Fortuna Law has been founded by Mark Goodwin, formerly head of litigation and regulatory at DLA, and has now hired former HMRC investigations expert Andy Cole. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool’s newest boutique law firm has recruited a former senior HMRC investigations expert onto its team.

Fortuna Law, based at Exchange Flags has been founded by Mark Goodwin, formerly head of litigation and regulatory at DLA along with former DLA colleagues Catherine Radcliffe and Hannah Catterall. It will specialises in business litigation.

Now Andy Cole, HMRC’s former director of specialist investigations will join Fortuna as a consultant to support the firm in the preparation of high value and complex tax related civil claims.

Mr Cole was awarded a CBE for his ground-breaking negotiations with the Principality of Liechtenstein. He spent more than 40 years at HMRC, latterly as director of specialist investigations, where he had overall responsibility for leading the response to HMRC’s largest and most complex fraud and avoidance risks through civil means.

He said: “The Fortuna Law team has a proven track record in complex, tax-related civil claims. I’m looking forward to working closely with Mark and the team to further develop this area of the business.”

Mr Goodwin, who is managing partner of Fortuna, Ms Radcliffe (partner) and Ms Catterall (legal director), have between them amassed 80 years’ litigation experience and have already secured new instructions with a combined claim value in excess of £750m.

“We are delighted to have Andy join our team at Fortuna to support our clients in complex tax-based claims,” added Mr Goodwin.

“He has a unique skill set and his extensive experience leading the elite specialist investigations team at HMRC is of huge value to our clients. This is particularly so in claims against HMRC arising from failed civil and criminal tax-based investigations and prosecutions.”