City law firm Pogust Goodhead is being sued for £84m by one of its own funders, in a dispute tied directly to its landmark case against mining giant BHP.
The Brazilian financial services firm Vinci SPS Capital Gestão de Recursos Ltda has launched legal action against Pogust Goodhead through law firm Fieldfisher, alleging serious breaches of contractual obligations.
Vinci SPS provided 90.09m Brazilian Reais, equivalent to approximately £12.8m, to fund Pogust Goodhead’s legal action against BHP.
The claimant alleges that Pogust Goodhead agreed to disburse litigation proceeds to barristers and after-the-event insurers without first obtaining the required consent from its lenders.
At the centre of the dispute is a £42.7m interim payment for costs that Pogust Goodhead has already received into its client account.
According to a claim form filed with the High Court, Vinci SPS argues that Pogust Goodhead is legally required to transfer these funds into a designated receivables account but has so far failed to do so.
The Brazilian firm further alleges that Pogust Goodhead delayed opening the required receivables account for over four and a half years, compounding the alleged breach.
Pogust Goodhead has argued it cannot transfer the funds until it issues an invoice to the claimants, and that it cannot issue the invoice until it discharges a trust in favour of its ATE insurers.
Vinci SPS has firmly rejected this position, stating that its rights take priority over any trusts held in favour of the ATE insurers.
The total sum sought by Vinci SPS exceeds £84m, with the Brazilian firm also claiming nearly £600,000 in legal costs for pre-action correspondence and a prior injunction application.
Court records show that Pogust Goodhead has instructed DAC Beachcroft to mount its defence against the claims brought by Vinci SPS.
Pogust Goodhead, formerly known as PGMBM, secured a significant legal victory last November when the High Court found BHP liable for the 2015 Mariana dam disaster in Brazil, which killed 19 people.
The next phase of that trial, focusing on causation and loss, is scheduled to begin in April 2027, meaning the firm faces considerable legal pressures on multiple fronts simultaneously.
This latest legal challenge is not the first the firm has encountered beyond its headline BHP litigation, with City AM previously reporting Pogust Goodhead was sued for £2.2m in May 2025 over alleged unpaid legal bills by Seladore Legal.
Separately, US investment firm Gramercy Funds Management, which entered a record-breaking $552.5m litigation funding deal with Pogust Goodhead in October 2023, added a further $150m facility in June 2026 amid reported internal turmoil at the firm.