Commercial
Douglas is regularly instructed in commercial disputes. He has experience of a wide range of commercial matters involving: the sale of goods; the supply of services; jurisdiction and conflict of laws; guarantees and indemnities; unjust enrichment; agency; bailment and conversion; credit hire disputes; and corporate and personal insolvency.
Selected Cases
Douglas’s recent instructions include:
- Re Golubovich: claim for possession of c. !7m of fine art and jewellery (led by Rupert D’Cruz KC); succeeded in defending a jurisdiction challenge by the Part 20 Defendant: [2021] EWHC 2099 (Ch), upheld on appeal [2022[ EWHC 1605 (Ch).
- 1st Equity v HBOS: £8m claim against a high-street bank concerning alleged breaches of long-term agency licensing agreements, including implied terms of good faith (assisting Jason Evans-Tovey).
- Willmott Dixon Interiors Ltd v Holmes (UK) Ltd: £2.1m adjudication on a disputed parent company guarantee.
- Acting for a sports advertising agency in a €900k LCIA arbitration for anticipatory breach and repudiation against a Russian pharmaceutical company (bespoke contract, London seat, mixed English and Russian law).
- Acting for the respondent seller of oil pipeline equipment in an ICC arbitration concerning the Sangachal oil and gas terminal near Baku, Azerbaijan (bespoke contract, London seat, mixed English and Azerbaijani governing law).
- Acting for the claimant Ukrainian plant manufacturer in a c. £1.8m LCIA arbitration where the respondent Dutch buyer claims force majeure following the outbreak of war (bespoke contract, London seat, English law).
- Acting for a French electrical components supplier in a c.€800,000 LCIA arbitration concerning the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project.
- Acting for an international retailer in a c. £200k sale of goods dispute.
- Advising on conversion in a c. £100k chain of sales of agricultural machinery.
Awards
City University and Lincoln’s Inn
- Eastham scholar (Pupillage award, Lincoln’s Inn, 2015)
- Buchanan Prize (BPTC award, Lincoln’s Inn, 2015)
- Berwin Leighton Paisner Prize for best law-school team, Worshipful Company of Arbitrators arbitration competition, 2015 (representing City University)
- Lord Denning scholar (BPTC scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn, 2014)
- Monckton Prize for EU Law (City University, 2014)
- Winner, University of Southampton IV moot (representing Lincoln’s Inn, 2014)
- Lord Bowen scholar (GDL scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn, 2013)
- Hardwicke scholar (Entrance award, Lincoln’s Inn, 2013)
King’s College London
- Wellcome scholar (full stipendiary PhD scholarship, 2010-13)
- Society for the Social History of Medicine bursary (2012)
- Arts and Humanities Research Council scholar (MA scholarship, 2009-10)
UCL
- Elizabeth Margaret Dale Cast Prize (top overall degree, 2009)
- Dean’s List (2009)
- Professor Joel Hurstfield Prize (top in 2nd year, 2008)
- Dolley Prize (top in 1st year, 2007)
News
Articles
- LADs: Are they always recoverable?
- The Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019
Qualifications
- 2015 – BPTC – City University – Outstanding
- 2014 – GDL – City University – Distinction
- 2013 – PhD History (Portraits of early-modern patients) – King’s College London
- 2010 – MA Early Modern History – King’s College London – Distinction
- 2009 – BA (Hons) History – University College London – First Class (top in year)
Memberships
- SCL
- TECBAR
- COMBAR