[email protected] +44 (0)20 7583 1770 Tom Weisselberg QC “A valuable cross-over between core media and intellectual property issues.” — LEGAL 500, 2022 Year of call: 1995 Appointed to silk: 2014 Degree: MA (Oxon), Diploma in Law (City) Tom has extensive litigation and advocacy experience. He has appeared in the Supreme Court, House of Lords, Privy Council, Court of Appeal, High Court and County Courts. He has also appeared in a wide range of domestic tribunals (including the Copyright Tribunal, the Takeover Panel, the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) and the Lloyd's Appeal Tribunal). He regularly appears in domestic and international commercial arbitrations (including in the LCIA, the ICC and the PPL Arbitral Tribunal) in cases involving a wide range of subjects (including oil, the hospitality industry, telecommunications and music recording contracts). Tom is recognised as a leading silk in the latest editions of both the leading legal directories, Chambers UK and Legal 500, for his expertise in commercial litigation, civil fraud and media and entertainment. As a junior, Tom was ranked as one of Chambers UK’s Top Junior Bar 100, in their inaugural listing of the top barristers practising at the Bar of England & Wales. “Extremely user friendly, and very well liked by solicitors and lay clients alike, he is obviously extremely clever, but wears his intellect lightly and is excellent at explaining complicated legal issues in a simple, intelligible way." Tom was Commercial Litigation Junior of the Year in the Chambers and Partners Bar Awards 2012. He has been called to the Bar in the British Virgin Islands and has appeared in cases in the Cayman Islands. EXPERIENCE Commercial Tom has appeared in a wide variety of commercial cases in the Privy Council, the House “Supremely competent and of Lords, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the County Court. He also has delightful.” extensive experience of acting for parties before different arbitral tribunals (including — LEGAL 500, 2022 the LCIA, the ICC and the PPL Arbitral Tribunal). Blackstone Chambers, Blackstone House, Temple, London, EC4Y 9BW Tel: +44(0)20-7583 1770 Fax: +44(0)20-7822 7350 Email: [email protected] [email protected] +44 (0)20 7583 1770 Tom has particular experience of acting and appearing in civil fraud cases. He regularly deals with claims involving Search Orders, Freezing Injunctions, Document Preservation Orders and Information Orders. He has acted for a very wide range of clients in all sorts of commercial cases. His clients have included Macquarie, Pirelli, Michelin, Oleg Deripaska, Rusal, Lloyd's, Lufthansa, Microsoft, BP, British Gas, the Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar, Den Norske Bank, Citibank, Cyprus Turkish Airlines, the BBC, Nokia, Vodafone, the Export Credits Guarantee Department, Ofcom, British Telecom, Sapporo, the developer of the Shard, the Royal Bank of Scotland, IFPI, News International, BSkyB, Uganda Property Holdings Limited and HM Attorney General. He has also acted for a large number of Defendants who have faced claims brought by (for example) the Ministry of Justice, HM Revenue & Customs, News International, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Société General, the Government of Djibouti, PJSC Tatneft, Vale SA and Jyske Bank. He has obtained the discharge of wrongfully obtained injunctions and defended a large number of high value claims. He has been involved in cases dealing with such things as Kuwaiti aircraft, photocopiers, ATMs, mobile telephones, share sale agreements, media representation and bribery. He regularly acts in multi-jurisdictional disputes as part of a team involving lawyers and laws from many jurisdictions (including Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kuwait, Singapore, Gibraltar, Portugal, Angola, Uganda, Jersey, Switzerland, Djibouti and France). He has been called to the Bar of the British Virgin Islands and has appeared in cases in the Cayman Islands. He also has experience of private international law issues (having acted in the Kuwait Airways v Iraqi Airways litigation and in cases against a member of the Saudi Royal Family and the Ugandan President). He regularly works on cases that involve the application of foreign law in English proceedings. Tom has acted as an examiner appointed by the Commercial Court for the purposes of taking a deposition for use in US proceedings. Cases Vale SA v Steinmetz & others Acting for three Defendants in a fraud claim said by the Claimants to be worth US$1.8 billion. Gorbachev v Guriev [2019] EWHC 2684 (Comm) Acting for the Defendant in a trusts claim said by the Claimant to be worth around US$1 billion. Vodafone Ltd v Office of Communications [2020] EWCA Civ 183 Acted for OFCOM in a case concerning the scope of a claim for unjust enrichment under the Woolwich principle and whether it was appropriate to run a counterfactual when deciding whether or not a