Jane Colston

Partner in the Commercial Litigation Department

• +44 (0)20 7822 8186
• jcolston@stewartslaw.com

Specialisation

Jane Colston is recommended by The Legal 500 for commercial litigation and is described by it as "tenacious and analytical". Jane has a wide breadth of experience in domestic and international litigation, and alternative dispute resolution. She specialises in complex and high-value commercial banking, contract and tort disputes including professional negligence claims as well as company, shareholders and partnership disputes. Jane has acted for numerous corporate victims of fraud and has extensive experience of forensic investigations, most of which have involved working with teams of investigators and accountants, and coordinating lawyers in multiple jurisdictions to trace and freeze assets. Jane has managed numerous cases involving freezing, search, disclosure, gagging and delivery up injunctions as well as breach of confidence claims.

Jane Colston also acts as a Supervising Solicitor appointed by the Court in regard to the execution of search and door-step delivery up orders.

Memberships

The International Bar Association;
The Solicitors' Association of Higher Court Advocates;

Career

Jane trained and in 1991 qualified into Lovells' Litigation Department. She joined Baker & McKenzie's London Dispute Resolution Department in 1994. In 2004 with a group of Baker & McKenzie litigators, Jane founded niche dispute resolution practice Masseys LLP which was described in Legal 500 as "'excellent', 'responsive' and 'helpful on all fronts', and noted for its willingness to litigate against banks" and as a "human firm, good at explaining legal terms to the layman and praised for its value for money and understanding of business". The Times described Masseys as a "go to" law firm in regard to banking disputes while The Lawyer stated that Masseys was "rapidly becoming favourites among larger City firms on conflict referrals". Masseys merged with Stewarts Law on 2 August 2010.

Most of Jane's commercial litigation work is in the High and Appellate Courts. Many of her cases have been large even by Commercial Court standards and have been reported e.g: A -v- B & Ors [2007] EWHC 54 (Comm) (23 January 2007); SecTrack NV -v- (1) Satamatics Ltd (2) Jan Leemans [2007] EWHC 3003 (Comm); Rosserlane Consultants -v- Herbert Smith [2009] EWHC 90135; Berghoff Trading Ltd & Ors -v- Swinbrook Developments Ltd & Ors, Court of Appeal, 19 May 2009 [2009] EWCA Civ 413 and Commercial Court, 28 July 2008, [2008] EWHC 1785 (Comm); JSC BTA Bank -v- Roman Vladimirovich Solodchenko and Others -v- Anatoly Ereshchenko, 5 April 2011, [2011] EWHC 843 (Ch); PT Thiess Contractors Indonesia v PT Kaltim Prima Coal [2011] EWHC 1842 (Comm). Jane has acted and appeared as Solicitor-Advocate in many major business-related disputes and interlocutory hearings including applications for freezing orders.

Jane has successfully represented a diverse range of major domestic and international commercial organisations, plcs, State entities and individuals. She was recently involved in a £100m commercial fraud and breach of trust case including search and freezing orders; acting for the former owners of an ex-CIS State oil company in a multi-million US dollar litigation arising from the financing and sale of the company, including defending and obtaining injunctions and co-ordinating proceedings in other jurisdictions; advising on substantial banking-related claims involving banks such as Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, HBOS and Lehman Brothers; and acting for one of the defendants in a $300 million fraud claim, one of several pending before the High Court, allegedly perpetrated on JSC BTA Bank of Kazakhstan by its former chair and majority shareholder, Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Jane has contributed to Crone's Law and the Media and International Tracing of Assets. She has lectured at various conferences on many issues, including ADR, privilege, and international tracing of assets.