Amrit Kaur Dhanoa

Commercial Chancery

Amrit accepts instructions in all areas of commercial and chancery law.

Amrit is frequently instructed by a range of corporate and commercial clients, ranging from sole traders to large businesses, and regularly advises on and appears in a wide variety of commercial disputes. She has experience in dealing with all aspects of commercial litigation including contractual disputes and has particular expertise in cases where insolvency and corporate law overlap. Amrit’s experience includes disputes concerning commercial fraud, investments and investment schemes, contracts for the sale and hire of goods, partnership and LLP disputes, and personal and corporate insolvency.

Her most recent experience includes:

• Advising and representing a claimant in a cargo and carriage of goods claim.

• The Official Receiver v Andrew Nathaniel Skeene and Junie Conrad Omari Bowers [2020] EWHC 1252 (Ch): acting for the Defendants in an interlocutory hearing that concerned insolvency and criminal proceedings. The High Court considered the Official Receiver’s ability to disclose to the Serious Fraud Office documents which had been obtained by the Official Receiver during company director disqualification proceedings.

• Advising on a partnership dispute spanning both company and insolvency law and in particular considering the enforcement of guarantees.

• Robert Gaines Cooper v HMRC – junior counsel acting for HMRC in a large-scale litigation relating to an appeal of income tax assessments. The case worth £30 million considered the Transfer of Assets Abroad and Settlements legislation, arising out of complex offshore trust and corporate structures and in particular, residence and domicile issues.

• Acted for an individual in relation to two account freezing and forfeiture applications pursuant to the Criminal Finances Act 2017. Amrit provided advice on the lawfulness of the applications and represented the individual at trial.

• Amrit is currently junior counsel to the Dame Linda Dobbs Review considering whether issues relating to HBOS Reading were investigated and appropriately reported to authorities following Lloyd Banking Group’s acquisition of HBOS. She has been working for four years with leading practitioners in financial crime and financial services regulation, advising on issues of fact, law, and evidence gathering.

Amrit’s company law experience includes shareholder disputes, unfair prejudice petitions, and directors’ duties. Her complementary insolvency practice covers all aspects of corporate and personal insolvency proceedings, in which she advises and acts on behalf of companies, private individuals, partnerships, LLPs, and insolvency practitioners. Amrit’s experience includes administration, bankruptcy, liquidation, voluntary arrangements, injunctions to restrain presentation/advertisement of winding-up petitions, applications to set aside statutory demands, securing validation orders, and directors' disqualification proceedings.

Amrit regularly volunteers with the City Law School’s Company Insolvency Scheme, which offers pro bono advice and/or representation to companies attending the winding-up court. Amrit assists unrepresented companies on the day of their hearings and in doing so, has been able to develop a strength for providing practical and commercial advice efficiently. She was instrumental in transitioning the scheme from in-person to online hearings during COVID-19. Her efforts ensured that unrepresented companies continued to obtain much needed access to legal advice and representation. Amrit also provides training to City Law School Bar course students about the procedure and practicalities of Insolvency and Company Court hearings and has acted as a judge in mock hearings.

 Amrit’s Employment law experience involves providing advice and representation for both claimants and respondents in unfair dismissal, disability discrimination, and breach of contract claims. She has undertaken cases for the Free Representation Unit, Advocate, and as a member of the Attorney General’s Junior Junior Scheme drafting pleadings and witness statements. Notable experience has included acting pro bono for a litigant in person in a claim for disability discrimination, harassment, failure to make reasonable adjustments, and constructive dismissal against a well-known high street retailer.

 Amrit has also been involved in delivering a series of webinars tackling issues in Employment Law, in the wake of Covid-19, and considering how best to approach them. The webinars considered extension of time limits, use and effectiveness of alternative dispute resolution, interim relief, bringing and defending whistleblowing claims, health and safety dismissal and detriments, and the implications of the pandemic and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme on the redundancy process.

Amrit was awarded a Pegasus Trust Scholarship in 2020 to spend three months working in Dubai. The Pegasus scholarship scheme makes it possible for young barristers to learn about the practical working of the common law system in countries other than their own, and to form enduring links with lawyers in those countries. Amrit will be undertaking the scholarship from October 2022 and will be working at Al-Tamimi and Co, the largest commercial law firm in the MENA region, the DIFC Courts, and in-house at China State Construction.

Public & Administrative

Amrit accepts instructions in all areas of public and administrative law, including judicial review.

Her experience has included:

• Acting as junior counsel to the Grenfell Inquiry, on behalf of the Cabinet Office, one of the core participants in the inquiry. Amrit’s involvement included analysing and advising on material that might justify the making of a restriction on publication or disclosure, identifying material subject to legal professional privilege and/or was otherwise sensitive.

• Robinson and Others v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2020] EWCA Civ 859 – assisting in a judicial review claim on behalf of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who were defending a challenge to the increase in State Pension Age for women in the Pensions Act 1995.

• Overseas Domestic Workers v Home Office – assisting in acting for the Home Office in relation to various claims being pursued by a number of claimants concerning exploited domestic workers in diplomatic households who are seeking compensation.

Amrit has been appointed as junior counsel to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that has been set up to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the pandemic and learn lessons for the future. Amrit will be tasked with considering the economic response to the pandemic and its impact, including governmental interventions by way of support for businesses, jobs, and the self-employed, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, loans schemes, business rates relief and grants; additional funding for relevant public services; additional funding for the voluntary and community sector; and benefits and sick pay, and support for vulnerable people.

Amrit has experience in matters dealt with by the Court of Protection pursuant to the Mental Health Act 1983, and Mental Capacity Act 2005 and has appeared before Mental Health Tribunals. She has developed expertise in advising local authorities, family members, and the Public Guardian in both health and welfare and property and financial affairs cases.

Amrit also regularly acts for local authorities in education law matters, including advice and representation in appeals to the First Tier SEND Tribunal and claims for judicial review.

Regulatory & Disciplinary

Amrit accepts instructions in all areas of regulatory and disciplinary matters. Amrit has dealt with all stages of professional disciplinary and regulatory proceedings, including challenges by way of judicial review.

Amrit is regularly instructed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council and also has experience of defending registrants on behalf of the Royal College of Nursing. Amrit is adept at dealing with interim orders, reviews, and substantive lengthy and complex trials involving multiple allegations before the Fitness to Practice Committee.

Mediation experience

Amrit is a civil and commercial mediator and has successfully mediated several matters ranging from contract disputes, professional negligence claims, and property and inheritance related matters.

Amrit is a member of the Bar Council’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Panel in which she advocates for the greater use of ADR and has been invited as a panel speaker on events relating to understanding mediation as an alternative method to litigation for resolving disputes and, has recently spoken about ADR in a post-Covid world.

Most recently, Amrit has contributed and been instrumental in assisting with the Bar Council’s response to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on increasing the use of mediation in the civil justice system.

International arbitration experience

Amrit’s arbitration experience includes advising on the choice of seat for an arbitration and on the enforcement of arbitral awards.

Amrit is a member of the core team organising the first global international arbitration conference focused on technology (Future of Technology in Arbitration 2022). She will be moderating a session on artificial intelligence and considering its increasing relevance in international arbitration.

Amrit has also been involved as a panellist in Chambers’ webinars which have considered conducting arbitrations in the virtual world and as a speaker on the forethoughts podcast that has considered the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international arbitration and the role of technology in transforming international arbitration.