John Crook

He focuses on disputes in the Cayman Islands, BVI, and Bermuda and also acts as strategic and managing counsel in high-stakes contentious and special situations matters often involving other offshore jurisdictions. He is a partner in Walkers' Insolvency, Restructuring & Dispute Resolution Group based in the Hong Kong office.

He has acted for a wide range of clients including ultra-high net worth individuals, private equity funds, multi-national companies, countries, banks, insolvency practitioners and professional trustees.
 
His caseload primarily involves:

•  shareholder / director disputes, 
•  unfair prejudice and just and equitable winding up petitions, 
•  joint venture, M&A and take private disputes, 
•  investment fund disputes, 
•  general commercial disputes, 
•  offshore strategies in support of onshore litigation and arbitration,
•  fraud and asset tracing, 
•  contentious trust matters, 
•  special situations, and
•  debt recovery and restructuring. 

John's practice includes a wide array of interlocutory work. He has particular expertise in helping clients with freezing orders, prohibitory injunctions, the appointment of receivers and other urgent injunctive relief, often in support of foreign litigation and arbitral proceedings. 
 
John is recommended in Legal 500 (Asia Pacific, 2025) where clients note that he "is an excellent team leader with rich experience in handling complex offshore disputes". 
 
He has a strong track record of working seamlessly with lawyers from diverse legal cultures and successfully developing and implementing sophisticated cross-border litigation strategies. His reputation in this regard is well earned having worked on some of the highest profile offshore litigation cases with a nexus to China in recent years. 
 
Clients and peers describe him as smart, efficient and clear in his advice, with strong strategic insight and an excellent ability to manage complex, challenging and often groundbreaking disputes. In particular, he regularly advises clients on contested board and shareholder meetings and has considerable experience helping clients manage proxy battles. More generally, he frequently provides contentious and non-contentious advice on issues involving company law, company restructures, corporate finance, directors’ and partners’ duties, and breach of trust situations. 
 
John also has deep knowledge of questions of jurisdiction and other conflicts of law and cross-border issues, including concerning the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards (including under the New York Convention). 
 
He has significant experience of commercial arbitration, including under the auspices of the ICC, LCIA, HKIAC and SIAC, as well as ad hoc arbitral proceedings under UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. John advises on all matters relating to arbitration in the Cayman Islands, BVI and Bermuda. He also accepts arbitral appointments and foreign law expert roles in both litigation and arbitral proceedings.