Biography
Colin is a Counsel at Signature Litigation’s Gibraltar office with extensive experience advising clients across a wide range of contentious and non-contentious matters.
Whilst Colin’s primary focus is dispute resolution, his non-contentious practice has encompassed large-scale corporate and transactional matters. He has previously advised on complex trust and company structures, multi-jurisdictional corporate finance transactions (acting for both lenders and borrowers in substantial facility agreements), and provides general corporate and commercial advice to local businesses in Gibraltar.
A bulk of Colin’s dispute resolution expertise concerns corporate disputes (including companies and LLP’s, unfair prejudice petitions, breach of fiduciary claims against directors, and shareholder disputes), insolvency litigation (from statutory demands to applications to appoint administrators and liquidators over corporate entities) and general commercial litigation (including a wide array of different contract disputes, breaches of joint venture agreements and disputes concerning private equity funds). Colin also has considerable experience with admiralty work (including ship arrests), and frequently advises clients on financial services disputes, often involving regulatory elements.
Colin has significant arbitration experience, having acted for clients in proceedings under the LCIA Rules and in a substantial investor-State arbitration under ICSID rules, representing the investor. He also maintains a growing insolvency practice and successfully acted for the cell liquidator of a private cell company against a regulated trust administrator in Gibraltar. This case marked the first time in the jurisdiction that an administration order (and subsequently a liquidation order) was granted by the Supreme Court against a regulated trust administrator.
He is recognised as a ‘Leading Associate’ in The Legal 500 EMEA 2026 Guide for Dispute Resolution in Gibraltar. He has been commended as “a future star – very smart and easy to work with.”
Colin regularly appears before the Supreme Court of Gibraltar as sole advocate and before the Gibraltar Court of Appeal as junior counsel.
Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2010 and to the Gibraltar Bar in 2011, Colin is a fluent Spanish speaker and a member of The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn.
Experience
- Representing the beneficiary of a family trust in multiple contentious trust proceedings with the total value of GBP 2bn concerning privacy, as well as anti-suit injunction proceedings in Gibraltar related to a derivative action against the directors of a listed company in England.
- Representing an individual in a dispute against a group of individuals concerning a purchase of patents for a cancer drug and a breach of related confidential information allegedly used by these individuals to set up a competitive business. The value of the dispute is GBP 500m.
- Representing US investor Discovery Global LLC in a USD 600m ICSID arbitration against Slovakia concerning breaches of the US-Slovakia Bilateral Investment Treaty relating to Discovery’s investment in oil and gas exploration activities in eastern Slovakia.
- Representing a listed online gambling company in a contractual dispute valued at GBP 50m.
- Representing a company in liquidation as one of the defendants in a GBP 50m dispute initiated by another group company (also in liquidation). The dispute involves allegations of a breach of fiduciary duties by the claimant’s directors in relation to payments made by the claimant to the defendant company under a marketing services agreement and for the provision of a software system.
- Successfully acted for the Applicant (the Cell Liquidator of a Gibraltar-registered Protected Cell Company) for an administration order against a large trust administrator regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. The case involved novel arguments about a corporate trustee’s personal liability for the debts of insolvent trusts it manages when entering into transactions with third parties in its capacity as trustee. This was the first time in Gibraltar that an administration order was granted against a regulated trust administrator (led by a KC).
- Representing liquidators of a trust management company in a groundbreaking matter of sector significance involving administration and subsequent conversion to liquidation of a protected cell company in Gibraltar and recovery of company assets from the previous director. The matter included applications which went up to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Gibraltar.
- Representing a Norwegian shipping company in claims worth tens of millions of USD concerning the allocation of the proceeds of sale of one of its vessels following default in loan repayment. The matter included the issue of sanctions and Russia’s involvement with the vessel.
- Representing the liquidators of an investment fund, which was used in a large-scale pension fraud, in a professional negligence claim against a legal advisor for alleged due diligence failures.
- Representing a minority shareholder in a large insurance holding company in a rare unfair prejudice petition in Gibraltar with the claim value c.GBP 10m.
- Advising an individual in relation to a potential claim for up to GBP 30m arising out of a consultancy agreement with a Gibraltar registered company and concerning the implications of a subsequent asset purchase agreement entered into by the Gibraltar company with another entity.
Publications
Article: Gibraltar: Litigation – The Legal 500 Litigation Country Comparative Guide – 30 June 2022
Article: The role of blockchain in the public sector – Open Access Government – 19 June 2020
Article: French Force Majeure Case Holds COVID-19 Lessons For Cos. – Law360 – 18 June 2020