Acting in what has been dubbed the “tech trial of the century”, Toby Robinson of Travers Smith led the team to success for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HP) in a dispute that arose from HP’s $11bn acquisition of Autonomy Corporation in 2012.
The explosive 10-month trial concluded in January 2020 and involved allegations of a $5bn fraud against Autonomy’s former chief operating officer Mike Lynch and chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain. More than two years after the trial ended last year, Mr Justice Hildyard handed down a 1,659-page judgment in which he penned that the trial “may rank as one of the longest and most complex in English legal history.”
For nearly 10 of Robinson’s 15 years at Travers Smith, he has supported HP in the highly complex fraud litigation and weathered a ludicrously high-profile trial. Watch out for this case in 2023, as damages are yet to be awarded, and with a possibility of appeal, Robinson’s work on this trial hasn’t finished yet.