Firstly, can you provide a brief overview of the Mishcon Fraud Group? Mishcon Fraud Group is a sub-group of Mishcon's wider Litigation Department. It has approximately 60 practitioners, including 12 partners. What distinguishes our group from many others is that the vast majority of the work that we undertake is in fact civil fraud, injunctive and asset tracing type work as opposed to the inverse, where many practitioners undertake general commercial litigation and a small percentage of fraud and injunctive work. We also undertake both claimant and defendant work, which allows both skillsets and know-how to feed off each other. What specific types of work or cases are keeping the department busy at the moment? What is the client profile in this type of work? We have traditionally been instructed in large cross-jurisdictional matters involving large UK-based corporations, overseas-based large corporations or high net worth individuals in control of such corporations. Within those client groupings, we have been and continue to be instructed in classic ‘fraud matters’ where there has been obvious dishonest conduct in commercial dealings, which invariably require injunctive measures – often in multiple jurisdictions – in the form of search orders, freezing injunctions and thirdparty disclosure orders. In the last five years or so, the department has been instructed on numerous non-performing loan (NPL) matters on behalf of various international banks, essentially using the same injunctive toolkit to obtain meaningful recoveries for the clients. Another significant area of work in the last few years has been in the crypto space, where there have been substantial losses on the part of the claimant or the claimant group. In these cases we utilise our injunctive expertise, combining with our investigation colleagues both inside and outside of the firm to identify the wrongdoing, the Obtaining and Keeping Freezing Injunctions 44 LAWYERMONTHLYDECEMBER 2022 In investigating and litigating instances of fraud, freezing injunctions present an invaluable tool in locking down an entity’s assets and compelling disclosure. However, the bar for receiving these injunctions is not easy to clear, requiring a strong case and difficult discussions with clients in order to obtain them and keep them from being discharged. In this feature we hear from Robert Wynn Jones, partner in Mishcon de Reya’s Fraud Group, who expands on this process and how he and his colleagues bring their expertise to bear in obtaining and keeping freezing injunctions. Expert Insight
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