Team Single

Carmine Conte

  • Year of call: England and Wales (2017), 2007 (Australia); 2021 (BVI); 2024 (DIFC)
  • Degree: BA (Hons), LLB (Hons) (Melb), BCL (Dist), MPhil, DPhil (Oxon), BTT (First) (BPP)
  • Languages: Italian (working knowledge)

Personal Experience

Carmine has a broad practice across the full range of commercial disputes, with specific expertise in commercial contracts, commercial remedies, civil fraud, equity and trusts, insolvency and arbitration.  He frequently acts in high value and complex multi-jurisdictional commercial litigation and international arbitration.  Carmine is frequently instructed in connection with litigation abroad, being admitted to practise in the British Virgin Islands, the DIFC and Australia.  He also brings a diverse professional and academic background to bear on his practice.

Carmine appears as leading, sole and junior Counsel in various jurisdictions (including the English High Court, English Court of Appeal and BVI Commercial Court), as well as acting as a member of larger teams on heavyweight litigation. Recently, he has been instructed in various significant commercial cases, including University of Sheffield v Kudos Pharmaceuticals Limited, a fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation claim seeking damages of over USD900 million. Carmine is also currently leading Counsel representing a software development company seeking to recover £11.5 million from its former CEO for various breaches of fiduciary duty and breaches of contract.

Before being called to the Bar, Carmine was  a Senior Lecturer in Private Law at Keble College, Oxford, and a Law Fellow and Director of Studies at Homerton College, Cambridge.  He taught subjects including Contract Law, Equity, Trusts and Legal Reasoning.  Carmine’s research has been published in several leading academic journals.  Previously, Carmine completed his doctorate in commercial remedies at Oxford, under the supervision of Lord Burrows of the Supreme Court.

Also, before being called, Carmine practised for several years as a solicitor at Arnold Bloch Leibler, a top-tier commercial law firm in Melbourne.  He maintained a broad commercial litigation practice, which included appearing in various Federal and Victorian courts and tribunals.  Carmine advised on a range of high-profile and complex disputes for market leading corporates and high net worth individuals.

 

Experience

  • Commercial
  • Arbitration
  • Equity, Trusts & Restitution
  • Restructuring & Insolvency
  • Civil Fraud, Asset Recovery & Injunctive Relief

Education

Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) (University of Melbourne)

Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) (University of Melbourne)

Bachelor of Civil Law (Distinction) (University of Oxford)

Master of Philosophy in Law (University of Oxford), for the thesis ‘Penalties and Forfeitures Reinterpreted’ (supervised by Lord Burrows)

Doctor of Philosophy in Law (University of Oxford), for the thesis ‘Penalties Reworked: The Rule against Penalties Restated, Justified and Refined’ (supervised by Lord Burrows)

Bar Transfer Test (Top of Year) (BPP University)

Scholarships and awards

  • Allan Myers Oxford Law Faculty Scholarship (to read for the BCL)
  • Leggatt Melbourne Law Faculty Scholarship (for outstanding academic performance)
  • Highest ranked student (Advanced Torts, Contract Law, Civil Litigation, Political Theory, Property Law, Insolvency Law and Modern Political Thought)

Publications

  • ‘Deposit Clauses’ in Graham Virgo and Sarah Worthington (eds), Commercial Remedies: Resolving Controversies (CUP 2017)
  • ‘The Penalty Rule Revisited’ (2016) 142 LQR 382
  • ‘From Only the ‘Bottom-up’? Legitimate Forms of Judicial Reasoning in Private Law’ (2015) 35 OJLS 1
  • ‘No Proprietary Relief for Breach of Fiduciary Duty’ (2012) 128 LQR 184
  • ‘The Death Knell Tolls for Attorney-General for Hong Kong v Reid’ [2012] RLR 118
  • ‘The Continued Obscurity of Economic Duress’ [2011] LMCLQ 333
  • ‘The Jurisdiction to Relieve Against Penalties and Forfeitures’ (2010) 126 LQR 529
  • Edwin Peel, Treitel on the Law of Contract (13th edn, Sweet and Maxwell 2011) (Research Assistant)