EVENT: Secret commissions and unauthorised profits: the latest developments

Our September Commercial Litigation seminar took stock of the latest developments in the law relating to secret commissions and unauthorised profits:

• The liability of fiduciaries (and those who dishonestly assist them) to account for profits made in breach of fiduciary duty. This has been thoroughly re-examined by the Supreme Court in the recent cases of Rukhadze v Recovery Partners GP Ltd [2025] UKSC 10 and Stevens v Hotel Portfolio II UK Ltd [2025] UKSC 28 in which Sebastian Kokelaar appeared for the respondent.
• The liability that arises out of the payment of secret (and half-secret) commissions to a third-party intermediary/broker – the subject of two recent decisions: the very recent Supreme Court decision in Johnson v FirstRand [2025] UKSC 33, and Expert Tooling and Automation Ltd v Engie Power Ltd [2025] in which David Lord KC and Stuart Cutting appeared for the respondent. The appeal to the Supreme Court in Expert Tooling is still pending.

The seminar provided a comprehensive survey of the state of the law in these important areas and offered practical advice as to how to frame and defend claims.