In October 2025 the employment tribunal handed down judgment in relation to a wide range of claims brought by Jacopo Moretti against hedge fund Davide Leone and Partners and individual employees. Mr Moretti claimed over £100 million. After a five week trial at London Central Employment Tribunal all claims were dismissed, save for a finding that Mr Moretti’s dismissal was procedurally unfair (which attracted a basic award of £1286).
The employment tribunal has now ordered that Mr Moretti pay 70% of the Respondents’ costs, subject to detailed assessment. The tribunal held that it should have been obvious that the Claimant’s claims had little reasonable prospects of success, and that they had in fact been pursued with an “ulterior motive” of “maximising costs and reputational embarrassment to the Respondents”. The tribunal took into account that “throughout the proceedings the Claimant adopted an approach with a view to causing maximum disruption, cost and potential reputational damage to the Respondents” and that Mr Moretti had made covert recordings, stating “the Claimant systematically, and sometimes cynically, engineered the conversations which he knew he was recording with an ulterior motivation to extract potentially beneficial material for contemplated litigation and this constituted a significant abuse of trust”.
The Respondents’ application sought £2,321,706.28. An order for 70% of these costs, subject to detailed assessment, is likely to result in one of the highest costs awards ever to have been made in employment tribunal proceedings.
This case featured unusually stark conduct and an unusually high earner. The employment tribunal is soon to become a more attractive forum for high earners, given the removal of the compensation cap for unfair dismissal. It may be that the tribunal will more frequently encounter cases in which the Claimant’s means are not a barrier to significant costs awards in favour of successful employers.
David and Georgina were instructed by Colin Leckey and Anna Bond of Lewis Silkin.
