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Leslie Kosmin QC

Called: 1976

Silk: 1994

 

Education

• Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
• Harvard Law School

Degrees

M.A. LLM. (Cantab) LLM. (Harvard)

Career

• Admitted to the Middle Temple: January 1973
• Chancellor’s Medal in English Law, University of Cambridge 1974
• John F. Kennedy Scholarship to Harvard Law School 1974-75
• College Lecturer in Law and Supernumerary Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1975-78
• Called to the Bar: July 1976
• Appointed Queen’s Counsel: April 1994
• Deputy High Court Judge: April 2001
• Master of the Bench of the Middle Temple 2004

Practice

My practice comprises a large amount of litigation and advisory work in the fields of Company Law and Corporate Insolvency, specialising in internal company disputes, directors’ duties, shareholders’ rights and remedies, take-overs and aspects of financial services. I have advised on the internal operations of a wide range of companies (including football clubs), public bodies and building societies and am frequently asked to advise on meetings and resolutions.

I have been instructed in relation to numerous Section 459 petitions and petitions seeking the winding up of companies on the just and equitable ground (under both English law and the equivalent Commonwealth statutes). I have also been instructed in relation to several of the largest and most complicated liquidations, including Railtrack Group PLC, Barings Bank, Polly Peck International Plc, Maxwell Communications Corporation Plc and BCCI.

In addition, much of my work has involved claims of professional negligence against accountants and solicitors. The claims against accountants have arisen in respect of the performance of their audit functions and their roles as reporting accountants on acquisitions. The actions against solicitors have involved many different aspects of Company Law, including corporate re-constructions, acquisitions and share issues, and more general legal matters.

I have been instructed in relation to proceedings in a number of Commonwealth jurisdictions including Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, India, Jersey, Malaysia , Singapore, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. I have appeared in Court in Bermuda, Hong Kong, the Isle of Man and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Member (and Bar representative) of the Law Commission Working Party on Shareholders’ Remedies

Member of the Chancery Bar Association and the Commercial Bar Association Contributor to “Practice and Procedure of the Companies Court” published by LLP (1997), being the author of the Chapters on Section 459 Petitions and Just and Equitable Petitions.

Case List

• Ting v Borrelli
  Ref: Supreme Court of Bermuda, 5 December 2007
• Joint Liquidators of Kong Wah Holdings Limited v. Grande Holdings Limited
  Ref: [2007] 1 HKLRD 116 (Court of Final Appeal, Hong Kong SAR)
• Ineos Vinyls Limited v. Huntsman Petrochemicals
  Ref: [2006] EWHC 1241
• Re British American Racing (Holdings) Limited
  Ref: [2005] 2 BCLC 234
• Pena v Dale
  Ref: [2004] 2 BCLC 508
• Land Rover v KPMG
  Ref: [2003] 2 BCLC 222 (HHJ Norris QC, Birmingham Mercantile Court)
• Macclesfield v Parker
  Ref: [2003] EWHC 1846 (Ch)
• Jones v Jones
  Ref: [2003] BCC 226 (C.A.)
• CAS Nominees Limited v Nottingham Forest FC plc
  Ref: [2002] BCC 145 (Hart J).
• Konamaneni v Rolls Royce Industrial Power (India) Ltd
  Ref: [2002] 1 WLR 1269, [2002] 1 BCLC 336 (Lawrence Collins J)
• Deakin v Faulding
  Ref: (31 July 2001) (Hart J, unreported)
• Platt v Platt
  Ref: [2001] 1 BCLC 698 (CA)
• Great Future International Ltd v Sealand Housing Corporation
  Ref: [2002] EWHC 2454 (Lightman J).
• Specialist Group International Ltd v. Deakin
  Ref: [2001] EWCA Civ 777; [2001] All ER (D) 287
• Re CA Pacific Finance Ltd.
  Ref: [2000] 1 BCLC 494 (Court of First Instance, Hong Kong)
• England v. Smith, re Southern Equities Corp. Ltd.
  Ref: [2001] Ch 419, [2000] BCC 123, [2000] 2 BCLC 21 (CA)
• Heaton v. AXA Equity & Law
  Ref: [2002] UKHL 15, [2002] 2 AC 329, [2002] 2 WLR 1081 (House of Lords)
• Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Cosmos Trading Corp
  Ref: [2000] BCC 910 (CA)
• Re Banque Financiere de la Cité v. Parc
  Ref: [1999] AC 221 (House of Lords)