Kathryn Purkis

Kathryn is an experienced commercial litigator, and became a partner in the litigation department on 1 September 2008.

Prior to joining Crill Canavan in July 2005, Kathryn was a member of Serle Court, a leading commercial and chancery set of barristers' chambers in London with close links to Jersey. She was a recommended practitioner in the Legal 500 in her areas of specialisation which were (and still include) civil fraud and asset recovery, and property litigation. Kathryn remains an associate member of Serle Court and a member of the Chancery Bar Association.

Kathryn obtained a BA in English and Political Science and a postgraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Cape Town. She then read Jurisprudence at Balliol College, Oxford and was called to the English Bar in 1991. She was sworn in as an Advocate of the Royal Court of Jersey in February 2008.

Specialist areas

All aspect of commercial litigation including:

• Civil fraud and asset tracing and jurisdictional disputes
• Contentious trusts work
• Contentious property disputes including statutory nuisance claims and planning litigation
• Professional negligence claims

Recent experience

In Jersey:

• Acting in relation to an aspect of the Waterfront Development
• Acting for a States department in relation to an issue concerning waste disposal
• With Advocate Damian James, acting in the massive and widely reported Alhamrani trusts litigation in the Royal Court
• Prior to qualification, assisting on other departmental matters including the UCC case (see Advocate Damian James) and Gale v Rockhampton, the landmark Court of Appeal case concerning the Jersey doctrine of voisinage (see Advocate Dionne Gilbert). Kathryn was also involved in the firm’s acting for the Republic of Brazil against Paulo Maluf, a Brazilian politician accused of fraud, on a judicial review and on a Norwich Pharmacal application, both of which went to the Court of Appeal (and the latter to a leave hearing in the Privy Council in which Kathryn appeared using her English rights of audience)

At the Bar (most recently):

• Mattos Jnr et al v Macdaniels Ltd et al (Chancery Division), a long-running matter in which Kathryn acted from 2002 to 2005 as junior counsel for the claimants as assignees of the right to recover $242.5 m defrauded from a Brazilian bank. This case produced several reported interlocutory decisions