RPC has secured a High Court victory for Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley in his dispute with investment banker Jeffrey Blue.

Blue alleged that Ashley had reneged on a £15m payment, promised to Blue in a London pub in 2013, if Blue doubled Sports Direct's share price from £4 to £8.

Ashley said he could not remember having made the offer as it was made during a night of heavy drinking and that the remark was in keeping with the "general banter" the two were having.

He claimed that the group had ordered four or five rounds of drinks in their first hour at the pub and that pints of beer were "coming like machine guns" during the course of the evening.

Handing down his judgment, Mr Justice Leggatt said that no reasonable person could have considered Ashley's offer to be serious and that Blue's attempts to enforce it show that "the human capacity for wishful thinking knows few bounds".

RPC's team was led by head of the firm's commercial group Jeremy Drew, with David Cavender QC and Tamara Kagan of One Essex Court instructed as counsel.

Mishcon fielded a team led by dispute resolution partner Richard Leedham, who instructed Jeffrey Chapman QC and Simon Atrill of Fountain Court Chambers.

The case has come under close scrutiny as it has given an insight into Ashley's business practices in his management of Sports Direct. Blue made reference in court to Sports Direct's weekly senior management meetings, where he claimed to have witnessed Ashley drinking copious quantities of alcohol.

Earlier this month RPC secured another High Court win, advising real estate developer Hammerson in a dispute over falling windows installed in the former London Stock Exchange building.

Photo credit: Philip Halling