Zachary Kell

Zachary has a flourishing Commercial Chancery practice. Zachary has appeared as sole counsel in the High Court, the County Court, and the residential property and land registration divisions of the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).

He is often instructed as sole counsel in trials, appeals, applications and regularly appears in the High Court, often acting in disputes in the Insolvency & Companies List and Business List of the Chancery Division.

Zachary has developed experience in disputes relating to the banking and finance sector including:

• enforcement of loans, debentures, guarantees, indemnities, securities and mortgages (including matters with undue influence or misrepresentation elements);
• factoring, invoice discounting and trade finance (with all related issues under the law of assignment);
• merchant services, such as card processing agreements and terms relating to charge backs;
• consumer credit.

Recent work includes:

• instructed on a summary judgment application relating to chargeback provisions under a merchant card agreement for a major international;
• a costs dispute in the Commercial Court following the withdrawal of an application (before Robin Dicker QC sitting as a Judge of the High Court).

Zachary has developed experience in general commercial disputes, and accepts instructions in matters relating to:

• sale of goods, and supply of goods and services;
• breach of contract, and all matters involving interpretation of contracts;
• assignment of debts, and any other chose in action;
• civil fraud (including deceit, fraudulent misrepresentation, and conspiracy);
• insurance policies (in particular commercial polices or those relating to real estate).

Recent work includes:

• successfully resisting an application for Mareva relief and an access injunction relating to a commercial property and having the same marked totally without merit (before His Honour Judge Rawlings sitting as a Judge of the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division);
• drafting proceedings and appearing at the hearing of an emergency injunction to access a multi-million pound property (before Snowden J.);
• advising on a claim under an insurance policy following the theft of a luxury car;
• a costs dispute in the Commercial Court following the withdrawal of an application (before Robin Dicker QC sitting as a Judge of the High Court);
• appearing for a claims purchaser in its appeal to a circuit judge against a major British airline on the question of whether assignment of a cause of action under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 amounted to assignment of a bare cause of action, and therefore champertous;
• drafting a shareholders’ agreement for a media firm;
• drafting the standard contract used by a claims management company for all new business;
• drafting pleadings for a fraudulent misrepresentation claim;
• advising on the tracing of trust funds wrongly paid to a company in administration.

Zachary has developed experience in insolvency matters, and accepts instructions relating to:

• corporate insolvency, including misfeasance;
• personal insolvency, including insolvency administration orders of a deceased’s estate;
• transactions at an undervalue;
• rescission, annulment, and setting aside statutory demands;

Recent work includes:

• advising on the implications of a life tenancy granted under a trust deed and how it affects a debtor’s bankruptcy estate;
• defending a misfeasance claim against directors;
• advising on the tracing of trust funds wrongly paid to a company in administration;
• successfully obtaining an emergency validation order for both prospective and retrospective transactions.

Zachary accepts instructions relating to traditional chancery work, which formed the basis of his second seat of pupillage, including:

• trusts disputes including those resulting from a testamentary estate;
• breach of fiduciary duty;
• tracing;
• claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975;
• contentious probate, and interpretation of wills;
• issues under the Wills Act 1963 where a deceased died domiciled abroad.

Recent work includes;

• advising on the implications of a life tenancy granted under a trust deed and how it affects a debtor’s bankruptcy estate;
• appearing for the applicant in the hearing of an emergency proprietary injunction (before Carr J.).

Zachary is developing a real property practice, and accepts instructions relating to:

• easements;
• covenants;
• overage agreements;
• service charges;
• boundaries;
• auctioning of land, and specific performance under the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989;
• party walls;
• the Land Registration Act 2002, including its application following a bankruptcy in the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber – Land Registration).
• forfeiture;
• disputes under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 including the grant of new tenancies, expert disputes over market rent, and rent review applications;
• issues of non-protected commercial leases;
• possession proceedings (both commercial and domestic);
• issues of common law tenancies

Recent work includes;

• successfully resisting an application for Mareva relief and an access injunction relating to a commercial property and having the same marked totally without merit (before His Honour Judge Rawlings sitting as a Judge of the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division);
• drafting proceedings and appearing at the hearing of an emergency injunction to access a multi-million pound property (before Snowden J.);
• appearing for the applicant in the hearing of an emergency proprietary injunction (before Carr J.).

Zachary has assisted other members of chambers in notable cases, including:

Partridge v Gupta [2017] EWHC 1110 (QB): an appeal focused on the correct interpretation of CPR 83.13(8) with regards to applying for permission to issue a writ of possession, and considering what constituted sufficient “notice of the proceedings” within the meaning of the rule (with Ben Maltz). See an article on the case co-written with Ben Maltz here.

R (on the application of Letizia Esposito) v Camden LBC QBD (Admin) (May J) 31/07/2017: an application in the High Court for an urgent interim injunction against the London Borough of Camden. The order was sought by a resident of Dorney Towner on the Chalcots Estate who alleged that it was Wednesbury unreasonable and in breach of her rights under Article 8 of Schedule 1 of the Human Rights Act 1998 for Camden to stop providing temporary accommodation to her, especially following the Grenfell Tower tragedy (with Stephen Evans and Brynmor Adams).

Houghton v PB Donoghue (Haulage & Plant Hire Ltd) and others [2017] EWHC 1738 (Ch): Morgan J considered an application for permission under CPR 36.11(3)(d) to accept a defendant’s Part 36 offer (made almost six months previously) two days after trial began (with Simon Mills).

BPTC, City University London, 2015.
GDL, City University London, 2014.
BA English Literature, University College London, First Class, 2013.

BPTC Major Exhibition, Inner Temple, 2014.
Duke of Edinburgh Entrance Award, Inner Temple, 2014.
Second Prize – Senior Moot, City University London, 2014.
GDL Major Scholarship, Inner Temple, 2013.
John Oliver Hobbes Memorial Prize, University College London, 2013.

“Sit up and take notice! Partridge v Gupta.” Ben Maltz and Zachary Kell. Property Litigation Association. September 2017.

“Disclosure: co-operation in an adversarial system.” Zachary Kell and Laura Sutton. Journal of International Banking and Finance Law. July 2019.

Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR).
Property Bar Association (PBA).