Adam Griffiths

Barrister

Name: Adam Griffiths
Position: Barrister

Year of Call: 2013

Adam’s versatile oral and written advocacy lends itself to the specialist practice areas in which he is instructed. He is particularly regarded for his legal acumen: readily identifying, distilling and clearly-presenting complex legal arguments which go to the core of disputes.

Called to the Bar in the Summer of 2013 after being awarded a Distinction in a specialist Commercial Law LLM, Adam “Conveys his advice in a concise and commercial manner, and can hold his own in court against counsel of significantly greater seniority.” – Legal 500, 2021: Commercial Rising Star

Background

In 2014 Adam was appointed as in-house counsel to a large financial intermediary business in Hong Kong, managing cross-border litigation, compliance to financial regulations and advisory work. As a director of the firm, Adam oversaw corporate and private client affairs.

Adam’s experience gives him a depth of insight into commercial pragmatism and building business relationships. Adam brings this to bear in his often technical practice at the Bar; he is able to focus on complex legal problems spanning disparate practice areas while retaining the ability to quickly assess the most efficient route to resolution for lay clients.

Adam was the updating author of Hong Kong’s leading practitioner text on banking and finance law and contributed to Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong.

Commercial and Chancery Commercial

Adam’s academic background and postgraduate research focused on the development of the fiduciary relationship and the regulation of corporate governance. Adam welcomes instructions in these narrow fields while maintaining a broader commercial, contract and Chancery practice, day to day.

Having read admiralty law as part of his specialist LLM under Professor Francis Rose—and with a background in professional yacht racing—Adam attracts specialist maritime work and is uniquely placed to understand many of the practical issues faced by parties in this area of litigation.

Instructions

Notable unled recent instructions:

Appearing in a multi–week hybrid trial in the High Court along with advising and drafting pleadings in this commercial contract/shipbuilding dispute: Global Technologies Racing v Alex Thomson Racing [2020] EWHC 3334 (Comm) (September 2018 – December 2020)
Instructed in a multi–million pound mediation between a hedge fund manager and a property fund: HIMML v R (July – September 2020) c. £3m
Advising and drafting pleadings in connection with High Court litigation concerning ownership of (and discrimination within) a law firm: E v B (November 2019 – January 2020) c. £1m
Advising on the procedure and prospects of a judicial review against a maritime regulatory body of uncertain public nature (October 2018)
Advising and drafting pleadings in an unjust enrichment claim based on a failed contract: Lyon v Donaldson and ors (January 2019 – June 2019)
Appearing, advising and drafting pleadings in a complex multi-track matter concerning wrongful interference in the context of an insolvency of disputed relevance: Nicholas v Cross (June – August 2018)
Appearing in a multi-track hearing on the admissibility of expert evidence in breach of directions in commercial (construction) proceedings (November 2017).

Recent advice has covered areas such as contingent contracts, anti-oral variation clauses, species of unjust enrichment, issue estoppel, along with general shareholder disputes

Employment

Regulatory and Public

Adam is sought by solicitors faced with unusual regulatory and public law issues. chiefly matters of shipping regulatory law, human rights inquest proceedings and contempts.

Adam’s practice in these specialist areas originated from his pupillage during which he participated in trials concerning some of the most serious allegations: during his first six he spent four weeks with his pupil supervisor Charles Row in R v Wood, a three-defendant gross negligence manslaughter trial in the context of corporate and regulatory breaches. Later, in practice, he appeared as acting-junior counsel for a fortnight in a four-defendant murder trial led consecutively by David Hunt QC and Ed Burgess QC.

Adam has recently been instructed by prosecuting authorities including the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (for collisions between vessels) and BIS (now the Insolvency Service criminal enforcement team) leveraging his experience as an offshore yacht racer and former financier (respectively). Adam particularly enjoys the legal intricacies of procedurally unusual regulatory litigation.

Instructions

Notable unled recent instructions:

Prosecuting the master of a vessel in Bournemouth Crown Court for conduct endangering life following a collision: R v Jarvis (January 2019) (reported: The Times, The Telegraph, Metro et c.)
Advising on the procedure and prospects of a judicial review against a body of uncertain public nature (October 2018)
Appearing in two multi week Article 2 Coroner’s inquest on behalf of the family of the deceased. Notwithstanding jury directions to return a short form conclusion Adam successfully protected a jury’s five page narrative conclusion relying on 18th Century ‘jury prerogative’ case law: C. J. Jeffery (March – September 2018)
A contested committal for contempt trial for breach of a County Court injunction: Liverty v Allen (June 2018)
Representing a defendant facing a custodial sentence in committal for contempt proceedings in the County Court: BCC v Hammond (April 2018)
Representing a defendant facing a custodial sentence in committal for contempt proceedings before a circuit judge for breach of a court order (April 2018)
Appearing at an inquest on behalf of the family of a deceased patient (March 2018)
Advising on a prosecution under maritime regulatory law (IRPCAS) following a collision at sea (March 2018)
Instructions from the CPS to draft written submissions in the Court of Appeal in response to an appeal founded on procedural irregularity (following representation of the Prosecution in a Newton hearing in the Crown Court) (February 2018)

Adam welcomes instructions in—and is particularly suited to—wet shipping issues, white collar/business and regulatory cases including breaches of the Insolvency and Company Acts.

Adam holds a CPS panel advocate appointment as well as an appointment to a junior treasury counsel scheme.

Scholarships and Memberships

Cassel Scholar of Lincoln’s Inn (Major, named bar finals scholarship)
Wigglesworth Scholar of Lincoln’s Inn (Major, named pupillage scholarship)
Denning Society Member, Lincoln’s Inn

Qualifications

Direct Public Access Certification, 2017
BPTC (Very Competent), 2013
LLM Commercial Law (Distinction), 2012
LLB Law & International Relations (2.i), 2011

Hobbies and Interests

Outside of legal practice Adam enjoys yacht racing (at a previously professional level), triathlon (at a vanishingly amateur level), increasingly technical scuba diving, backcountry skiing, fly fishing, historical linguistics, chess, photography and contemporary art.