Katie Allard

Katie is an Associate in the Dispute Resolution Team. She has a wide-ranging commercial practice with particular interest and expertise in complex civil fraud and asset tracing investigations, boardroom and shareholder disputes, and breach of contract claims, acting for both claimants and defendants.  

Katie’s broad practice also includes professional negligence, insolvency and reputation management.

Katie has experience acting for clients in obtaining or opposing freezing injunctions. She also has experience as part of a supervising solicitor’s team on the execution of search orders.

Katie often works on matters with an international dimension, whether litigating in London on behalf of international clients or acting for UK and non-UK based clients in multi-jurisdictional disputes.

Katie joined Kingsley Napley in February 2012 as a paralegal in the Dispute Resolution team and completed her training contract with Kingsley Napley, qualifying as a solicitor in September 2017.

Katie is involved in a number of projects aimed at addressing issues affecting the local community, particularly homelessness and social inclusion, and is an active member of the firm’s Charities and Community and Responsible Business Committees. Katie acts as a Professional Ambassador for Aspiring Solicitors and volunteers as a caseworker for Amicus.

Katie is a committee member of the Young Fraud Lawyers Association.

Recent cases

• Acting for over 100 claimants in a multi-million pound Ponzi-scheme fraud across multiple jurisdictions including USA, Chile, Belize, St Lucia, Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand; successfully obtaining Norwich Pharmacal orders and freezing assets.
• Successfully acting for a company in a claim against one of its directors for fraud and breach of duty, including misappropriation of company funds and making a secret profit.
• Successfully obtaining an injunction against two individuals following attempts to appoint them as company directors in a hostile take-over bid at an EGM, preventing them from being held out as and / or acting as directors of the company.
• Successfully defending a claim brought by an individual for a declaration that they held shares in a client company. 
• Acting for a company in exercising a lien over the share held by a shareholder (also a former director) in respect of unpaid debts. 
• Acting for a company in unfair prejudice proceedings brought by a shareholder and former director. 
• Acting for a Trustee in Bankruptcy in seeking to set aside a declaration of trust on the basis that it was entered into for the purpose of putting assets beyond the reach of creditors and constitutes a transaction at an undervalue within the meaning of section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986. 
• Acting for the successful claimant in a landmark Supreme Court case which resulted in change to the law of dishonesty, overturning a 35 year old test from the case of R v Ghosh [1982].
• Acting for a sports agency in a claim against a top Formula One team for unpaid commission arising from a sponsorship introduction.
• Acting for a government body in a professional negligence claim against its former solicitors.
• Acting for the defendant in one of the first cases to provide guidelines on the meaning of the “serious harm” threshold in defamation law under section 1(1) of the Defamation Act and one of the first libel cases involving posts on twitter.

professional societies and memberships 

• Young Fraud Lawyers Association (YFLA) Committee Member
• Contentious Trusts Associates (ConTrA)
• London Young Lawyers Group