Harry Edwards

Partner

Melbourne, Australia

Harry specialises in class actions, regulatory investigations and commercial litigation.

Harry helps clients with a broad range of high value, strategic disputes, including shareholder and product liability class actions, regulatory investigations and other commercial litigation. Harry has particular expertise in financial services, including complex derivatives, assets and fund related litigation. Harry has led teams acting on some of the largest and highest profile disputes in the London and Australian markets.

He has written extensively on finance-related litigation, is co-author of the English law chapter of the Securities Law Review (Law Business Research) and is one of the authors of Class Actions in England and Wales (Sweet & Maxwell). Harry is described as "extremely hard working and clever", "a strong litigator with a deservedly rising profile" (Legal 500), "a star in the making" who "works hard and provides really inventive and thoughtful input on cases" and "responsive, tactical and engaged with a genuinely impressive ability to grasp complex detail" (Chambers & Partners).

Harry is a trustee of Steel Warriors, a charity that aims to reduce the number of young people carrying knives in the UK. It builds outdoor calisthenics gyms from the steel recycled from melted down knives confiscated from the street.

Background

Harry has a First Class degree in Jurisprudence from University College, Oxford and is dual qualified as a solicitor in Australia and in England and Wales.

Harry trained with Herbert Smith Freehills in London and was promoted to partner in London in 2015. Prior to moving to Melbourne, he led the firm’s UK class action practice and now heads the Melbourne Disputes Team.

Experience & expertise

Selected matters

advising ASX in relation to the regulatory and litigation issues arising from the ASX Trade outage in November 2020 and the delays to the CHESS Replacement project in 2022
advising Bayer in relation a product liability class action based on the alleged carcinogenicity of glyphosate products
representing a number of listed companies or their underwriters in shareholder class action in the Australian, English and Danish courts including EML Payments, Quindell/Watchstone, G4S. He lead a team which successfully defended Lloyds Banking Group and its former directors in the UK’s first shareholder class action to reach judgment (arising from the acquisition of HBOS at the height of the financial crisis)
advising a large universal bank in relation to the transition of its loan books as a result of LIBOR discontinuance
advising various Australian banks in relation to class actions brought in relation to the sale of retail products
advising a rating agency in relation to misleading and deceptive conduct proceedings in the Federal Court
successfully defending Goldman Sachs in a US$1.2 billion claim brought by the Libyan Investment Authority ([2016] EWHC 2530 (Ch)) in relation to a series of equity derivatives transactions, featuring allegations of undue influence and unconscionable bargain
advising UBS on the regulatory enforcement action and criminal aspects arising from trading losses of US$2.3 billion caused by the activities of Kweku Adoboli
successfully defending UBS in a joint venture dispute with a hedge fund (Decura and others v UBS AG, London Branch ([2015] EWHC 171 (Comm))
advising in relation to a broad range of fund-related disputes including redemption/liqudity crises, partnership disputes and other contractual interpretation disputes