Craig Deuchrass is a Senior Associate with experience in complex cross-border commercial litigation, with particular expertise in financial services disputes and high value commercial contract claims.
He has advised a diverse client base including investment banks, private equity houses, technology companies, well-known corporates and high net worth individuals. Craig has acted for clients in the English courts, the leading international commercial arbitration institutions such as the ICC, LCIA and the Swiss Chambers’ Court of Arbitration, and in other common law jurisdictions, including Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Jersey, Bahamas and various states in the US.
Craig originally qualified as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand and practised as junior counsel for the Crown in the Solicitor General’s Office in New Zealand. He was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2001 and joined Signature Litigation in January 2014. Prior to joining Signature, Craig was Counsel in the litigation team at US law firm Bryan Cave.
EXPERIENCE
Commercial Litigation
- Acting for a high net worth individual to advise on a global strategy to recover substantial losses on various investment portfolios trusted by the client with a leading investment bank.
- Acting for a Limited Partner of a Jersey Fund on a dispute arsing out of the investment strategy and intended valuation methodology of the General Partner toward certain of the portfolio investments of the Fund.
- Acting on a substantial claim for the defendant managers of a €200 million investment fund which was reorganised using a range of financial transactions. The claim involved allegations of fraud, conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract. The matter was listed in the ‘The Lawyer’ as one of the top 20 cases of 2014.
- Acting for a Gibraltar company in a dispute with the manager of a BVI fund in relation to the carried interest said to be due to the fund manager and the disputed valuation of assets held by the fund.
- Acting for a Russian investment bank defending a claim in the Commercial Court in relation to liabilities alleged to be due after a restructuring and sale of the investment bank to a third party purchaser.
- Advising a high net worth individual from Georgia on English law claims of duress in relation to threats said to be orchestrated by the former government of Georgia to pressure him into the sale of his majority interest in the leading internet service provider in the Caucasus region.
- Acting for a Russian client in English High Court proceedings in relation to fraud allegedly committed by a former employee, including successful applications for Norwich Pharmacal relief in the BVI and Nevis.
- Acting for an investment bank in Commercial Court proceedings involving allegations of mis-selling arising out of the purchase and sell-out of Russian and Icelandic investments during the global economic crisis in late 2008.
- Acting for one of the UK’s biggest providers of healthcare professionals in a fraud claim against the vendors of the company, including a successful application for a worldwide freezing order against the defendants who were based in four separate jurisdictions.
- Acting on behalf of an IFA in a claim concerning theft and misuse of confidential information by two directors of the company, including a successful application for a search and disc imaging order against the two defendants.
Arbitration
- Acting for a Russian investment bank defending a claim brought by a BVI incorporated company in the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce relating to an alleged breach of an Agency Agreement.
- Advising on the viability of an investment treaty claim under the ICSID Rules in relation to the expropriation of a metallurgical plant in the CIS region, including analysis of the potentially applicable BITs and the investment protection rights that had been breached.
- Acting on behalf of a global airfreight company in a US$30 million ICC arbitration involving allegations of fraud and wrongful early termination of an aircraft lease agreement.