Expertise

Ashlee is a Managing Associate in the Finance Disputes team, acting for clients in the commercial and financial services sectors, in particular, banks, asset based lenders, insolvency practitioners and private equity investors. Ashlee's practice primarily consists of resolving disputes both by alternative dispute resolution (such as mediation) as well as litigation.  Ashlee assists clients in many cases to resolve disputes on a pre-action basis avoiding litigation altogether. Ashlee's litigation practice consists of County Court and High Court claims and she has also acted on appeals in both the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. Ashlee's expertise includes acting for both Claimants and Defendants in a range of commercial disputes including:

• Complex recoveries actions arising out of breaches of finance facility agreements, in particular, receivables finance, trade finance and asset finance agreements - in many cases, involving fraud on the part of the customer.
• Actions against personal guarantors and indemnifiers, including bankruptcy proceedings and fraud claims.
• Enforcement of security and recovery of assets, including assets outside of the jurisdiction and including against defendants subject to Proceeds of Crime Act restraint orders.
• Urgent injunctions including for delivery up of goods and to restrain winding up proceedings.
• Defending a wide-range of claims against banks including: alleged breaches of the "Quincecare" duty, unlawful termination of facility agreements, mis-selling of financial products, breaches of data protection obligations, damage to credit-rating.
• Complex and defended insolvency proceedings both personal and corporate.

Ashlee's highlights for 2022 include:

• Acting for Lombard North Central Plc in a trial which followed long-running litigation involving allegations of unlawful termination, which was alleged to have caused losses of c.£22 million, as well as a breach of the duty of a mortgagee in possession to achieve the best price reasonably obtainable in the sale of a repossessed asset (a private jet in this case). The judgment of Foxton J is precedent-setting on the topic of waivers of breaches of contract: Lombard North Central Plc v European Skyjets Ltd [2022] EWHC 728 (QB)
• Acting for Bibby Factors Limited in a successful application to strike out a defence which alleged fraud on the part of Bibby and for summary judgment on Bibby's claim, including successfully defeating an application to set aside the judgment obtained summarily.
• Acting for a private equity investor client in the settlement of a long-running multi-million pound dispute arising out of three different underlying contracts, including working with Addleshaw Goddard's Commercial term to effect variations of the main underlying agreement to be effected as part of the settlement.
• Advising an overseas bank in defending a claim brought by a former customer (itself a UK-based provider of short-term consumer loans) against the bank alleging the unlawful imposition of a penalty charge on termination of the facility agreement.   

Ashlee's core clients include Bibby Financial Services, Close Invoice Finance, the NatWest Group and HSBC invoice finance.