Leslie’s career of more than 35 years in litigation markets falls effectively into two halves.
The first half was as a litigation solicitor advising clients, in which capacity he served successively as Head of Litigation, Managing Partner and Senior Partner at international law firm, Osborne Clarke. His practice covered civil fraud, collective redress and many other strands of litigation. One of his cases still holds the record for a UK jury award of defamation damages against an insured defendant. In other cases, he became recognised as one of the pioneers of collective redress in the UK.
After leaving Osborne Clarke in 2006, Leslie switched to roles that involved him acting as the client instructing other lawyers to work for him and the businesses that he led. He became, and remains, Chairman of Calunius Capital LLP, one of the pioneers of litigation funding.
Leslie’s work in litigation funding has involved the evaluation and monitoring of opportunities to invest in the outcomes of fraud cases of immense complexity, working not only in England & Wales, the US and Australia, but also in the principal offshore jurisdictions, including the Channel Islands, instructing some of the world’s leading law firms and counsel, including Edmonds Marshall McMahon (“EMM”).
Leslie’s relationship with EMM began in April 2015, when he instructed EMM to advise him in his capacity as the Senior Independent Director of companies in the DAS Group, then as now, the UK leader in the market for Legal Expenses Insurance. Those instructions led to a successful Norwich Pharmacal application led by Kate McMahon for pre-action disclosure of documents evidencing a series of frauds against the company. The resulting disclosures led in turn to a successful private prosecution on behalf of DAS in relation to CEO fraud, considered to be the largest in the UK. EMM’s partner for the trial process was Andrew Marshall.
Leslie has joined EMM as Head of Strategy and Development with the unusual benefit of having been a significant client and having experienced at first hand the extraordinary knowledge, application and commitment of EMM and its people from top to bottom. In this capacity, Leslie will work with the partners in the further development and implementation of strategic growth for the firm.
