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4-5 Gray's Inn Square

Nuno Santos-Costa

Advocate Nuno Santos-Costa is the senior litigation partner at Crill Canavan. He is a Crown Advocate and has appeared in numerous high-profile criminal cases on behalf of the Attorney General. He specialises in commercial litigation, appearing as counsel in a number of substantial cases in Jersey.

Nuno qualified as an English barrister in 1984 and as an advocate of the Royal Court of Jersey in 1992. He is a member of the COMBAR Association, the Asset Protection and Recovery Network, ICC Fraudnet and is also a door tenant at the chambers of 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square. Nuno is also the Chair of the Board of Governors of De La Salle College in Jersey and is a member of the Law Society Disciplinary Panel.

SPECIALIST AREAS
Commercial litigation
Criminal litigation

Legal 500 says of Nuno: "excellent; very experienced and professional, and able to get to the heart of any matter quickly; he establishes a good rapport with everyone involved".

RECENT EXPERIENCE

  • The Brazil case: intervening in judicial review proceedings brought by a private individual M against the Attorney General of Jersey regarding a request for mutual legal assistance in a criminal matter. The criminal matter in question is a massive fraud by M on certain state entities of the Federal Republic of Brazil, and work has been done generally on the substantive matter which is likely to become an international civil fraud and asset-tracing case involving the client’s own jurisdiction, Switzerland, Jersey and the BVI. A judgment is currently expected from the Royal Court which will provide the significant guidance in this area of the law
  • The Smith case: raising a very similar set of questions against the Attorney General to those raised by M in the Brazil case
  • The Bow Valley case: defending associated Canadian oil companies and their Jersey subsidiary against a multi-million-pound claim brought by the Jersey subsidiary of another Canadian oil company (Pell Frischmann) for damages and an account in relation to an agreement concerning an Iranian oil deal. The case is complex in fact and involves the interplay of contract and energy law. The instructions were received as a result of a connection with a prominent Jersey trust company, Fiduciary Management Limited which is involved in the administration of the subsidiary
  • The KPMG case: again on behalf of the liquidators of a group of Canadian and Jersey associated companies, conducting an asset-tracing exercise against a Jersey trust company
  • The Park Heights case: acting for main contractors in a multi-party and multi-million-pound construction dispute in respect of a large luxury apartment development affected by subsidence
  • The Black case: acting for corporate and individual defendants to a claim for compensation brought by the Jersey Financial Services Commission under the collective investment scheme legislation. We recently succeeded in getting the claim struck out in its entirety against one of the defendants
  • Re Esteem Settlement/Grupo Torras litigation [2002-2003]: from 2001 Nuno was retained as Advocate for the 3rd and 4th Defendants. He accordingly appeared for the successful beneficiaries in the landmark Jersey case on the scope of the constructive trust remedy in this jurisdiction, the principles of tracing, and the Pauline action (a decision that is well-known beyond Jersey as being influential in the development of the law of trusts). He also appeared subsequently in the reported Esteem litigation on:


- the scope of discovery

- the recoverability of the profits earned in a fraud on creditors

- sham trusts and "trust-busting"

  • MacKinnon v Regent Trust Co Limited [2004] JLR 477: another significant Jersey case on sham trusts
  • Blenheim v Morgan (the Osiris Trust ): this was a very valuable, multi-party and complex breach of trust case where there was an 8-10 week trial on liability. Nuno acted for the trustees. The damages were settled in mid-2005
  • Jersey Evening Post v Al Thani [2002] JLR 542: a landmark Jersey case on confidentiality in international criminal matters, and on the procedure of hearings in private and in camera
  • Rossborough Ltd v Boon & Aziz [2001] JLR 416: a landmark Jersey case on the enforceability and effect of restrictive covenants in employment contracts, which also introduced the concept of constructive dismissal into Jersey law

CASES IN THE PRIVY COUNCIL

  • Snell v Beadle [2001] 2 WLR 1180: the leading Jersey authority on sufficiency of consideration under Jersey law and the scope of the customary law exceptions to the principles (against Carey Olsen)
  • Channel Islands Knitwear v Hotchk iss [2003] JLR 163, a negligence case concerning safe systems of work, which he had won on appeal in the Jersey Court of Appeal (against Olsens as they then were)
  • The Brazil case : the Respondents appealed unsuccessfully against an order for disclosure of documentation to the Brazilian authorities