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Founded in 2012, Signature Litigation has grown into one of London’s pre-eminent specialist dispute resolution practices. From the outset, we set out to do things differently: a conflict-free, disputes-only platform designed to give clients the undivided focus and strategic agility that complex, high-stakes matters demand.
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Signature Litigation AARPI houses one of France’s most enviable product liability practices, with the team also handling commercial and corporate litigation, insurance and reinsurance, toxic tort and ESG, civil fraud and asset tracing, international arbitration, administrative and public law.
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Frankfurt has emerged as one of Europe's foremost financial and commercial centres and, increasingly, as a bridge between European and Asian markets. With that growth comes an increasing demand for sophisticated dispute resolution. Signature Litigation established its Frankfurt office to meet this need, bringing our conflict-free, disputes-only platform to the German market.
FIND OUT MOREPartners Abdulali Jiwaji and Josh Wong successfully acted for Bugsby Property in a four-week Commercial Court trial in Bugsby Property LLC v LGIM Commercial Lending Limited, Legal & General Assurance Society Limited [2022] EWHC 2001 (Comm). The team included Senior Associates Ritwick Ghosh and Olivier Swain. Signature instructed counsel at Maitland Chambers. Read the full judgment, published 27 July 2022, here.
The claimant, Bugsby Property LLC (Bugsby), had approached Legal & General group (L&G), the defendants, for finance towards an acquisition of the Olympia exhibition centre in 2016. Bugsby and L&G entered into a confidentiality, exclusivity and non-circumvention agreement in January 2016, under which L&G agreed not to engage with parties other than Bugsby in relation to the acquisition transaction during an 18-month timeframe.
Subsequently, L&G breached the exclusivity agreement by negotiating with and agreeing to finance a rival bidder, which went on to successfully purchase Olympia instead of Bugsby. Bugsby claimed damages from L&G for breach of contract.
Mr Justice Robin Knowles CBE found L&G liable and accepted Bugsby’s case that causation was established on a “loss of chance” basis. Bugsby was awarded just under GBP 15 million in damages.
In contemplated commercial transactions, particularly sales through competitive bidding, NDAs and exclusivity agreements are commonly entered into. However, it is rare for claims for breach of such agreements to go to trial. This is a significant judgment on the application of loss of chance principles and awards of damages in claims for of breach of NDA/exclusivity.
