successful administration of an underwriting agency. He is listed in the Legal 500 as a leading junior in insolvency.

Equitable Doctrines and Remedies:

Including tracing, resulting and constructive trusts, freezing and seizure orders and injunctions

Professional Negligence:

Auditors and Accountants, Lawyers and Surveyors

General:

Francis accepts instructions via the Direct Professional Access/Licensed Accessed procedure and he is a member of the Pro Bono Unit. In August 2004, he was granted a temporary advocate’s licence to act on the Isle of Man.


Laurence Vaughan-Williams

December 2, 2015

Laurence is qualified both in England and Wales and the Isle of Man where he sits as a part time Employment Judge and serves as Chairman of several Isle of Man Government Tribunals including the Financial Services Tribunal and Collective Investment Schemes Tribunal. This experience enables him to advise with confidence upon Employment Law, Financial Services, Directors’ Disqualification, Company Law and the law of the Isle of Man.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has an international practice. He believes in being pro-active rather than re-active.

He has also advised many local authorities in England and Wales upon land and property matters and has been instructed in major planning appeals.

Laurence believes that Gilbert and Sullivan were correct in stating that “Quiet calm deliberation disentangles every knot” and that thorough preparation and positive legal advice based upon a grasp of the commercial realities can make litigation cost effective.