Freshfields enters the fray as Liverpool court battle kicks off
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Erskine Chambers' Richard Snowden QC have taken centre stage alongside Lord Grabiner QC in today's high-profile Liverpool court battle. Freshfields instructed Erskine's Snowden after being appointed to advise the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on the dispute, which is being heard today in the Chancery Division of the High Court by Mr Justice Floyd.
October 12, 2010 at 11:14 AM
3 minute read
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Erskine Chambers' Richard Snowden QC have taken centre stage alongside Lord Grabiner QC in the high-profile Liverpool court battle.
Freshfields instructed Erskine's Snowden after being appointed to advise the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on the dispute, which is being heard today (12 October) in the Chancery Division of the High Court by Mr Justice Floyd.
RBS, Liverpool's main creditor, is owed around £240m in loans and £40m in fees by the the club's US owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett and has set a deadline of Friday (15 October) for repayment.
The sale of the football club moved to the courts after Hicks and Gillett attempted to reconstitute the club's board last week after it accepted a £300m takeover offer by US sports group New England Sport Ventures (NESV).
Hicks and Gillett, who are being represented in court by Paul Girolami QC of Maitland Chambers, believe the bid undervalues the club and claim that better proposals have not been properly considered, including an offer by Singapore billionaire Peter Lim, who has since increased his bid to a total value of £360m.
The Liverpool board is being represented in court by Lord Grabiner QC, while Erskine Chambers is also acting for NESV, with David Chivers QC instructed as counsel.
A judgment in the case is set to be announced at 10.30am tomorrow morning (13 October).
The basis for the dispute centres around contractual undertakings made by Hicks and Gillett to RBS stating that club chairman Martin Broughton was the only person entitled to change the club's board.
Last week Hicks and Gillett attempted to remove managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre from the Liverpool board, and replace them with Hicks' son Mack Hicks and Lori Kay McCutcheon, a vice president at Hicks Holdings, in a bid to retain control of the club, a move which prompted RBS to obtain an injunction preventing such a move.
A raft of legal advisers have taken roles in the long-running takeover saga, including Macfarlanes, Slaughter and May, Peters & Peters, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Shearman & Sterling.
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