Nick Booth

Nick is the head of Harrison Drury’s Business Services Division but his practice area specialism is commercial dispute resolution & avoidance. He read biology at the University of Nottingham before completing the Graduate Diploma in Law and the Legal Practice Course. Nick is identified as a Recommended Lawyer in the Legal 500 and acts for a wide variety of clients including shareholders and partners, large commercial organisations as well as SME’s and owner managed businesses.

Nick has substantial experience in advising clients in a variety of sectors in relation to a broad range of legal and commercial issues including:

• Shareholder and director disputes: acting for shareholders, including bringing and defending claims relating to unfair prejudice and breach of directors’ duties.
• Partnership disputes relating to both traditional partnerships and LLPs.
• Protection of reputation: bringing and defending claims in relation to libel and malicious falsehood, including applications for injunctive relief and assisting clients in responding to the publication of damaging statements.
• Claims against professionals: particularly relating to claims against professional advisors, including solicitors, barristers and accountants where their services have been provided negligently.
• Claims arising out of business sales:  including claims for breach of warranty and those relating to completion accounts.
• Applications for injunctive relief: applications for interim and final injunctions, including freezing injunctions.
• Contractual disputes: including those relating to sale of goods and supply of services, shareholders’ agreements and breach of restrictive covenants.
• Civil fraud claims: involving multiple defendants and allegations of misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, dishonest assistance, knowing receipt, deceit and unlawful means conspiracy.
• Dispute avoidance: assisting clients in managing risks to their business and providing commercial advice to assist clients in limiting the impact of disputes or avoiding them altogether wherever possible.

Nick has been involved in a number of substantial, complex claims, a number of which have been the subject of national and international press attention. He always aims to offer clients clear and practical legal advice and is keen to utilise dispute resolution strategies to assist them in achieving their commercial objectives in a cost-effective fashion.

Some recent cases include

• Acting for a client in connection with a £15m banking claim where Claimant alleges that the bank reneged on a promise to maintain his facility, causing catastrophic business losses Broomhead v National Westminster Bank plc and The Royal Bank of Scotland [2020] EWHC 1005 (Ch).
• Acting in patent entitlement proceedings to recover the benefit of patents for the company against claims made by a former director and shareholder as to their ownership Kwix UK Limited v Matthew Murphy and Ann Nilsson and Patrick Lannagon as Joint Trustees of the Bankruptcy Estate of Matthew Murphy [2020] BL O/563/20.
• Acting for minority shareholders in bringing a derivative claim relating to breaches of contract and duty by a director and shareholder in connection with patents in a novel therapeutic drug. Glew & Denton and Company Trustees Ltd et al v Matossian-Rogers and Amro Biotech Plc  et al [2019] EWHC 3183 (Ch)
• Acting for a company in connection with a claim against a former director and shareholder for breach of duty and the recovery of sums misappropriated. Autocal Holdings Limited v Jeffrey [2017] EWHC 907 (Ch).
• Acting for a majority shareholder in a multi-million pound shareholder dispute, responding to a petition alleging unfair prejudice. Andrew Graham Thurstan and Others v Ashdown Investors Limited and Others Case No: 2856 of 2014

Outside of work you can find me…

In his free time, Nick enjoys keeping fit and plays football and squash. He also enjoys watching sport, though unfortunately this is becoming an increasingly armchair based pursuit.