Bláthnaid Breslin

Bláthnaid specialises in commercial litigation. Recent instructions include two substantial and high-profile commercial court trials (both of which were listed as The Lawyer’s “Top 20 Cases” of the relevant year).

• Servis-Terminal LLC v Drelle. Bláthnaid is instructed on the appeal to the Supreme Court, led by Charles Samek KC. The central issue is whether a bankruptcy petition can be founded on an unrecognised foreign judgment.
• Athena Capital Fund v Secretariat of State for the Holy See [2025] EWHC 355 (Comm). Represented the successful claimant in a 4-week High Court trial concerning the sale of 60 Sloane Avenue (a former Harrods depository building) to the Vatican’s Secretariat of State of the Holy See (described by the press as “the trial of the century”), led by Charles Samek KC and Tetyana Nesterchuk.
• The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care v PPE Medpro [2025] EWHC 2486 (Comm). A claim by the SSHSC against PPE Medpro for the recovery damages of c. £120m in relation to the supply of 25m sterile surgical gowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, led by Charles Samek KC and Ashley Cukier.
• Frontiers Capital I Ltd Partnership v Flohr [2025] EWHC 678 (Ch): successfully struck out a claim for breach of duty in relation to a Subscription and Shareholders’ Agreement, and resisted an application to amend to introduce a substantial fraud claim, on limitation grounds, led by Jonathan Cohen KC and Nicholas Goodfellow.
• See also, Frontiers Capital I Ltd Partnership v Flohr [2025] 2 WLR 967 (CA): an interim appeal to the Court of Appeal raising a novel question as to effect of section 38 Partnership Act 1890.
• Domestic & General Group Ltd v Premier Protect Holdings Ltd (in liquidation) [2024] EWHC 2654 (KB): represented the successful claimants in an 8-day High Court trial involving a novel application of the torts of causing loss by unlawful means and unlawful means conspiracy to a fraudulent cold-calling campaign conducted by ‘rogue’ third parties against the claimants’ customers, led by Nicholas Goodfellow.

Bláthnaid is recognised as a “Rising Star” in the Legal 500 for Civil Fraud.

• Athena Capital Fund v Secretariat of State for the Holy See [2025] EWHC 355 (Comm). Represented the successful claimant in a 4-week High Court trial concerning the sale of 60 Sloane Avenue (a former Harrods depository building) to the Vatican’s Secretariat of State of the Holy See (described by the press as “the trial of the century”), led by Charles Samek KC and Tetyana Nesterchuk.
• Frontiers Capital I Ltd Partnership v Flohr [2025] EWHC 678 (Ch): successfully struck out a claim for breach of duty in relation to a Subscription and Shareholders’ Agreement, and resisted an application to amend to introduce a substantial fraud claim, on limitation grounds, led by Jonathan Cohen KC and Nicholas Goodfellow.
• See also, Frontiers Capital I Ltd Partnership v Flohr [2025] 2 WLR 967 (CA): an interim appeal to the Court of Appeal raising a novel question as to effect of section 38 Partnership Act 1890.
• Domestic & General Group Ltd v Premier Protect Holdings Ltd (in liquidation) [2024] EWHC 2654 (KB): represented the successful claimants in an 8-day High Court trial involving a novel application of the torts of causing loss by unlawful means and unlawful means conspiracy to a fraudulent cold-calling campaign conducted by ‘rogue’ third parties against the claimants’ customers, led by Nicholas Goodfellow.

Bláthnaid appears both led and unled in the Employment Tribunal. Her employment work includes two cases before the Supreme Court (on the scope of diplomatic and state immunity in the employment context).

• Basfar v Wong [2023] AC 33 (SC): landmark Supreme Court decision on the scope of diplomatic immunity – led by Mohinderpal Sethi KC and Sophia Berry. This was the first ever case to be granted permission to ‘leapfrog’ appeal directly from the EAT to the Supreme Court.
• Costantine v Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia (Cultural Bureau) [2025] 1 WLR 1207 (SC): Supreme Court decision on the duty of courts and tribunals to determine issues of state immunity of their own motion, and the scope of state immunity in the context of employment claims brought by a foreign state’s administrative employees – led by Mohinderpal Sethi KC and Joel Wallace.
• Williamson v Bishop of London [2023] 1 WLR 2472 (CA): Court of Appeal decision on the effect of a civil proceredings order on proceedings commenced without the permission of the court, led by Edward Kemp (now KC).