Judgment Hand Down: Grosvenor Property Developers Limited (in liquidation) v Portner Law Ltd No. 2 [2026] EWHC (Ch)

Grosvenor Property Developers Limited (in liquidation) v Portner Law Limited (No. 2) [2026] EWHC 30 (Ch)

Following the judgment handed down in September 2025 [2025] EWHC 2362 (Ch) in which Saira Salimi sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court found Portner Law liable for dishonestly assisting in the misappropriation of £2.4m of investor money laundered through Portner Law’s client account, and after further written and oral argument, the Deputy Judge handed down her reserved judgment on the question of quantum.

By the time of the trial, the JLs had recovered c. £10.5m into the liquidation. The defendant solicitor “ambitiously [sought] to argue that there is in fact a surplus and the Claimant is not entitled to any recovery of damages from it as there has been full recovery from other defendants”. The Deputy Judge criticised Portner Law for “pursuing weak arguments and thereby increas[ing] the costs of this case to the Joint Liquidators (which in turn potentially reduces the sums payable to the creditors in the liquidation)”. Making a modest reduction of £79,150 to the sum sought by the JLs, the Deputy Judge found Portner Law liable to pay £2,107,788 to the Claimant.

Rory Brown of South Square (leading Andrew Shipley of Selborne Chambers) represented the claimant company at trial, instructed by the Joint Liquidators of the claimant company Paul Atkinson and Glyn Mummery of FRP Advisory LLP and Gunnercooke Solicitors.

Read the full judgment here.