Philip is one of the most experienced litigators anywhere. He has been practising on his own account for nearly forty years, and in that time has made very significant recoveries across a wide range of situations.
His approach is careful and fact-based, on the old adage that facts win cases. It is a method rather than a temperament: establish what actually happened, establish what can be proved, and work back from the end you want. Most matters are resolved a great deal earlier, and a great deal more cheaply, when that work is done at the start rather than on the steps of the court.
Philip is the author of Restitution and How to Obtain it. He also owns Sintel Global, a straight intelligence consultancy, and Sinels Global Restitution Limited, which does what it says on the packet and recovers assets for creditors all over the globe.
He is one of very few advocates to have made trust litigation a life's work. For more than thirty years he has acted against trustees to reach assets concealed inside trust structures — an approach he pioneered in West v Lazard Brothers — recovering for beneficiaries and creditors what those structures were built to put beyond reach.
He writes and advises on financial crime and asset recovery, including on how to spot a fraudster targeting high-net-worth clients.
He represents individuals, companies and corporations before courts in multiple jurisdictions. Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1984, he qualified as a Jersey Advocate in 1987 and as an Attorney-at-Law in Anguilla in 2002, and obtained Rights of Audience and to Conduct Litigation in Dubai in 2008. He speaks English and French.
Alongside his practice he provides free and subsidised assistance within his own community.
He has a long-standing interest in history, and in military history in particular. There is a copy of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War on his desk, and its central proposition, that the art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting, is a reasonable summary of how he approaches litigation.
Outside work he spends his time with family and friends. He is a keen boater and fisherman, and has an interest in birds and plants. He enjoys foraging, low water fishing, spear fishing and cooking.
