Lara is an experienced litigator with particular expertise in resolving multi-million-pound disputes for high-net-worth individuals and companies across multiple jurisdictions. She is experienced in managing and coordinating proceedings in other jurisdictions around the world including the USA, British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Switzerland, Turkey and Hong Kong. Lara works seamlessly with foreign lawyers, investigators, communications experts and forensic accountants to solve problems and deliver solutions for her clients.
As a higher court advocate she represents clients in a variety of hearings in the High Court as well as working closely with specialist and leading barristers to bring the right team to each case to achieve the client’s desired outcome.
Lara’s practice covers the full range of high-value commercial disputes in both litigation and arbitration including shareholder disputes, breach of contract, professional negligence and fraud claims in a range of sectors including finance, real estate, technology and leisure.
Lara has a particular niche expertise in working with high-end luxury casinos to recover outstanding debts. These cases often involve debtors based in the Far East or Middle East. Lara is skilled in using the full remit of litigation tactics in order to trace and freeze assets where necessary as well as serving individuals who try to avoid service and obtaining and enforcing judgment.
Expertise
- Shareholder, joint venture and partnership disputes
- High-value, multi-jurisdictional commercial disputes
- Breach of contract claims
- Professional negligence
- Civil fraud claims
- Breach of fiduciary/director’s duties and misfeasance claims
- Urgent injunctive relief, including worldwide freezing injunctions
- Insolvency-related disputes
- Asset tracing and recovery
- Debt collection and all related enforcement and insolvency procedures
- Banking and financial litigation
- Family office and ultra-high-net-worth claims, including trust disputes
Experience
Banking & Financial Litigation
- Advised a property investment company on claims arising out of misrepresentations by a bank.
- Acted for a high-net-worth individual in a non-performance claim against a bank.
- Acted for a property investment company in a claim for mis-selling of interest rate swap products against a bank.
- Acted for an Eastern European company in respect of claims arising out of a €85 million financing deal with a number of European banks.
- Advised high-net-worth individuals on potential claims against a bank for breaches of duty of care and negligence.
- Advised on complex, multi-jurisdictional trust litigation arising out of a £50m High Court judgment including dealing with constructive trusts, freezing injunctions and fraudulent transfers.
- Acted for a number of high-net-worth individuals against banks and financial institutions including an entrepreneur in a €150m claim against a bank for fraud and breach of guarantee.
Civil Fraud Claims
- Obtained a £54m judgment against fraudulent traders and enforced it in the Dutch Antilles.
- Acted in several MTIC fraud cases.
- Acted for a BVI company in respect of an attempted auction of a US$300m debt in New York.
Commercial Disputes
- Acted for a multi-national IT consultancy on a claim brought by its subcontractor and achieved a good settlement for the client prior to trial.
- Achieved prompt settlements in a range of recruitment-related claims including developing precedent documents to enable the provision of a more efficient and effective service to recruitment agencies.
- Secured a commercial result for an international engineering client on a cross-border million-dollar dispute with a Singaporean subcontractor by issuing a strategic application to challenge jurisdiction, gaining the client six months’ delay and enabling a settlement to be achieved.
- Advised a New York listed company in respect of arbitration claims in Nigeria and the Philippines.
- Obtained summary judgment for a software solutions supplier against an air travel company.
- Acted for a high-end interiors retailer defending claims by commercial agents.
- Acted for a technology rainmaker against UK and US technology companies in respect of a multi-million-pound claim for commission and equity.
- Acted for an international engineering company on an arbitration claim arising out of construction of an oilfield.
- Acted for a director and shareholder in a UK start-up subsidiary of an Italian retail company, advising on a range of claims including wrongful termination and breach of contract.
Gambling
- Acted for several high-end London casinos in multi-million-pound claims including obtaining freezing injunctions in cross-border cases, summary judgment and achieving good commercial settlements.
- Represented a high-end London casino in a £2.5m claim against a Malaysian player including obtaining a worldwide freezing order, a finding of contempt of court and breach of an unless order resulting in full recovery with interest and costs for the club.
- Achieved commercial settlements in a number of debt claims against high-value players, ensuring that the player relationship was maintained whilst obtaining good recovery for the casino.
- Succeeded in a £1m claim against a Middle Eastern player for a high-end London casino which went to trial.
- Acted for a high-end London casino in litigation over a £500k debt including successfully obtaining judgment after trial and a post-judgment freezing order.
Injunctive Relief
- Acted for claimants in a £350m worldwide hotel dispute including successfully obtaining urgent injunctive relief and dealing with simultaneous proceedings in London, New York, BVI and Hong Kong.
- Acted for several high-end London casinos in multi-million-pound claims including obtaining freezing injunctions in cross-border cases, summary judgment and achieving good commercial settlements.
- Acted for a high-end holiday lettings company in defending a claim for an injunction in respect of ownership of a website and brand and achieved an excellent settlement.
- Acted for a large recruitment company in bringing springboard injunction proceedings against an ex-employee for breach of restrictive covenants, use of confidential information and breach of copyright claims.
- Acted for families and private individuals in respect of fraudulent investments and “Ponzi” schemes including obtaining freezing injunctions and tracing assets.
Insolvency-related Disputes
Professional Negligence
- Acted for several directors in an action against solicitors for negligence in handling employment claims and achieved a good pre-action settlement.
- Acted for a high-net-worth individual in a professional negligence claim against a boat surveyor and achieved a good settlement.
- Advised a property solicitor in defending a negligence claim.
- Acted for a subcontractor in a multi-party claim for defective works by the end client.
Other
- Assisted an international motor-sport team in defending a multi-million-pound claim by another international motor-sport team using a range of tactics and strategies to meet the client’s objective of delaying the proceeding.
- Advised global, multi-jurisdictional, businesses and individuals on bribery, SFO, cyber security and compliance issues.
- Acted for directors in breach of contract claims following termination.
- Acted for directors in defending claims of fiduciary duties, misfeasance, conspiracy, transactions at an undervalue and breach of confidence.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
Recognised in The Legal 500 for Commercial Litigation: Mid Market (2023-2024)
Recognised in The Legal 500 for Gaming and Betting (2022-2024)
Recognised in The Legal 500 2020 for Fraud: Civil
Career
Lara qualified as a solicitor in 2007. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2018, she worked at the following firms:
- BlackLion Law
- CANDEY
- Blake Lapthorn