Nicholas Lum
Partner
Nicholas specialises in commercial litigation and investigations, with particular expertise in audit negligence and directors’ liability claims.
Biography
Language - English
Jurisdiction - Hong Kong, Australia
Nicholas has extensive experience in complex commercial litigation and investigations, and often acts for insolvency practitioners in claims arising from large-scale corporate collapses.
He has particular expertise in litigating professional liability claims against auditors, drawing upon both his accounting background and his experience at the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council, where he led enforcement actions against accountants for negligence and other forms of professional misconduct. Nicholas also regularly acts in directors' liability claims, arising from both negligent and fraudulent breaches of directors' duties.
Nicholas’s broader commercial litigation practice involves acting in a wide variety of disputes, including in relation to joint ventures, breach of contract, fiduciary duties, intellectual property, trade practices and urgent injunctive relief.
Prior to joining Stephenson Harwood, Nicholas was the Deputy Head of Discipline at the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council in Hong Kong.
Experience
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Finance – restructuring and insolvency
Advising the liquidators of a collapsed forestry company. Led investigations into the company’s fictitious forestry operations, falsified accounts and misappropriations. Assisted with an audit negligence claim for losses in excess of US$100 million, and a claim against a director for the recovery of funds held on constructive trust.
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Finance – restructuring and insolvency
Advising the liquidators of a jewellery manufacturer which collapsed with claims of over HK$2.4 billion. Investigated fraudulent “gold” sculptures, fraudulent accounting records and sham business transactions. Assisted with an audit negligence claim against a Big Four accounting firm for losses in excess of HK$1 billion.
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Finance – restructuring and insolvency
Advising the new management of a financial services company, which had been subject to extensive fraud by former management. Assisted with a negligence claim against a Big Four auditor in relation to their failure to identify anomalies in the company’s money-lending business, margin-lending business, acquisitions and bond placements.
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Finance – restructuring and insolvency
Acting for the liquidators of an agricultural managed investment scheme, including pursuing claims against a Big Four auditor and the scheme’s directors, arising from financial misstatements and negligent lending practices.
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Commercial litigation
Acting for a uranium mining company in a complex dispute spanning half a dozen court proceedings, primarily in relation to agency and fiduciary obligations.
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Commercial litigation
Acting for a major oil and gas company in an offshore petroleum joint venture dispute worth approximately AU$400 million, concerning a force majeure event, alleged breaches of the joint venture agreement, and liability to pay gas processing fees
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Competition
Advising a global agri-business in relation to a parliamentary inquiry into the misuse of market power in the grain industry.
