Crisis Management Consultancy Team (CMCT)
About the CMCT
At CLK Legal, we recognise that the proliferation and growing popularity of ‘execution-only’ investment platforms aimed at the retail investor, while capable of offering a flexible and cost-effective service (due to the elimination of the ‘middleman’), also raise serious client care issues which no organisation relying on a platform-based business model can afford to leave unaddressed.
The most pressing issues in this respect include: uneven bargaining power; imbalance of actionable information; imbalance of the economic consequences of the platform-based transactions; and uneven access to affordable and reliable legal coverage. One unintended consequence of all this is the disenfranchisement of the retail investors who – in the event of underperforming investments entered into through a platform-based business – oftentimes lack the knowledge, recourse and/or resources to avail themselves of the requisite legal/financial analysis and advice.
CLK Legal has a dedicated consultancy business line offering a ‘packaged’ legal coverage for precisely this type of situations whose occurrence, we believe, will only rise both in frequency and adverse publicity over the coming months and years.
Our service is competitively priced and designed to protect and promote the retail investors’ legal rights while at the same time allowing the platform-based organisations to discharge their corporate responsibility in relation to client care.
The CLK standard consultancy package is offered to investment platform businesses and is aimed at providing a pre-agreed level of legal coverage for the benefit of the platforms’ retail investors. The package includes:
- Legal, regulatory and performance analysis (in the context of the particular factual pattern applicable to the underperforming investments);
- Legal representation of the retail investors using the platform;
- Entering into structured negotiations on behalf of the retail investors with relevant third parties (e.g. trustees and organisations with trustee-like mandates).
We are guided by our belief that the post-Lehman client care paradigm requires a proactive stance from all platform-based businesses and that corporate responsibility, as a category distinct from corporate liability, will further rise in prominence, leading to the establishment of new, and higher, standards of ‘best practice’.
Who are the CMCT?
John King
Called to the bar in 1983, John’s career as a prominent civil and criminal counsel has allowed him to be one of a very small number of advocates to take a case through the entire court system in England, then through the European court structures culminating in a hearing before 22 judges in the Grand Chamber of the ECHR.Learn More
Financial and commercial law is one of John’s main areas of expertise, and he has represented clients in cases featuring forensic analysis of financial and investment transactions, alleged breaches of trade and commercial contracts and/or other financial arrangements. Over the past thirty-five years, he has both witnessed and been instrumental in the reinterpretation and finetuning of various aspects of the law of contract.
He brings a wealth of theoretical insights and practicalexperience to the working discussions and analysis within the CLK crisismanagement consultancy team (CMCT).
Relevant areas of practice include:
Civil Financial/Investment Disputes
Of particular relevance to John’s clients is his ability,honed over a number of decades, to accurately and persuasively formulate thespectrum of likely judicial outcomes and on that basis to devise a legallyrobust advocacy strategy.
Commercial Arbitration
John is an accredited arbitrator whose main areas ofexpertise feature financial/investment disputes as well as disputes involvingsports and governing bodies.
Contract Negotiation
A highly regarded negotiator, John now focuses mainly on hiscivil practice which has more recently branched out into contract negotiations,an area in which he continues to expand his corporate and private client base.
High-profile Financial Fraud Cases
John’s legal insights honed over the course of hisconsiderable career and his meticulous and detailed analysis of the respectivefact patterns continue to be sought after in high-profile financial fraudcases.
Abbas Lakha QC
Abbas Lakha QC is widely regarded as one of the UK’s most respected leading silks, with a practice encompassing a broad range of specialist areas. He is particularly sought after to advise in international finance-related cases, representing clients both in the UK and around the world.Learn More
Abbas has experience in all forms of civil and criminal fraud and asset forfeiture work, including restraint and confiscation, and appears before the Tax Tribunals (First Tier and Upper Tier) in respect of VAT and tax cases. Regularly instructed to advise at the pre-investigative stages of cases, Abbas has extensive experience of representing high profile individuals for whom reputation management is a significant concern.
Rated in Chambers UK and Legal 500 directories as a leader in the fields of, among others, international crime, financial crime and asset forfeiture, Abbas Lakha QC is noted for his detailed preparation, incisive examination and strong jury advocacy. He is particularly skilled in handling international money laundering cases, bribery and corruption prosecutions, VAT frauds, missing trader frauds and insider dealing cases.
Relevant areas of practice include:
Regulatory Work
Undertakes VAT Tribunal work before the Upper and First Tier Tribunals and represents Accountants, Lawyers, Medical personnel and sports personalities before their disciplinary Tribunals.
Financial Crime
Expertise in defending in large-scale HMRC MTIC/VAT frauds, SFO cases, Bribery and Corruption allegations, money laundering cases, and fraud related civil proceedings in the High Court [with civil Juniors], as well as proceedings before the First and Upper Tier Tribunal in respect of VAT reclaims and appeals against personal liability notices.
Private Prosecutions
Abbas has experience of prosecuting and defending in Private Prosecutions on behalf of both individuals and corporate entities and is a member of the Private Prosecutors’ Association. He can lead clients through the procedural maze of the Criminal Justice System in mounting a Private Prosecution, from the thorny issue of disclosure right up to preparing and presenting the prosecution case at trial.
Dessy Nascimento
Dessy Nascimento has a background in both finance and law supported by fifteen years of investment experience in credit derivatives, structured finance and corporate and government debt.Learn More
For ten years, which included the 2008 credit crisis, she successfully managed a multi-jurisdiction, multi-sector, multi-currency corporate and structured finance debt portfolio for a major financial corporation.
Relevant areas of practice include:
Regulatory Analysis/Audit
Dessy has analysed and evaluated the UK regulatory regime in financial services as part of a fixed-term contract with a leading economic consultancy. The project required a combination of practical investment experience and documentary analysis to assess the impact of recent regulatory developments on the financial sector and the broader economy.
Investment Strategy
Dessy has advised on asset-type and sector-specific allocation tailored to the varying investment mandates of a number of blue-chip and mid-market asset managers.
She has been responsible for generating investment ideas covering the main fixed income markets (sovereign and corporate debt) as well as the credit derivative instruments based on them.
Performance and risk modelling
Dessy has experience in cash flow modelling based on the transactions’ legal documentation. Such models have been used to analyse the central and tail performance scenarios and to issue buy/sell/hold recommendations in accordance with pre-agreed risk tolerances.