Stinger stung
But solicitor victim faces ruin
A recently-promoted partner at a leading UK-based global law firm is facing professional ruin, the Court of Appeal said last week, after being “played for a fool by a skilful and well prepared interrogator” acting covertly for his client’s litigation opponent. “A ‘privilege hunting’ operation such as occurred in this case should have no place in litigation in the courts of England and Wales,” one of the appeal judges observed.
The court was dealing with a claim brought by a Mexican billionaire against a Ukrainian-born American who is now facing fraud charges. At an earlier hearing, a judge said the question he had been asked to decide was what to do “when someone with an apparently strong and substantial, perhaps unanswerable, claim in fraud seeks summary judgment in light of illicit knowledge obtained by unethical means”.
