Emile Simpson

Overview

Emile practises across tax, sanctions, commercial law, and international law.

The common thread running through his practice is finance, whether financial sanctions, or finance issues in a tax or commercial law context. This focus comes from having previously worked as a consultant advising hedge funds.

Much of his practice involves offshore matters, and in particular offshore trusts.

He is bilingual in French, and accepts instructions in French.

Emile accepts instructions on a public access basis for both litigation and advisory work in suitable cases.

Tax

Emile accepts instructions in all of Chambers’ core practice areas.

His advisory practice is focused on private client matters, both onshore and offshore; this often overlaps with his sanctions practice.

Emile acts for both for taxpayers and HMRC in tax litigation. He successfully acted for the Revenue in a major tax avoidance case involving a film finance scheme (Acamar v HMRC, led by Elizabeth Wilson KC), and in a leading case on pension-led financing (Morgan Lloyd v HMRC, led by Laura Poots).

Sanctions

Emile is a specialist in financial sanctions.

He is regularly instructed to advise, alone or in a team, on offshore matters that raise sanctions issues. This includes advice to trustees, beneficiaries, company directors, shareholders, UK government departments, and professional bodies.

Emile has advised on some of the most high value sanctions matters considered by the UK, Guernsey, and Jersey regulators.

He advises the STEP UK Technical committee on sanctions, and is the author of its guidance on the trust services prohibition in the UK’s Russia sanctions regime.

He is also a member of the Bar Council’s Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Committee.

He speaks regularly on sanctions matters, and has given evidence on sanctions to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

Commercial law

Emile accepts instructions in all areas of commercial law, especially those with a finance element.

He has worked on a variety of commercial matters in the English courts and in arbitration, including: VTB v Sberbank (dispute arising from the insolvency of one of Russia’s largest oil refineries); and several contractual matters involving commodities.

International law

Emile holds a PhD in international law from King’s College London and accepts instructions in all areas of international law.

He has advised, for example, on the sovereign immunity of sovereign wealth funds in relation to taxation.

He was seconded to the UK Foreign Office Legal Directorate in 2022 where he worked on several public international law matters involving the UK government, primarily in the context of (1) national security; and (2) immigration / refugees.

A copy of Emile's privacy notice can be found here.