Slaughter and May senior partner Steve Cooke has been called on as a witness in one of the U.K.'s largest civil fraud cases – the $5 billion damages claim by U.S. technology giant Hewlett-Packard against two former Autonomy software directors.

According to the 900-page written opening statement lodged by the claimants' counsel in London's High Court on March 8, Cooke has provided a written witness statement that could see him called to the stand later in the year. Witnesses are due to start being called from today (April 1) in the High Court.