John practices all aspects of commercial litigation with a particular focus on contentious trusts, professional negligence, shareholder disputes and fraud and asset tracing.

Key cases John has been involved with at Carey Olsen include:

• The ultimately successful strike out, through a variety of applications, of very substantial claims in unjust enrichment and for breach of contract by a developer for alleged breach of a heads of terms
• Settlement of a multi-million pound claim against a Jersey law firm in relation to allegedly negligent advice and conduct of a failed litigation strategy
• Successfully acting for the majority shareholders opposed to an application by minority shareholders to bring an unfair prejudice/derivative action against the company's directors
• Settlement of a significant claim by a beneficiary against the former trustees/directors in relation to investment decisions made/claimed loss of returns on alternative investments
• Acting for the former directors in relation to a company reinstatement and further proceedings for alleged breach of directors' duties
• Settlement of an unfair prejudice and breach of shareholder agreement claim between business partners/equal co-shareholders
• The defence against public law challenges of Jersey's legal aid scheme and amendments to the scheme
• Advising the trustees in relation to claims brought against trust assets alleged to be the traceable proceeds of fraud by a settlor/beneficiary
• A number of injunction proceedings seeking inter alia: freezing (Mareva) injunctions, quia timet, arrêt entre mains (garnishment) of debtor payment streams

Prior to joining Carey Olsen in February 2009, John held a variety of roles, including advising on tax for a "big four" accounting firm in New Zealand and at a leading city law firm in London, working on a major cross-jurisdictional regulatory dispute.

Since coming to the UK and prior to joining Carey Olsen, John has had a number of roles, including most latterly at a leading city law firm working on a major cross-jurisdictional regulatory dispute.

John was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 2001 (non-practising) and as a Solicitor of the Supreme of England and Wales in 2008 (non-practising). John was admitted as a Jersey Advocate in November 2016.

He has an LLB/B.Com (finance) and LLM (with 1st class honours) from the University of Auckland.  

John is a member of the Commercial Fraud Lawyers Association. 

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