Ben Valentin

Date of birth:

16 January 1971

Contact details:

Email benvalentin@southsquare.com. Web www.southsquare.com

3-4 South Square, Gray’s Inn, London WC1R 5HP.

Telephone +44 (0)20 7696 9900. Fax +44 (0)20 7696 9911. LDE 338 (Chancery Lane).

Education:

1989-1992 BA (Hons) Jurisprudence – Worcester College, Oxford

1992-1993 BCL – Worcester College, Oxford

1993-1994 LLM - Cornell Law School, Ithaca, New York

Professional career:

Called to the Bar of England and Wales, November 1995

Called to the Bar of the State of New York, February 1998

Called to the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, British Virgin Islands 2007

Professional memberships:

Commercial Bar Association, Chancery Bar Association, New York State Bar Association; London Court of International Arbitration, CEDR Accredited Mediator.

Areas of practice:

Extensive experience of substantial and complex commercial litigation particularly in the banking and insurance fields; international commercial arbitration; corporate restructuring and insolvency.

Reported and major cases and experience:

National Westminster Bank v Rabobank Nederland

Junior counsel for Natwest (January 2006 onwards); major commercial banking dispute involving allegations of deceit, misrepresentation and inducing breach of contract; action tried by Colman J over 52 days (October 2006-February 2007). Judgment given for NatWest: [2007] EWHC 1056 (Comm); indemnity costs awarded [2007] EWHC 1742 (Comm).

Interlocutory decisions: [2006] EWHC 1744 (Comm) (striking out; estoppel; res judicata); [2006] EWHC 2108 (Comm) (evidence; hearsay); [2006] EWHC 2332 (Comm); (disclosure; privilege); [2006] EWHC 2959 (Comm) (striking out; submission of no case to answer); [2006] EWCA Civ 1578 (case management appeal; permission to amend to add new cause of action during trial).

BCCI/Bank of England litigation: Three Rivers DC and Others v The Governor and Company of the Bank of England

Instructed on behalf of the Bank of England between 1997 and 2006 in relation to all aspects of the long-running Commercial Court action brought by the Liquidators of BCCI SA, including the following appearances as junior counsel during the various phases of the litigation:

2006: Instructed in relation to the Bank’s application for indemnity costs. Indemnity costs awarded in the Bank’s favour by Tomlinson J for the entirety of action between 1993 and 2006; judgment handed down on 12 April 2006: [2006] EWHC 816 (Comm).

2004-2005: Instructed as senior member of three junior team (led by three leading counsel) at the trial of the action before Tomlinson J. The action was tried over 255 days between 13 January 2004 and 1 November 2005; the Claimants discontinuing the action on Day 256: 2 November 2005. The Bank of England delivered an oral opening address lasting 119 court days. During the course of the trial, also appeared in the following:

· Three Rivers (No.6): the Claimants’ application for the disclosure of lawyer-client communications relating to the Bingham Inquiry in 1991 at all levels up to House of Lords. In July 2004, the House of Lords allowed the Bank of England’s appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal ([2004] EWCA Civ. 218; [2004] QB 916; dismissing an appeal against an order of Tomlinson J: [2003] EWHC 2565) and ruled that such communications were immune from disclosure because they were covered by legal advice privilege: [2004] UKHL 48; [2005] 1 AC 610.

· Three Rivers (No.7): the Bank of England’s application to restrict to 27.5 days the length of cross-examination of its first witness. The Judge’s order so restricting the cross-examination was upheld on appeal in July 2005: [2005] EWCA Civ. 889. At the same time, the Court of Appeal also gave an important separate ruling on the privacy of its judgments: [2005] EWCA Civ. 933.

2001-2003: Appeared on approximately 20 Commercial Court CMCs and other disclosure applications, including Three Rivers (No.4) [2002] EWHC 1118, the Claimants’ application against HM Treasury for third party disclosure of the Bingham Inquiry archive pursuant to CPR 31.17. This application went to the Court of Appeal: [2002] EWCA 1182; [2003] 1 WLR 210.

1997-2001: Three Rivers (No.3) Appeared in 13-day appeal to Court of Appeal in July 1998 and on two 4-day appeals to the House of Lords in January 2000 and 2001 and all consequential hearings arising of the dismissal of action in 1997 by Clarke J. The first decision of the House of Lords is the leading authority on the requirements of the tort of misfeasance in public office and the second decision was the first time the House of Lords had had to consider an application for summary judgment under CPR Part 24. The decision of the Court of Appeal and the two decisions of the House of Lords are reported together at [2003] 2 AC 1 ([2001] UKHL16).

Other cases/experience of note:

2007: Instructed in relation to: (1) major telecommunications shareholder dispute in the British Virgin Islands; (2) Commercial Court action relating to syndicated loan dispute arising out of Enron collapse.

2001-2002: Instructed in relation to Commercial Court applications relating to UNCITRAL arbitrations arising out of an international power project.

1998-1999: Instructed in relation to the Thyssen litigation in Bermuda.

1997-1998: Foreign Intern in the New York Office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP on international commercial arbitration and other related litigation matters.

1997: Renshaw Birch v Marquet [1998] BPIR 399 (ChD) (7 July 1997); a contested application to restrain the presentation of a winding-up petition.

1996-1997: UNCITRAL arbitration arising out of an international mining dispute.

1996: E. D. & F. Man (Sugar) Ltd v Haryanto (Court of Appeal), The Times, 9 August 1996 (17 July 1996); an appeal concerned with the principles governing the right of a judgment creditor to obtain a repeat judgment to enforce an arbitration award.