Chris Quinn

Chris has extensive experience in all aspects of business protection cases including the duty of fidelity, fiduciary duties, preparations to compete, breach of confidence, data protection issues, garden leave, restrictive covenants and springboard relief.  He is involved from without notice applications for injunctions (including search orders and computer imaging orders) all the way through to trial and across a broad range of business sectors including financial/ investment services, engineering, oil and gas and recruitment services. His cases frequently require consideration of contractual issues arising not just from a contract of employment but also shareholders’ agreements and share purchase agreements. He has appeared in many of the major recent trials/ significant hearings in this area, including:

UK Legal Way Ltd v Advanced Way Accounting Ltd [2020] successful resistance of without notice/ short notice injunction application brought during lockdown

Wells and Solari v Cathay Investments 2 Ltd [2019] EWHC 2996 (QB) gross misconduct’ confidential information; shareholders’ agreements

Element Materials Technology Ltd v Wolff and Others [2019] compromised team move claim

S Cartwright & Sons (Coachbuilders) Limited v (1) Pollock (2) Tiger Trailers Ltd [2018] successful defence of breach of restrictive covenant/ confidential information claim

Tenon FM Ltd v Cawley [2019] IRLR 435 successful opposition to interim injunction application; unsigned restrictive covenants

Bourne Rail v Ashton and Others [2018] EWHC 73 (QB) standard of proof; conspiracy/ breach of confidence and inducement to breach contract

Affinity v Ferguson and Ors [2017]; [2016] EWHC 2319 (QB) a multi-day trial in which Chris’ opponent chose to withdraw the £10 million claim after Chris’ cross-examination of his principal witnesses

Capita plc v Darch [2017] IRLR 718 appropriateness of interim injunctive relief including delivery up; property rights in emails

Richards and Purves v IP Solutions  [2017] IRLR 133 consideration of “material breach” and limiting of the size of the award made to two former directors and employees of a company after a corporate acquisition.

Rush Hair v Gibson- Forbes [2017] IRLR 48 “the concealment principle”; attempted use of agent company to avoid restrictions

Decorus Ltd v Penfold [2016] EWHC 1421 (QB) exceeding the limits of preparations permitted by law to set up a competing business

J M Finn v Holliday  [2014] IRLR 102 (QB) speedy trial/ garden leave

Thomson Ecology v Hall and Others [2013] EWHC 2875 (Ch); poaching of employees; successful application for 18 month springboard injunction

Towry EJ Limited v Bennett and Others [2012] EWHC 224 (QB) meaning of ‘solicitation’; successful defence of employees at trial

Lonmar v West and Others [2010] EWHC 2878 (QB; [2011] IRLR 138 limit of employee’s duty to disclose conduct

Chris has extensive experience in high-value whistleblowing, victimisation and discrimination claims and is very regularly instructed in Employment Tribunal cases across all business sectors which may be tangential to a wider commercial dispute and has experience up to and including the Supreme Court in such matters.

Examples of his recent cases include:

Shearwood v C J Clark International [2019] Whistleblowing claim brought by former CEO of Clarks

Guy v Graingers Fresh Food Specialists [2019] successful defence of sexual orientation discrimination claim

Singh v St Philip’s School [2019] strike out of interim relief claim

Marshall v Commonwealth of Australia [2018] age discrimination and unfair dismissal

Gillespie v Terence Higgins Trust [2016] successful whistleblowing and discrimination claim by the CEO of the well-known charity

Clyde & Co LLP v Bates van Winkelhof [2014] UKSC 32 (SC) the ability of LLP members to invoke whistle-blowing legislation

Chris has extensive appellate experience in all such employment-related disputes.

Chris’ experience in commercial cases is extensive. Much of his business protection work involves consideration of confidential information, shareholder agreements, rights of minority shareholders and intellectual property considerations. Chris’ experience in injunctive relief lends itself to all aspects of search, freezing and computer imaging orders. He is also instructed in commercial disputes which lend themselves to his expertise at trial.

Recent examples are:

Kerrigan and Beisty v Flannery  [2020] BL-2018-001300 where Chris successfully defended his client in a multi- million pound dispute between property developers as to whether or not there was a concluded contract between them.

Cath Kidston Ltd v Richard Storer and Another [2019] freezing injunction

Blacklion Law LLP v Ishag and Others [2019] dispute between litigation funders

Jordan Sheppard Ltd v Temelkov and Ors [2019] without notice applications, standing of companies to commence litigation

Saga Partners Inc v Shokhin [2016] EWHC 3456 (Ch) criminal investigations; debt contracts; expert evidence; interpretation

Coll v Floreat Merchant Banking Ltd [2014] EWHC 1741 (QB) committal proceedings re breach of solicitors’ undertaking

Chris deals with all aspects of partnership and LLP law.

Chris’ reputation is evidenced by his frequent instruction on behalf of fellow members of the legal profession in their own disputes.

He has acted both for and against a number of major law firms as well as very regularly advising on the resolution of internal disputes.

As a result of the successful outcome before the Court of Appeal in McCarthy v Visitors to the Inns of Court [2015] EWCA Civ 12 (CA)  in which an earlier judgment by the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal to strike off a barrister (before Chris was instructed) was overturned, Chris is also instructed in an increasing number of cases by barristers (including leading counsel) and other members of regulated professions when they face the most serious of allegations. In one example of such a case, Chris’ involvement saw the other side withdraw a wasted costs application that it had made against leading counsel and agree to pay a contribution towards his costs of defending that application.

Chris’ practice includes his instructions in a wide-ranging number of areas falling outside the parameters of business protection, employment and commercial cases, including recently:

AAA v Rakoff [2019] EWHC 2525 (QB); [2020] EMLR 6. Data protection/ privacy claim brought by group of adult performers/ Spearmint Rhino against individuals who obtained footage of them without authorisation

Tividale Tirupathi Balaji Temple v Rao and Ors [2016] dispute over religious charity based around a Hindu temple

In addition, he has been instructed as Counsel in a number of major arbitrations and has been recognised by the directories as a leading junior in international arbitration. Noteworthy arbitrations included a multi-week multi-million pound dispute about an asset management LLP and a smaller dispute involving a fall-out between medical practitioners.