Emily Drake

Expertise

Emily specialises in civil fraud matters and advises in relation to claims such as tax avoidance, complex property fraud and cryptocurrency fraud.  Her experience includes advising in relation to fraud claims both before the High Court and the LCIA and she has advised institutional clients before the First-Tier and Upper Tribunal (Tax).

Her expertise also covers asset protection, asset tracing and recovery and she has advised clients in cross-border matter involving other jurisdictions such as the BVI, Cyprus and the CIS market.

She has acted on a multijurisdictional recovery project to recover several hundred million dollars stolen from the UK Government using a rogue bank in the Dutch Caribbean which included enforcing judgments obtained in the UK against parties out of the jurisdiction who had conspired to defraud the UK Government.  Her recent experience includes coordinating and pursuing ancillary and enforcement actions to support foreign litigation on behalf of an overseas government in respect of high value and complex fraud claims arising out of the demise of a number of financial institutions. She has also advised in relation to the recovery of assets following the use of unlawful tax avoidance schemes involving employee benefit trusts and umbrella employment companies.

Emily also has significant experience in advising clients at the investigatory stage of matters, assisting clients to identify and prepare claims, identify and recover assets and preparing interim applications for the preservation of assets and documentation.

Experience

1. Advising an overseas government in respect of high value and complex fraud claims arising out of the demise of a number of financial institutions
2. Advising the officeholders in relation to the recovery of assets following the use of unlawful tax avoidance schemes involving employee benefit trusts and umbrella employment companies
3. Acting for the officeholders of a company which was involved in a highly contested and complex claim relating to a large piece of land owned by the company which required third party litigation funding
4. Acting for an ultra-high net worth individual in relation to both arbitration and High Court claims arising out of an alleged $1bn fraud.
5. Successfully acting for the joint liquidators of LRH Services Limited in a High Court claim brought against the company directors for breach of duty arising out of the reorganisation of the company's group structure (LRH Services Ltd (In Liquidation) -v- Raymond Trew and Others [2018] EWHC 600 (Ch)).