When he started as a lawyer, Tom Goodhead learned trade through injuries by non -glamorous interest such as medical negligence, car accidents and, in a case, a person who fell into a pub called The Tumble Inn.
Today, he is responsible for what is considered the biggest case in British legal history: a collective recourse of 36 billion pounds sterling against the Australia BHP on a Mining disaster in Brazil.
Supported by big investors, his business Pogust Goodhead brought legal action in London in the name of nearly 640,000 victims of the collapse of the Mariana 2015 dam, which killed 19 people, moved thousands of people and caused an extensive ecological damage.
A judgment is expected before the summer, after the recent conclusion of a 12 -week civil trial at the High Court.
“It is probably the biggest collective appeal ever brought to the English courts,” said Goodhead. For the families of the victims, it was a question of “holding the largest mining company in the responsible world”.
“We have a huge amount to ride on it,” he said.
This includes the reputation of his young dispute shop, which is promised a day of bumper wages if he wins, but reported a loss of operation of 52 million pounds sterling in his most recent accounts.
In a financial state of 2022 published this week which showed 53 million pounds sterling in turnover, company listeners reported “significant uncertainty” as to whether it could continue as a concern in progress, because of its financing needs. Goodhead said that the loss of 2022 was “completely unsurprisingly” because the cabinet “developed in a more similar way to a Silicon Valley start-up than a law firm”, adding that he had the “unequivocal support” of his lenders.
Pogust Goodhead, specializing in consumer protection and environmental cases, previously calculated Mariana’s damage to 36 billion pounds Sterling, plus inflation and interest. As part of a “without cost,” agreement, it charges 20 or 30% to most applicants, who include individuals, businesses and municipalities. For clients of Aboriginal communities, it works in Pro Bono.
This is a case with high issues for both to BHPWho is co -owner of the Samarco iron ore complex where the accident took place, and for the boutique law firm, which was alternately thrown as a crusader and colonialist Sponger.
“This action in London is part of a movement to discredit the Brazilian judicial system and threatens our jurisdictional sovereignty,” said Rafael Valim, lawyer for Warde Advogados, who represented the Brazilian mining lobby Ibram. “We have stopped being a colony a long time ago.”
In addition to the current cases ranging from defective medical implants to the finance of poorly sold cars, Pogust Goodhead found a niche by holding complaints of reprehensible acts of companies in distant courts in the courts, especially in England, Germany and the Netherlands.
The justification for the BHP affair is that the often slow pace of Brazilian courts may delay or refuse justice. A judge in England authorized the case against the minor in part because BHP had a parent company in London at the time of the incident.
“A series of recent competence decisions concerning group complaints against multinationals whose parent company is based in London, which suggests that this trend will continue,” said Ted Greeno, London co -management partner of the Powerhouse Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan dispute, which is not involved in the Mariana case.
“Advocate firms, large or small, can take advantage of such a change with the right funding,” he added.
Goodhead set up the company in Liverpool in 2018 with Harris Pogust, an American lawyer whose life in jet set filled with residences and yachts is well documented on Instagram. The outfit obtained its first major successes in a case of data violation against British Airways and above the scandal of Volkswagen Diesel emissions.
The cabinet, which has around 120 lawyers, has created a bonus pool of 200 million pounds sterling and is committed to paying junior lawyers up to 2 million pounds Us Haid Fund Gramercy.
The financing of 450 million pounds sterling issued by Gramercy for the BHP affair is the biggest ever Dispute financing For an applicant’s law firm, according to Goodhead.
However, high financial awards have high demand, according to former employees. An ex-lawyer Ex-Pogust said it was common to work well in the night, adding that the cabinet had a “toxic culture” and promoted “rivalries between colleagues”.
Another said they had taken 17 hours and exhausted. The speed at which the company grew up also meant that some people had been promoted to be kind to Goodhead rather than competent, said the former employee.
“Seventeen days and working in the night regularly reflect the reality of pleading against the largest companies in the world,” said Goodhead.
He added: “I recognize that our hours are brutal, but the pressures associated with this nature is not intended for timid … It is however laughable to say that I promote people who are nice to me. I promote the brightest and the best to win. If that causes competition or rivalry, that much.”
Goodhead faced the case of the BHP three years after the devastating rupture of a residue dam, containing waste, at the Samarco mine near the city of Mariana. The resulting disaster has been placed among the worst environmental disasters in Brazil.
The BHP and the Brazilian minor Vale, who jointly controls Samarco, argue that the trial is not in the interest of the victims and is no longer necessary after having signed a new 23 billion dollars regulations With public authorities last year, bringing their compensation invoice to around $ 30 billion.
Goodhead replied that the New Deal was inadequate, stressing that BHP said only 40% of London applicants would be eligible for compensation.
“We started the case in 2018 because companies were doing nothing,” he said. “My clients don’t trust a single word they said.”
The BHP affair gave birth to a multitude of other prosecution for the law firm from Brazil.
His workload includes residents forced to abandon their houses In a flowing city that has been attributed to underground extraction and citrus producers who claim to have been scammed by an orange juice magnate.
But nothing is compared to the potential costs or victories of the Mariana affair, in which Pogust Goodhead, the legal bill, takes place north of 250 million pounds Sterling.
A victory in the courtroom would justify Gramercy and another funder – Prisma Capital, based in São Paulo – for the establishment of funds. Gramercy has an insurance in place to protect its capital, according to Goodhead. As part of the dispute financing model, those facing costs receive a reduction in any damage.
He described the grammercy investment as “a capitalist solution to the negative externalities of capitalism”.
If BHP is deemed responsible, the amount of any payment would be subject to another trial scheduled for October 2026 with applicants who need to prove losses. Vale has agreed to divide the sums due.
The decline in Brazil did not give in. Opponents criticized the advanced payments to the city’s governments who signed London’s request as inappropriate, although Goodhead defended this decision. The Brazilian Supreme Court judged that the municipalities could not use any money in last year’s settlement by BHP and Vale to pay the costs of law firm.
Goodhead describes a complaint with the association of the Brazilian bar about the company as “malicious and unsolved”.
“This is a complete campaign in the process of the law where they simply try to discredit the case,” he said.
According to Goodhead, Pogust Goodhead has chopped around 160 jobs – around 20% of its workforce, mainly business services staff – due to cases that have not yet settled, according to Goodhead. But with around 30 other active disputes, he said that Mariana’s decision was not existential.
“In the end, if we fail, it will not end my business,” said Goodhead. “In terms of reputation, in terms of our financial situation, in terms of recruitment, in terms of confidence … It is obviously very, very important”.
With the help of Beatriz Langella in São Paulo
