Chris Keefe is a senior counsel in the Insolvency & Dispute Resolution Group at Walkers. He is an experienced commercial litigator, having advised corporate, government and institutional clients on a wide range of disputes. He specialises in contentious cross-border insolvency and restructuring and regularly advises financial institutions, investors, debtors, creditors (both secured and unsecured), investment funds and insolvency practitioners in relation to large and complex insolvencies and financially distressed situations.
Chris regularly appears in the Grand Court's specialist Financial Services Division, as well as in the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal. He has also been involved in multiple cases which have reached the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Notably, Chris has been involved in a number of recent high-profile fund / private equity disputes, including the Abraaj Group, Madoff (Herald Fund, Senator Fund, Primeo Fund, Ascot etc.), the Port Fund, Adamas, Ardon Maroon, China Huishan Dairy and General Shopping.
Amongst other current mandates, Chris presently advises the joint official liquidators of Herald Fund SPC, a Cayman Islands hedge fund involved in multi-jurisdictional litigation concerning a US$2bn exposure to the Madoff Ponzi Scheme (this role has included advising in connection with a successful $1bn+ settlement with the SIPC Trustee, as well as ground-breaking representative proceedings regarding the validity and priority of certain claims for redemption proceeds (Privy Council) and the ability of a liquidator to rectify the share register on a "net equity" basis (Court of Appeal).