new team of lawyers will put up their case for the defence in the multi-million dollar Thyssen trial being heard in a Bermuda court.

The crack lawyers are the defence team for the eldest son of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Heini Jr. or Georg.

The lengthy case, which has taken almost a year and a half to get through Michael Crystal QC's opening remarks, involves the battle between father and son over the Thyssen billion dollar fortune.

Millionaire Baron Thyssen is suing his eldest son over a fortune worth an estimated $2.7 billion.

The Baron signed over the family business -- and fortune -- to a continuity trust created in 1983, which immediately made his son Georg, the principal beneficiary.

The father is claiming the trust and his son owe him $232 million in arrears with inflation and loss of value and wants to wrest back control of the empire.

But the trial, which has cost an estimated $90 million in legal fees, had been stopped for legal clarifications.

Now the case has resumed and Alan Boyle QC, a leading legal light from London, gets to put his defence case for Heini Jr.

He is due to deal with the terms of a series of complicated trusts set up for the hand-over, and is expected to go on for several months.

Then the lawyers for the Bermuda trustees and protectors will be allowed to have their say in their defence.

After the opening speeches, witnesses may have to be called to give evidence, including the reclusive Heini Jr. and possibly the colourful Carmen `Tita' Cervera, the fifth wife of the 80-year-old Baron, who has been posted as the evil step mother by European tabloids following the saga.

As a result, the trial is expected to last until 2003, by which time it will have easily become the longest ever trial in Bermuda, and English, legal history.

After some preliminary remarks on 16 January, Heini Junior's lawyers got going in earnest on Monday.

The principal speaker is Alan Boyle QC, a London barrister of significant experience in major trials.

He famously represented Elton John in a successful claim to set aside publishing, recording and management agreements made with Dick James Music and This Record Company.

Mr. Boyle is highly regarded for civil fraud, chancery commercial and company law work. He took silk in 1991.

In his introduction, Mr. Boyle explained that the Baron was trying to revoke a Bermuda trust which he created in April 1983.

The trust today holds the shares in the Baron's former business empire, Thyssen Bornemisza Group (TGB), for the benefit of the Baron's children.

He set up the trust so as to try to avoid an inheritance dispute upon his death because such a dispute could be damaging to TBG and he wanted it to be protected and preserved as an engine of wealth.

Boyle argues the Baron tried to ensure this engine would run smoothly by setting a prudent dividend policy of 30 percent of TBG's profits.

Mr. Boyle showed the court a letter the Baron sent to his sister in March 1988.

He said that it showed that the Baron was content to live off a 30 percent dividend policy and so it was incredible for him now to be arguing that he thought that he would be able to have as much income as he wished from the trust.

Boyle said he had in fact received $247 million from the trust. Mr. Boyle said that in reality the Baron had no complaint, no cause of action and no credibility and would be inviting the court to dismiss the action at the appropriate time. Mr. Boyle is assisted by a unique co-ordination of the London Bar, Bermuda Bar and English solicitors.

His team includes counsel from his chambers in London (Serle Court) Nick Harrison and Doug Close and two barristers from Bermuda attorneys of record, Cox Hallett Wilkinson, David Kessaram and Megan Lewin.

The barristers' efforts are underpinned by Heini Junior's London solicitors, Clifford Chance, including Jeremy Kosky, Peter Ede and Emma Rice in Bermuda and Lisa Taylor, Katrina Allison and Karin Elsner in London; all under the leadership of Clifford Chance partner Jeremy Sandelson. Mr. Harrison and Mr.

Close have both chalked up a number of years' experience working overseas on trust litigation and with Mr. Boyle QC on a variety of different cases. Both are said by colleagues to be exceptionally bright and hard-working junior barristers.

Cox Hallett and Wilkinson is a mid-sized law firm, formed three years ago by the merger of Cox & Wilkinson and Hallett Whitney & Patton. The merger enabled them to provide a greater depth of legal experience and knowledge in corporate, commercial and trust law.

Mr. Kessaram, a senior partner at the Bermuda law firm, has been involved in the Thyssen case right from the beginning in 1997. He has been practising in the area of corporate and commercial litigation and arbitration for almost 25 years and is now widely regarded as one of the Island's premier litigators.

Ms Lewin practises civil, commercial, personal injury and matrimonial litigation.

She was called to the English Bar in 1997 but returned to her native Bermuda in 1998 to join Cox Hallett and Wilkinson.

The firm is able to accommodate the Clifford Chance team within their own office space which enables them to share resources very effectively, the lawyers said.

Mr. Kessaram said: "We believe that our working relationship with Clifford Chance and London counsel on this case is unique to the Island. We are happy to be working with them, sharing our local law knowledge with their expertise in complex trust litigation.'' Jeremy Kosky, of Clifford Chance, said: "We have found all the Cox Hallett and Wilkinson team to be very interested in, and committed to, the case. It is a new experience for us to work so far away from the normal secretarial and paralegal support of our own offices but we have been able to rely on Cox Hallett and Wilkinson's Sy Jenkinson and Tina Lima.

"Cox Hallett and Wilkinson's office set-up uses modern information technology and we have been able to fit easily into their working environment.'' Clifford Chance's origins in the City of London date back to the 19th century but it is now the world's largest law firm with over 3,500 lawyers in 29 offices.

A year ago, it merged with leading US firm Rogers & Wells LLP and German heavyweights Punder, Volhard, Weber & Axster in order to achieve top-tier global capability. The firm is organised into six practice areas spread across Europe, Asia and the Americas.