UK’s wealthiest financier Michael Platt sues own lawyer for professional negligence

The UK s wealthiest financier, Michael Platt, and his hedge fund are suing their former lawyer for alleged professional negligence and preparing for a trial. The claim was filed in September last year against Malcolm Gammie KC, a barrister at One Essex Court, following the billionaire and his firm being in a long-running dispute with HMRC over the tax treatment of earnings on senior traders and partners at Bluecrest under a so-called partner incentivisation plan (PIP). Gammie, a senior tax barrister, represented Bluecrest, Platt, and Bluecrest s former chief financial officer and partner, Andrew Dodd, in the First Tier Tribunal in 2017 and then in 2021 at the Upper Tribunal. When the case reached the Court of Appeal in 2023, the judges ruled that senior traders and partners at the firm must pay income tax on the incentive plan rather than a lower corporation tax rate, which Bluecrest had been paying. In the judgment, the judge had criticised Gammie s legal approach, pointin