Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has handed the counsel mandate for PCP Capital Partners’ bitterly contested litigation against Barclays to Essex Court Chambers’ Joe Smouha QC.
Smouha will now lead Blackstone Chambers’ junior Robert Weekes, instructed by Quinn London co-managing partner Richard East who is leading the case opposite Simmons & Simmons partner Stephen Moses, 3 Verulam Buildings’ Ewan McQuater, and One Essex Court juniors Alexander Polloy and Oliver Butler.
Wilberforce Chambers’ John Wardell QC was representing the US firm’s client in one of the biggest claims featuring in The Laywer’s Top 20 cases of 2019.
The case is significant not only for the $1bn claim involved in it, but also for the case’s foundations involving financier Amanda Staveley’s enormous £11.8bn fundraising that saved Barclays from a UK Government bailout during the financial crash of 2008.
That amount was reached with the state of Qatar, though Staveley argues that she would not have set up a parallel fund with an Abu Dhabi-based consortium had she been aware of the Qatar deal.
Barclays has gone on record to describe Staveley’s claim as misconceived and is expected to be heard in the commercial court on 1 October.
The case was scheduled for sooner, though it was postponed so as not to interfere with a Serious Fraud Office investigation into Barclays’ dealings with Qatar.
For Smouha, he will now face a business that he has called a client in the past; he acted for Barclays in its dispute with Italian banking giant UniCredit in 2014.
The legal lineup in full:
For the claimant, (1) PCP Capital Partners LLP & (2) PCP International Finance Limited
Essex Court’s Joe Smouha QC and Blackstone Chambers’ Robert Weekes, instructed by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner Richard East
For the defendant, Barclays Bank PLC
3 Verulam Buildings’ Ewan McQuater QC, and One Essex Court’s Alexander Polley and Oliver Butler, instructed by Simmons & Simmons partner Stephen Moses
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