CEO of law firm behind £36bn BHP suit abruptly replaced
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The founder of the law firm behind a £36bn class action suit against BHP has been abruptly replaced as chief executive, in a move that is likely to have significant implications for one of the biggest legal claims ever brought in the English courts.
Tom Goodhead is no longer at the helm of London-based litigation firm Pogust Goodhead following tension with US hedge fund Gramercy, which has put up more than £450mn in funding for the BHP case, according to people familiar with the matter.
The firm’s chief operating officer Alicia Alinia has taken over on an interim basis, according to one of the people and an internal memo seen by the Financial Times, which said Goodhead was “on leave”. Goodhead, Pogust Goodhead and Gramercy did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the CEO change.
The move comes at a critical moment for the firm, which is currently awaiting an imminent ruling in the BHP Mariana litigation. The blockbuster lawsuit was brought on behalf of about 640,000 victims of the 2015 Mariana dam collapse, which killed 19 people, displaced thousands and wrought extensive ecological harm.
The sum put up by Gramercy is one of the largest-ever amounts in litigation finance for a claimant law firm. A trial to determine the level of damages BHP may have to pay if found liable has already been scheduled for October 2026.
A new board has also been appointed at Pogust Goodhead, according to the memo. Howard Morris, the former head of global law firm Dentons, and a former US federal prosecutor Joseph Moreno, have been added as members alongside Alinia. Goodhead will remain as a board member, according to the memo.
In a statement announcing the board changes Pogust Goodhead said the firms funders “continue to believe in the strength of the litigation and will continue to provide funding to support its efforts”.
“For clarity, our funders are not members of the board and will not be involved in the day-to-day running of the business,” Alinia said in the memo. “I understand this may be unexpected, but please be assured the new board’s role is to make sure the company is run in a clear, fair and effective way.”
Pogust Goodhead, which specialises in consumer protection and environmental cases, was founded in 2018 and has taken on a number of high-profile cases. Its big successes have included a data breach case against British Airways and a case stemming from the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal.
However, a late filing of its 2022 accounts earlier this year showed that auditors had flagged a “material uncertainty” over whether it could continue as a going concern, owing to its funding needs.
Goodhead told the FT at the time that the 2022 accounts uncertainty was unsurprising because the firm had grown “in a way more akin to a Silicon Valley start-up than a law firm” and that it had the “unequivocal backing” of its lenders.
Harris Pogust, Goodhead’s co-founder, also stepped down from the firm at the end of last year. Brazilian miner Vale, which jointly controls the Samarco mine at the heart of the disaster, is also on the hook for potential damages.
