He is a leading practitioner of Cayman Islands, BVI and Bermuda commercial litigation and dispute resolution with a nexus to Asia. John also advises on insolvency, special situations and restructuring matters.
John works on matters before the Grand Court's specialist Financial Services Division, the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal, the BVI Commercial Court and the ECSC Court of Appeal in BVI and the Supreme Court in Bermuda and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. 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:
- commercial disputes,
- shareholder / director disputes,
- unfair prejudice and just and equitable winding up petitions,
- investment fund disputes,
- joint venture, M&A and take private disputes,
- offshore strategies in support of onshore litigation and arbitration,
- fraud and asset tracing,
- contentious trust matters, 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 successfully developing and implementing cross-border litigation strategies and 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.
He excels at advising clients on mitigating litigation risk and developing sophisticated strategies that put clients on the best footing possible from early stages of disputes to their conclusion. 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 has deep knowledge of questions of jurisdiction and other conflicts of law issues as well as issues concerning the enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards (including under the New York Convention).
John also 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.