Gita Chakravarty
- Called: 2010
- gitachakravarty@fivepaper.com
Profile
Gita has been a been a member of the Commercial Team since 2012 specialising in insolvency, banking & finance and company law disputes. She regularly appears as sole counsel in the High Court and has significant commercial trial, appellate and mediation experience. Gita was appointed as a Deputy District Judge on the South Eastern Circuit in October 2022.
Gita was junior counsel in the widely reported Blavo litigation, successfully representing the Lord Chancellor in a £22m claim.
She brings a grounded, client-focused approach to litigation, having worked in-house in a global pharmaceutical company before coming to the Bar. Other experience includes being seconded to a commercial and insolvency solicitors’ firm as a junior tenant in Chambers and completing a stage at the European Commission in Brussels.
Gita accepts instructions in German and Danish (recent foreign-language instructions include a German bankruptcy petition with contested COMI issues and cross-border joint venture dispute) and is experienced in handling cross-border issues.
Gita has a First-class degree from the University of Warwick and was awarded a Queen Mother major scholarship by Middle Temple.
Memberships
The Chancery Bar Association
IWIRC International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation
R3 Association of Business Recovery Professionals
The Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR)
INSOL
Expertise
Insolvency
Gita specialises in both corporate and personal insolvency and has experience in the spectrum of Insolvency Act applications and petitions. Gita advises insolvency practitioners, companies, directors and third parties affected by insolvency.
Recent work
- Acted for liquidator in s.236 private examination (involving interpreters)
- Successfully defended a Sch.B1 para.74(1) and 75 application by creditors to remove administrators from office on the basis of unfair harm (allegations of deliberate misconduct)
- Successfully applied to set aside a £1m statutory demand
- Acted for the Debtor on a complex s.252 interim order application in which the key issue was the validity of a failed IVA
Commercial
Gita is regularly instructed on commercial trials and is experienced in handling applications at all stages of a claim. She is also experienced in mediation advocacy as well as less formal round-table negotiations and advises on alternative dispute resolution where appropriate.
Recent work
- Instructed as sole counsel defending an £8m guarantee claim arising from an international mercantile agreement
- Instructed as sole counsel bringing a £1.5m guarantee claim arising from an invoice discounting agreement
- Achieved a successful outcome in a mediation on a £1.5m fraud claim
- Advised the Defendant on six-figure fraud widely reported in the national press
Banking & Finance
Gita has significant experience of working with major banks and private lenders as well as high net worth individuals and other debtors on trials, interlocutory applications and diverse issues arising on enforcement.
Recent work
- Receives regular instructions from a major bank to defend Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims
- Advised a major bank on prospects of recovering against a director of an insolvent company
- Advised a bank on a major invoice redirection fraud
- Defended a freezing injunction against a high net worth individual on the basis of a multi-million AED judgment in the UAE
- Pursued summary judgment in High Court guarantee claims
Company law
Gita is experienced in a range of company law applications including directors’ disqualification proceedings, misfeasance claims and urgent injunctions. Gita regularly acts in and advises on shareholder disputes including unfair prejudice petitions.
Recent work
- Overturned an onerous shareholder agreement designed to transfer control in an SME to a third party investor;
- Presented, defended and advised on multiple unfair prejudice petitions;
- Defended a company director from an unusual s.303 application designed to remove him from office
- Applied for a complex s.1017 vesting order on bona vacantia/escheated property where Company restoration time-barred
Further Info
Qualifications
- B (Hons) Law, The University of Law, 2:1
- BA (Hons) English and German, The University of Warwick, 1st (+distinction)
- Universität Konstanz, German, Erasmus
Scholarships and Prizes
- Queen Mother Scholar, Middle Temple
- International Grant Programme for the English-Cypriot Bar conference, COMBAR
- Blackstone Entrance Exhibition, Middle Temple
Other languages
Fluent German
Fluent Danish
Publications
- “Personal insolvency law update” – LexisNexis webinar series
- “Freezing Point” – Solicitors Journal. A report on Windrush Intercontinental SA v Bitumen A/S concerning the grant of a freezing injunction pending an appeal against an arbitration award
- “No Guarantees” – Solicitors Journal. A report on Bank of Scotland PLC v Cohen on personal guarantees and economic duress
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