Slaughter and May has settled a $2.16m (£1.6m) High Court claim for alleged unpaid fees against former client Randall Dillard, the founder of now defunct City investment firm Liongate Capital Management.

The two parties have now reached a confidential settlement agreement.

The claim arose after Slaughters alleged that Dillard failed to pay fees and disbursements for legal services carried out during a period of almost four years.

The magic circle firm was first instructed by Dillard in July 2013, when he brought in Slaughters to act for him in a personal capacity. A retainer was agreed, under which Slaughters provided legal services to Dillard on matters including a partnership dispute, cases in the High Court and the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, and a regulatory compliance investigation.

Slaughters issued five invoices to Dillard for work carried out between July 2013 and March 2017, and although the firm received partial payments of $100,000 and $99,935 in November 2016 and January 2017 respectively, Slaughters claimed Dillard has failed to pay the remaining amount.

Slaughters terminated the retainer in April 2017, and after Dillard did not respond to the firm's final request to pay the outstanding amount, Slaughters combined all outstanding invoices into a single bill with a 20 December 2017 payment deadline.

Slaughters filed its claim for $2.16m at the High Court this January, also claiming interest accruing at a rate of $147.85 a day, along with statutory interest, and costs of $10,000. 

The magic circle firm said in a statement: "The proceedings commenced in the High Court by Slaughter and May against Mr Randall Dillard have been amicably settled."

Dillard, previously a managing director in the investment banking department at Japanese investment bank Nomura, founded hedge fund Liongate in London in 2003. He sold a large stake in the business to US money manager Principal Global Investors in 2013, before it was closed down in 2015.