The lawyer defending Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) in its case against Unilever has suggested that Wendy Mayall, Unilever's chief investment officer, misled senior executives at Unilever in their decision to launch legal action against MLIM.

The Unilever Superannuation Fund is suing MLIM, previously known as Mercury Asset Management, for £130m ($207.3m) for negligently taking too much risk when managing £1bn for it between January 1, 1997 and March 31, 1998. MLIM contests the claim.