Our Insights & News

The failed Kids Company trial remains in the news headlines as the costs of the legal case are disclosed.

Following the failed Kids Company proceedings, the Insolvency Service has refused to reveal the full costs of legal proceedings and other additional fees associated with the trial.

Natasha Jackson is a barrister at 3 Hare Court and represented Camila Batmanghelidjh (led by Rupert Butler) in the Kids Company trial. Katharine Bailey is a pupil barrister at 3 Hare Court, who assisted in the Kids Company trial. Here they consider the implications of the recent Kids Company litigation for charities and their directors.

Rupert Butler and Natasha Jackson successfully defended Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of the prominent children’s charity Kids Company, in the directors disqualification proceedings that followed the charity’s collapse.
In this webinar, Rupert and Natasha discuss the implications for company and insolvency practitioners and give their insight on the case.

Fresh from her High Court success in fighting the threat of disqualification, Camila Batmanghelidjh was interviewed by Woman’s Hour presenter Emma Barnett on the popular BBC Radio 4 programme last week. In the interview, Batmanghelidjh was keen to emphasise the debt she owed to the Leverets team, led by Rupert Butler, which had acted so successfully for her.

The Jimmy Savile scandal – involving widespread sexual abuse of many children ‘in plain sight’ – was a landmark event that acted as a wake-up call to the authorities. The result was the setting up in March 2015 of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (“IICSA”) as a statutory inquiry so as to make recommendations to ensure the best possible protection for children in the future. Leverets guided the Janner family through all of IICSA’s harrowing processes, advising on how best to protect their family and their father’s reputation. This required not only forensic rigour but sensitivity and empathy at a time when family members were grieving over his death.

Leverets successfully acted for Camila Batmangheldijh in the attempt by the Official Receiver to disqualify her as a de facto company director along with the other members of the Kids Company’s Trustee Board. In this landmark case Mrs Justice Falk held “disqualification was not warranted against any of the Trustees” as well as ruling that Camila Batmanghelidjh was not even a director. The Defendants maintained that it was unfounded allegations of sexual abuse during July 2015 which had sealed the charity’s fate.

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