Linklaters is being sued for professional negligence by a former major shareholder of Arsenal Football Club.
Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith instructed Linklaters to sell her 15.9% shareholding in the club to Stan Kroenke in 2011. Her decision gave Kroenke, a US entrepreneur and rabid bloodsports enthusiast, a controlling stake in the club, and netted Bracewell-Smith £116 million.
Documents filed at London’s Commercial Court last month reveal that Bracewell-Smith is now suing Linklaters and also Deloitte, though they do not state the basis of the claim.
Bracewell-Smith has been outspoken about the loss of her stake in the Gunners, which had been in her husband's family since the 1940s. In 2013 she tweeted, after the club lost 3-1 to Aston Villa, "What a shame the board recommended a Kroenke takeover and paid Rothchilds 3m fee. And how deeply I regret selling to Kroenke. #AFC".
Other advisers on the sale have already found themselves in the gooner's crosshairs. In 2014 she sued the son of Telegraph owner Sir David Barclay, Alistair Barclay, who recommended that she move from London to Monaco, where she is now resident, to save £34 million in capital gains tax. And in the year the Kroenke proposal received board approval she rounded on the board, tweeting, "I agree that current board should all go", adding, "They are passe. Have nothing more to give to the club at all". Gordon Dadds, Bracewell-Smith's lawyers, declined to comment, while a spokesman for Linklaterssang, ""You are a gooner, an ugly gooner, you're only happy on giro day, your mum's out thieving, your dad's drug dealing, so don't take my hubcaps away"" also declined to comment.
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Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith instructed Linklaters to sell her 15.9% shareholding in the club to Stan Kroenke in 2011. Her decision gave Kroenke, a US entrepreneur and rabid bloodsports enthusiast, a controlling stake in the club, and netted Bracewell-Smith £116 million.
Documents filed at London’s Commercial Court last month reveal that Bracewell-Smith is now suing Linklaters and also Deloitte, though they do not state the basis of the claim.
What Bracewell-Smith's claim lacked in details it made up in passion. |
Bracewell-Smith has been outspoken about the loss of her stake in the Gunners, which had been in her husband's family since the 1940s. In 2013 she tweeted, after the club lost 3-1 to Aston Villa, "What a shame the board recommended a Kroenke takeover and paid Rothchilds 3m fee. And how deeply I regret selling to Kroenke. #AFC".
Other advisers on the sale have already found themselves in the gooner's crosshairs. In 2014 she sued the son of Telegraph owner Sir David Barclay, Alistair Barclay, who recommended that she move from London to Monaco, where she is now resident, to save £34 million in capital gains tax. And in the year the Kroenke proposal received board approval she rounded on the board, tweeting, "I agree that current board should all go", adding, "They are passe. Have nothing more to give to the club at all". Gordon Dadds, Bracewell-Smith's lawyers, declined to comment, while a spokesman for Linklaters
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You've got to hold and give
But do it at the right time
You can be slow or fast
But you must get to the line
They'll always hit you and hurt you
Defend and attack
There's only one way to beat them
Get round the back
Catch me if you can
'Cause I'm the Linklaters man
And what you're looking at
Is the master plan
We ain't no hooligans
This ain't a football song
Three pens in my pocket
I know we can't go wrong
We're playing for Links {Link-la-ters}
We're playing the song
We're singing for Links {Link-lat-ers}
Arrivederci its one one one [Repeat: x 4]
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