William Willson

Called to the Bar 2006

William divides his practice between domestic/cross-border insolvency and restructuring (contentious and advisory), banking and finance, commercial fraud, and general commercial/commercial chancery work.

He is an experienced trial lawyer (both led and unled), including appearing in the Lehman subordinated debt litigation (a dispute in relation to $8 billion of financial instruments), HSBC’s successful defence of a $2 billion professional negligence claim and numerous claims by/against officeholders.

Much of William’s work has an international dimension, and he has particular experience of cases with a CIS/Middle East nexus. He has been called to the Bars of the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar, appearing (both as sole/junior Counsel) in the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands, the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and the Privy Council. He also appears and advises on cases in the UAE (the DIFC and ADGM), the Channel Islands and Hong Kong.

William is ranked in the legal directories in 6 practice areas: (1) Restructuring/Insolvency (2) Banking & Finance (3) Commercial Fraud (4) Commercial Litigation (5) Company and (6) Offshore. He has been described as: “A tenacious, gifted and hard-working lawyer”; “Strategically excellent, pragmatic and commercial”; “Very good in court……. extremely diligent and credible“; “Easy to work with, very commercial and his skeleton arguments are always excellent. He is very clever and very persuasive”; “Very intelligent and responsive with a great feel for the courtroom and the way the judge is thinking”; he has an ability to cut through the noise and get to the crux of the issue; “Astute, commercial, very clever and excellent drafting. Gets across the issues very quickly so great on urgent matters”; “a star junior barrister and very responsive – great to work with”.

Before coming to the Bar, William formerly worked as a journalist/documentary producer, specialising in the former Soviet Union, terrorism and the intelligence services. His credits include the triple-BAFTA winning The Government Inspector.

 

Insolvency and Restructuring +
Banking and Finance +
Commercial Litigation and Arbitration +
Company +
Offshore +
Professional Negligence +
Trusts and Property +
Awards and Recommendations +
Career +
Memberships +
Publications +
Education and Qualifications +
Prizes and Scholarships +
Interests +
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