Tim Hardy is Head of CMS Cameron McKenna’s Litigation department, and deals primarily with disputes concerning finance, commerce, professional negligence, product and corporate reputations.
Tim is an accredited mediator with ADR group and CEDR, a Solicitor-Advocate (Higher Courts Civil), a Non-executive Director of CEDR and a Member of CPR European sub-committee on arbitration.
Relevant experience includes advising:
- A major UK corporate – dispute with manufacturer and designer of complex automation of processes involving issues as to responsibility for system integration and design
- A UK services organisation – collapse of joint venture of three European corporations providing complex services to a State controlled employer, including terminating the contract with the employer while avoiding liability under a £100m performance bond and recovering £20m from one of the joint venture partners without recourse to court action through two mediations and a facilitation
- Acting for a US bank – in proceedings arising out of the largest ever international trade finance fraud involving rights arising from the negotiation of letters of credit where the underlying transactions were fictitious
- Eastern European commodities manufacturer – an ICC arbitration concerning defaults relating to a complex trade financing facility for the purchase of raw materials to be serviced by and secured on the manufactured product
- High Court action arising from failed hostile take over bid - dispute concerns rights to 29% of the shares in the target acquired during the bid whose value was significantly increased
- Fraud, acting for a major international bank in proceedings arising out of the largest international trade finance fraud, involving multi-party High Court proceedings in London and related actions in New York and Bahrain through associated firms. Mediations were conducted on both disputes; advising an Eastern European steel manufacturer in resisting claims in ICC arbitration brought by a UK trader under 300 contracts for the supply/ sale of raw materials/ steel products, involving allegations of bribery, corruption and fraudulent export licence applications; acting for a shipbroker defending claims brought by the two largest Russian State-owned shipping companies involved in the export of the State’s oil & gas assets, involving allegations of a fraudulent conspiracy to defraud the claimants through secret commissions and the sale of vessels at an undervalue
- Financial Services/ Funds, defending Commercial Court proceedings brought by a Private Equity Fund over rights in an Option Agreement concerning shares acquired by an investment vehicle in the context of a contested take over; settling a dispute for a major asset manager concerning negligent advice allegedly relied on by a sophisticated investor when restructuring its shareholding in various investment funds; defending a claim brought by one of the parties involved in a failed takeover bid. The claim concerned the claimant’s alleged right to a shareholding in the company that was used as a vehicle for the bid, which had acquired a substantial shareholding in the target company that subsequently turned out to be very valuable
- Insolvency and Banking, conducting an investigation for SRO into misappropriation of Mirror Group Pension Fund securities by Robert Maxwell; acting for one of the largest foreign creditors of BCCI; defending a clearing bank’s claim for security over assets in the liquidation of Polly Peck, and disputes related to letters of credit and performance bonds
- Professional negligence claims, involving solicitors, auditors relating to share and asset valuations and valuers relating to trophy properties, commercial developments and hotels
- International arbitrations, arising out of software design & licensing, drug development licensing, scrap steel sale contracts and acted for the plaintiff in the leading case on the enforcement of non-domestic arbitration agreements
- Product liability, involving pharmaceuticals, cable insulation, refinery equipment, pipelines and construction industry products
- Media law libel actions, complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Commission and the Press Complaints Commission, including complaints for Barratt Developments, The Nutrasweet Company, Dixons, Schering, Camelot, Airtours and Monsanto
- Mediation, as a mediator or representative of a party, including disputes concerning dishonoured cheques, warranty claims, building disputes and IT contracts
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