Michael Crystal QC

Areas of practice:

Corporate Commercial; Insolvency and Corporate Reconstruction; Commercial Litigation; Banking; Company Law; Financial Services; Professional Negligence; International Commercial Arbitration; Offshore Trust Litigation.

Professional career:

Called to the Bar (Middle Temple), 1970

Queen’s Counsel, 1984

Elected Master of the Bench (Middle Temple), 1993

Deputy High Court Judge, 1995 -

Head of Chambers at 3-4 South Square, Gray’s Inn.

Admitted to the Bars of the Bahamas, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Hong Kong and the Isle of Man for specific cases.

Lecturer in Law Pembroke College, Oxford, 1971-76;

Member Joint Working Party of Law Reform Committees of the Senate and the Law Society on the Draft EEC Bankruptcy Convention, 1975-76, and on the Reform of Insolvency Law, 1977-81;

Department of Trade and Industry Inspector into County Nat West Limited and County Nat West Securities Limited, 1988-89, and into National Westminster Bank plc, 1992;

Chairman Banking Appeal Tribunal, 1993 - 1998;

Hon. Fellow Queen Mary College, University of London, 1996;

Chairman Insolvency Practitioners Tribunal 1996 -;

Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary College, University of London, 1996 -;

Hon. Fellow, Society for Advanced Legal Studies, 1997;

Visiting Professor, Department of Laws, University College London, 2002 -.

Important cases include:

Sisu Capital Fund Ltd v Tucker [2006] 1 All ER 167;

Re The New Gadget Shop Limited, 21 December 2005, Warren J.;

Sisu Capital Fund Ltd v Tucker [2005] All ER (D) 200 (Oct);

Re Legend International Resorts Limited (Hong Kong SAR) [2005] 3 HKLRD 16;

Re My Travel Group PLC [2005] BCC 457;

Ronald Grant Jones v. (1) The Ministry Of The Interior Al-Mamlaka Al-Arabiya As Saudiya (The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia) (2) Lieutenant-Colonel Abdul Aziz, [2005] 2 WLR 808, C.A.;

Re Parmalat Capital Finance Ltd No. 830 of 2003 (Grand Court of the Cayman Islands), [2004 – 2005] CILR 22;

IMH Investments Ltd. v. Trinidad Home Developers Ltd [2003] 63 WIR 413, P.C.;

Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and another v Georg Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and others. Civil Jurisdiction 1997 No.18 (the Supreme Court of Bermuda) (1999 – 2002);

Re Polly Peck International plc (in administration) (No 2) [1998] 3 All ER 812;

Glolite Ltd v Jasper Conran Ltd, The Times 28 January 1998;

Re Mid East Trading Ltd: Lehman Bros Inc v Phillips and others [1998] 1 All ER 577;

Kempe and another (as joint liquidators of Mentor Insurance Ltd v Ambassador Insurance Co (in liquidation) [1998] 1 WLR 271;

Bank of Credit and Commerce International (Overseas) Ltd (in liquidation) v Price Waterhouse (a firm) and another (Abu Dhabi and others, third parties) [1997] 4 All ER 108;

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (No. 10) [1997] Ch 213;

Routestone Ltd v Minories Finance Ltd and another: Same v Bird and others, [1997] 21 EG 148;

Bell Group Finance (Pty) Ltd (in liquidation) v Bell Group (UK) Holdings Ltd [1996] 1 BCLC;

Re Oasis Merchandising Services Ltd: Ward v Aitken and others [1995] 2 BCLC 493;

Re Supply of Ready Mixed Concrete (No 2): Director General of Fair Trading v Pioneer Concrete (UK) Ltd and another [1995] 1 AC 456;

Powdrill and another v Watson and another [1994] 2 All ER 513;

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (No 9): Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International (Overseas) Ltd [1994] 3 All ER 764;

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (No 7): Morris and others v Al-Mirabi [1994] 1 BCLC 455;

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (No 5): Sheikh Khalid v Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA [1994] 1 BCLC 429;