public authority could retain a fee collected without lawful authority. Blackstone Chambers, Blackstone House, Temple, London, EC4Y 9BW Tel: +44(0)20-7583 1770 Fax: +44(0)20-7822 7350 Email: [email protected] [email protected] +44 (0)20 7583 1770 The Public Institution for Social Security v Al Rajaan & Others [2019] EWHC 2886 (Comm); [2020] EWHC 1498 (Comm) Acting for the First Defendant in a claim brought by the Kuwaiti social security fund said by the Claimant to be worth in excess of US$850 million. Organic Grape Spirit Ltd v Nueva IQT SL [2020] EWCA Civ 999 Acted for the successful Appellant in securing its ability, as a fledgling business, to continue to operate notwithstanding the grant of a Freezing Injunction. Maher v Maher [2019] EWHC 3613 (Ch); [2020] EWHC 1000 (Comm) Acting for co-trustees in family trust in successfully (a) resisting their removal as trustees; and (b) securing the removal of their co-trustee. Arcelormittal USA LLC v Essar Global Fund Ltd & Others FSD 2 of 2019 (IKJ) Acted for the Plaintiff in the Cayman Islands in a claim for Norwich Pharmacal relief in support of attempts to enforce an ICC award for US$1.38 billion. KrisEnergy (Gulf of Thailand) Ltd v Rubicon Vantage International PTE Ltd Acted in the Cayman Court of Appeal in this challenge to the presentation of a winding-up petition based on an alleged debt for work done on Floating Storage and Offloading vessel in the Gulf of Thailand. MacInnes v Gross [2017] EWHC 46 (QB) Acted for the Defendant in a case based on an alleged oral contract for a €13.5 million share in the sale proceeds of a sports data business. The contract was allegedly concluded over dinner at Zuma. After trial, the Judge dismissed the Claimant's claim and held that there was no contract and no claim for quantum meruit. Tatneft v Bogolyubov & Others [2016] EWHC 2816 Comm; [2017] EWCA Civ 1581 Acting for a Ukrainian defendant in a US$200 million claim brought by a Russian state owned oil company. Tom was part of a multi-party 5 day hearing in October 2016 to challenge the jurisdiction and the grant of a Worldwide Freezing Injunction. Picken J dismissed the Claimant’s claim, discharged the Worldwide Freezing Injunction and set aside the order for service out of the jurisdiction. The Claimant's appeal was allowed by the Court of Appeal and the case is now pending before the Commercial Court. Blackstone Chambers, Blackstone House, Temple, London, EC4Y 9BW Tel: +44(0)20-7583 1770 Fax: +44(0)20-7822 7350 Email: [email protected] [email protected] +44 (0)20 7583 1770 TNZI v Feroval Acted for a leading Australian telecommunications to discharge an injunction which restrained it from terminating telecommunications services; after discharging the injunction, immediately applied (to the same Judge) successfully for a Freezing Injunction against the Claimant. Allied Irish Bank v Nolan Acted for Irish Defendants in a claim under section 423 of the Insolvency Act in relation to an alleged transfer at an undervalue of valuable English properties. Breyer Group v Department of Energy & Climate Change [2016] EWHC 763 (Comm) Acted for the Government in a high value claim for damages in relation to an alleged breach of Article 1 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights. The case was one of The Lawyer's Top Cases for 2018 and settled in January 2018 shortly before the start of a 10 week trial. PDHL v Financial Conduct Authority [2016] UKUT 130 (TCC), [2016] UKUT 129 (TCC) Acted for a regulated firm in relation to a challenge to the FCA’s refusal of permission to carry on the regulated activity of debt adjusting and debt counselling. Tom has also acted for a number of other firms seeking permission from the FCA and recently succeeded before the RDC in obtaining permission for one such firm. Coventry v Lawrence [2015] 1 WLR 3485 Acted successfully for the Secretary of State for Justice in the Supreme Court resisting a challenge to the enforceability of pre-Jackson regime Conditional Fee Agreements. Roberts & Wilkins v FCA [2015] UKUT 408 (TCC) Acted against the Financial Conduct Authority for a regulated individual in a case involving traded life insurance bonds. Krys v KBC Partners LP [2015] UKPC 46 Acted for Salford Capital Partners in a number of multi-jurisdictional disputes involving questions of BVI partnership law, contractual construction and allegations of breach of duty, computer hacking and breach of confidence. Appeared in the Privy Council in an appeal as to the proper construction of the articles of association of a BVI partnership. Blackstone Chambers, Blackstone House, Temple, London, EC4Y 9BW Tel: +44(0)20-7583 1770 Fax: +44(0)20-7822 7350 Email: [email protected] [email protected] +44 (0)20 7583 1770 Ecclestone v HMRC Acting for HMRC against Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone in a case involving HMRC’s claim that it is entitled to rescind a settlement agreement concluded between it and Mr and Mrs Ecclestone.