Shaun is counsel in our Litigation, Insolvency & Restructuring Group. Shaun represents investment funds, directors, trustees, professional firms and their insurers in high-value litigation and arbitration. He is an expert in professional liability and is the author of Don’t Shoot the Advisor: A defence lawyer’s guide to protecting your position and preventing lawsuits. Shaun joined Campbells in 2014, having trained and practised at Simmons & Simmons in London.
Shaun Tracey
Counsel
“Shaun Tracey…has vast experience of fund litigation which he utilises to find advantageous solutions for clients in difficult situations.”
-Legal 500, 2021
Overview
Expertise
- Commercial litigation – advice and advocacy in a wide range of high-value disputes, including obtaining interim relief (such as anti-suit injunctions) and bringing enforcement proceedings in respect of foreign judgments and arbitral awards
- Professional liability litigation – defending professional firms against multi-million dollar negligence claims
- Acting for directors of investment funds
- Insolvency litigation – acting for liquidators and creditors in contested insolvency proceedings usually involving investment funds
- Trusts litigation – acting for professional trustees in contested proceedings
- Insurance litigation – advising upon policy coverage disputes
- Fraud and regulatory investigations
- Labour tribunal, probate disputes and other civil litigation
Work Highlights
- Successfully defending HSBC against a $2 billion claim brought by Primeo Fund (in liquidation) in respect of the Bernard Madoff fraud. The case went to a four-month trial in the Grand Court and judgment was upheld on appeal to the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal. The case is now before the Privy Council
- Acting succesfully for professional trustees in defending an action brought by potential beneficiaries to set aside the trust settlement, worth approximately $300 million, in the Perry v Lopag litigation
- Acting in the defence of a Cayman Islands audit firm in an ongoing audit negligence arbitration
- Acting in the defence of numerous commercial law firms with respect to high-value negligence claims
- Acting for the liquidators of the Soundview companies which were used as part of a Ponzi scheme that allegedly defrauded US municipal pension schemes, including co-operating with the Chapter 11 Trustee and her US counsel
- Acting for the liquidators of the Pacific Harbor investment fund in contentious proceedings
- Acting for a creditor in the Platinum Partners insolvency (a $1 billion hedge fund failure) whose claim arose from Platinum’s default on its swap contracts involving Asian securities.
- Advising a multinational company in respect of a UK Serious Fraud Office investigation into the UN Iraqi Oil-for-Food scandal
Qualifications and Admissions
- Attorney at Law, British Virgin Islands, 2017
- Attorney at Law, Cayman Islands, 2012
- Solicitor-Advocate, England & Wales, 2008
- Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales, 2005 (currently non-practising)
- College of Law, Legal Practice Course (Distinction), 2002
- University of Nottingham, BA (Hons), 2000
Prior Career History
- Appleby, Cayman Islands (2011-2013)
- Client secondments: Barclays (2006) and Travelers insurance company (2010)
- Simmons & Simmons, London (2003-2011)
Professional Associations
- Secretary, Cayman Islands Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
- First Judicial Assistant to the Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands
- President, Cayman Islands Chess Federation
- Professional speaking and training
Publications and News
News
- Campbells attorney leads national chess team to India for FIDE Chess Olympiad.
Campbells litigation attorney Shaun Tracey will captain the Cayman Islands national chess team at the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India from 27 July to 10 August.
Articles
- Campbells authors 2022 Enforcement of Judgments Chambers Guide.
The Cayman Islands chapter discusses domestic judgments, foreign judgments and foreign arbitral awards. - Campbells authors GLI International Arbitration Cayman chapter.
This guide highlights key topics of arbitration agreements and procedures, enforcement of awards, investment of arbitration and decisions in the jurisdiction. - Chambers Enforcement of Judgments 2021.
Authored by Campbells' attorneys, these chapters discuss domestic judgments, foreign judgments, foreign arbitral awards, the 2019 Hague Convention on enforcing judgements as well as enforcement and digital assets. - Global Legal Insights - International Arbitration Guide 2021, Cayman Islands.
Andrew Pullinger and Shaun Tracey co-author the Global Legal Insights - International Arbitration Guide 2021, Cayman Islands chapter, which covers key topics including arbitration agreements and procedures, arbitrators, interim relief, arbitration awards, challenge and enforcement of awards, investment arbitration and decisions.
Client Advisories
- Cayman Islands Courts roll out judicial mediation of disputes.
The Courts of the Cayman Islands have introduced new measures concerning the judicial mediation of disputes, which continues a trend towards the increasing use of alternative dispute resolution methods. - GOL! Privy Council upholds Cayman Court of Appeal decision to enforce foreign arbitral award in favour of Brazilian airline.
This judgment reaffirms as a matter of Cayman law the orthodox view that the enforcing court has only a limited function aimed at promoting the finality of arbitral awards, and that awards will readily be enforced in the Cayman Islands in almost all cases. - Primeo v HSBC: Privy Council further narrows the reflective loss principle.
In a significant judgment delivered on 9 August 2021 in the long-running litigation between Primeo Fund (in Official Liquidation) and HSBC, the Privy Council granted the first limb of Primeo’s bifurcated appeal against the lower courts’ dismissal of its claims on the grounds of reflective loss. The decision further narrows the reflective loss principle in important respects following the UK Supreme Court decision in Sevilleja v Marex Financial Ltd last year.