Leyland DAF Ltd v Automotive Products plc [1994] 1 BCLC 245;

Law Debenture Trust Corporation v Ural Caspian Oil Corporation Ltd and others [1993] 2 All ER 355;

Re SH & Co (Realisations) 1990 Ltd [1993] BCLC 1309;

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (No 3) [1993] BCLC 1490;

Ackman and others and Scher and others v The Policyholders Protection Board, Royal Insurance (UK) Ltd and New Hampshire Insurance Co [1993] 3 All ER 384;

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (No 3) [1993] BCLC 106;

R v Kansal [1993] QB 244;

Re Maxwell Communication Corporation plc [1992] BCLC 465;

Welsh Development Agency v Export Finance Co Ltd [1992] BCLC 148;

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (No 2) [1992] BCLC 579;

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA [1992] BCLC 570;

Re Rafidain Bank [1992] BCLC 301;

Gulf Consolidated Company for Services and Industries EC (in liquidation) v Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd and CSFB AG [1992] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 301;

Re Barlow Clowes Gilt Managers Ltd [1992] Ch 208;

Re Atlantic Computer Systems plc (No 1) [1992] Ch 505;

Re a company (No 001946 of 1991), ex parte Fin Soft Holdings SA [1991] BCLC 737;

Re Land and Property Trust Co plc [1991] BCLC 845;

Re Ready Mixed Concrete [1991] ICR 52;

Lloyds Bank plc v Rosset and another [1991] 1 AC 107;

Re Charnley Davies Ltd (No 2) [1990] BCLC 760;

Bristol Airport plc and another v Powdrill and others [1990] CH 744;

Dubai Bank Ltd v Galadari [1990] BCLC 90;

Re State of Norway’s Applications (Nos 1 and 2) [1990] AC 723.

Memberships held:

Insol Europe, 1982 -;

Insolvency Rules Advisory Committee, 1993-97;

Advisory Council, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary College, University of London, 1996 -;

Financial Law Panel, 1996-2002;

The International Arbitration Institute, Paris, 2002 -;

Advisory Board, The British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 2002 -;

F.A. Premier League Panel for Insolvency Matters, 2004 -;

Fellow of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 2004 -;

Member, International Insolvency Institute, 2005 -;

Fellow, American College of Bankruptcy, 2006 -.

Publications:

Contributor ‘MacGillivray on Insurance Law’ (6th ed., 1975), Sweet & Maxwell;

Assistant Editor ‘Halsbury’s Laws of England’ (Bankruptcy, 4th ed., 1974), Butterworths;

Joint Editor, ‘Handbook on the Law of Bankruptcy’ (3rd ed., 1978);

Assistant Editor, ‘Williams and Muir Hunter on Bankruptcy’ (19th ed., 1974);

Joint Editor, ‘Loose on Liquidators’ (2nd ed., 1981);

Joint Editor, ‘Totty and Crystal on Corporate Insolvency’ (1982);

Joint Contributor, ‘Arrangements with Creditors’ (vol. 3);

‘The Encyclopedia of Forms and Precedents’ (5th ed., 1985);

Joint Editor, ‘Halsbury’s Laws of England’ (Companies, 4th ed. reissue, vol 7(2), 1988), Butterworths;

Joint Contributor, ‘ ‘Insider Trading’: ‘The Laws of Europe, the United States and Japan’ (1992), Kluwer;

Joint Editor, ‘Halsbury’s Laws of England’ (Companies, 4th ed., reissue, Vol 7(3)) (1996);

‘The Location of the Debtor’s “Centre of Main Interests”’. The Company Lawyer, Vol 23, No. 12 (2002), p. 359;

Joint Editor, ‘Butterworths Insolvency Law Handbook’ (1987; 7th ed, 2005).

.Education:

Queen Mary College, University of London (LLB Hons)

Magdalen College, Oxford (BCL)

Date of birth:

5 March 1948

Contact details:

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).
Email clerks@southsquare.com. Web www.southsquare.com