Luke specialises in complex and high-value corporate, commercial, and civil fraud disputes.
Luke’s practice focuses on corporate and business disputes where he advises corporates, publicly-traded companies, funds, family offices, shareholders, directors, entrepreneurs and HNW individuals across several sectors including financial services, private equity, real estate, hospitality, tech and sport. Luke has experience in both litigation and international arbitration.
Luke’s experience includes M&A disputes, shareholder rights and unfair prejudice claims, fraudulent/negligent misrepresentation claims, conspiracy claims, contentious insolvency and restructurings and claims involving breaches of commercial agreements/joint venture agreements. Luke also advises on directors’ duties and duties of fiduciaries.
Luke has experience before the High Court, the Competition Appeal Tribunal and in LCIA arbitrations. His work is often cross-border and has involved parallel proceedings in different jurisdictions, including the US, France, Russia, Hong Kong, Jersey and Gibraltar.
Luke has acted for clients in several high-profile trials and has experience bringing and defending injunction applications (including freezing orders).
Luke is a member of the associates’ committee of the Commercial Litigators’ Forum, a member of the Young Fraud Lawyers Association and is a member of the firm’s Crypto Working Group.
Experience
- Acting for one of the lenders involved in the “tuna bonds” litigation, concerning loans made to state-owned entities in Mozambique in excess of US$2bn which were challenged on the basis that they were procured by bribery and corruption. The case featured on The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases list for 2023.
- Representing a global travel technology company in an expedited claim against a NYSE listed corporation to enforce an SPA relating to a $1.7bn sale. The decision is one of a small number of English authorities to consider Material Adverse Effect provisions in the context of SPAs, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Acting for Betgenius and Genius Sports, a global sports data and technology business, in a standalone competition claim by Sportradar and counter breach of confidence claims by Betgenius and FDC. The claim was jointly case managed and heard together across the Competition Appeal Tribunal and High Court. Macfarlanes was named Commercial Litigation Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2023 in recognition of its work on the case.
- Advising a large financial institution in a LCIA arbitration regarding breach of an ISDA agreement with a claim value of over €200m.
- Representing a HNW individual in a four-week trial of fraudulent misrepresentation and breach of joint venture agreement claims.
- Advising a HNW individual in relation to a worldwide freezing injunction and conspiracy claims in the Commercial Court in England with parallel proceedings in Hong Kong, Russia, Isle of Man and Guernsey.
- Advising a HNW individual in relation to potential claims against their investment manager arising from a stolen BTC investment.
- Conducting a whistleblower investigation into alleged governance issues within a UK plc.