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Slater and Gordon to be hit with counterclaim
Watchstone Group is set to serve and file an amended defence and counterclaim against the UK arm of Slater and Gordon for damages of at least £63 million.
Emma Musgrave
Speaking to Lawyers Weekly, Watchstone Group confirmed it is to serve and file an amended defence and counterclaim to High Court proceedings originally issued by Slater & Gordon.
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The counterclaim against Slater and Gordon is currently for damages of at least £63 million “plus exemplary damages, interest and costs for breach of confidence, inducing breach of contract, and unlawful means conspiracy,” a statement from Watchstone said.
“The counterclaim arises from the recent discovery via third-party disclosure of an illicit back channel that Greenhill & Co, a corporate finance adviser to S&G, procured during the period of due diligence and negotiation with Watchstone’s then group restructuring and technical accounting adviser, PwC,” it noted.
Watchstone claims that at S&G’s behest and/or on its behalf and/or with its knowledge and authorisation and/or ratification, its agent Greenhill established a “back channel“ with PwC, Watchstone’s trusted adviser by a series of secret meetings between representatives of Greenhill and PwC, “at which it unlawfully obtained information pertaining to Watchstone’s wider group which was, and which it knew to be, confidential”.
“S&G (and Greenhill on its behalf) then factored that information into its tactics and strategy for the negotiations with Watchstone leading to the acquisition of the Professional Services Division (‘PSD’) which is the subject of these proceedings, thereby gaining an unfair advantage in those negotiations, which it exploited in order to purchase the PSD at a lower price than it would otherwise have had to pay,” Watchstone said.
“S&G thereby planned to, and did cause, Watchstone to suffer significant loss.
“Watchstone informed the court that it had not been told by S&G (including in its disclosure and witness statements in these proceedings) or anyone else about the back channel referred to above, and was therefore unaware that its confidential information had been provided to Greenhill and S&G until it received third-party disclosure from Greenhill in these proceedings on 19 July 2019 almost three years after S&G’s claim was first threatened.”
On 28 August 2019 Slater and Gordon submitted that Watchstone should not be permitted to amend its defence or to bring the counterclaim, however it was rejected by Justice Simon Bryan of the commercial court in London.
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