The resounding message is that London is still booming. Fears surrounding its status as a leading jurisdiction for disputes being adversely impacted by Brexit appear to have gone largely unfounded, with not only the established players, but less traditional disputes practices and boutiques thriving. Martin Davies of Latham & Watkins sums up the outlook across the board, commenting: ‘There is a growing fragmentation in the London litigation market with some of the winners being at opposite ends of the spectrum, ie the international top tier who can serve clients worldwide, and the more niche boutiques.’
Demonstrating the resilience of the post-Brexit City disputes market and optimism about the future, many of the top firms have expanded their offering significantly.
While some – such as Allen & Overy and White & Case – have looked at bringing in big name partners from rivals, others have been steadily building their presence more quietly through partner promotions and associate recruitment.
Slaughter and May, for example, has more than doubled the size of its disputes team since this survey was last carried out, with Stephenson Harwood and Linklaters also boasting a number of new partners focusing on disputes. At Slaughters, the team has grown from 12 partners and 74 lawyers to 15 partners and 161 lawyers since 2019, with the firm keen to emphasise the flexibility of the team to advise across a host of disputes work.
Richard Swallow, head of Slaughters’ disputes and investigations group, notes: ‘All of the lawyers are able to cover litigation, arbitration, and the full range of investigations, and we like our lawyers to do that, because often cases don’t come packaged up in one of those buckets – often they bleed into each other.’
Significantly, the team, which has seen almost 50% growth in headcount and turnover in the last year alone, is representing Credit Suisse in the ‘tuna bonds’ scandal, and concurrently advising the Secretary of State for Defence regarding the Annington judicial review, showing the broad expertise of the expanded team.
Maeve Hanna, a partner focusing on commercial litigation at Allen & Overy, reports that the firm is ‘constantly expanding, strengthening [our] US presence with litigators on the East and West Coast, as well as growing the litigation team in London’. Notable hires include David Herlihy, previously at Skadden, who was brought in to focus on international arbitration, and Michael Godden, Norton Rose Fulbright’s former EMEA disputes head, who has banking and finance litigation expertise.
White & Case, meanwhile, has grown from 20 London-based partners focusing on disputes in 2019 to 27 today, including former A&O stalwart Lawson Caisley, who joined in October 2021 to help expand the City offering. Says Caisley: ‘The disputes we get involved in are not really commoditised. They’re complex and touch on a lot of areas. If you drew a Venn diagram, with litigation in one section and investigations in another, there’s a huge overlap, and it’s that bit in the middle that’s often most important to clients.’ That the practice, led by Caisley and Stephanie Stocker, is acting for Vale in landmark proceedings before the English courts in the largest group claim to date, is further evidence of its notable growth.
Latham & Watkins and Simmons & Simmons are also among the firms bolstering their ranks, increasing their contentious partner count by 33% and 43% in London respectively. Latham’s Davies says that ‘having one of the three largest litigation practices in the world requires us to have a real presence in London.’ The strength of Simmons’ practice has been lifted further through the addition of Mark Jephcott, previously at Herbert Smith Freehills, who brings extensive competition litigation knowledge. Latham also recently hired leading antitrust partner, Simon Pritchard, he joins the London team from Linklaters.
Blurring lines
Over at longstanding litigation heavyweight Clifford Chance, growth has perhaps been less dramatic, but its team is still one of the largest in the City and its partners are confident about the future significance of London. Helen Carty, head of London litigation and dispute resolution at CC, comments that ‘there is no doubt the UK is a leading jurisdiction – the cases are continuing and keeping us very busy.’
‘There is no doubt the UK is a leading jurisdiction – the cases are continuing and keeping us very busy.’
Helen Carty, Clifford Chance
Examples of the firm’s work include advising Glencore in claims brought by 400 institutional shareholders, in the largest multi-shareholder stock loss claim in the English and Welsh courts and defending News Group Newspapers in high-profile litigation in one of the longest-running group actions, which is finally set to hit the courts in January 2024.
Damien Byrne Hill at Herbert Smith Freehills picks up Swallow’s point that, with so much activity, it is important that partners are flexible enough to advise on a range of disputes work. He notes that of the firm’s 53 litigation partners in London ‘two-thirds are essentially general commercial litigators, not single-focus specialist practitioners.’
Mark Sansom, Freshfields’ recently appointed head of dispute resolution in London, concurs: ‘The further we see this evolution [of complex cases blending multiple areas of litigation skillsets], the more that gets into the sweet spot of Freshfields, as we have a lot of experience in dealing with cases involving this blurring of lines.’
Trends
Across the board there is consensus on what is driving much of the disputes activity now and what is likely to fill the courts in years to come.
Top of the list is group actions, with Byrne Hill describing the trend as an ‘explosion’. Caisley agrees, predicting that the ‘increase in class actions, group actions, and collective actions is a trend that is only going to continue, driven by the growth of litigation funders and the rise of specialist claimant law firms.’ At Freshfields, Sansom adds: ‘The direction of travel [of group litigation] in Europe is more towards North American-style class actions. The UK is at the front of this trend and is becoming the most claimant-friendly venue, potentially in some areas (like antitrust class actions) more so even than North America itself, which is not something that was widely predicted.’
Not all think it will go this far though. Rob Fell at Travers Smith is slightly more reticent, contending that ‘the courts are going to be very wary of moving towards a US-style class action regime, and judges in the UK will be nervous about opening the floodgates. Funders though are still pretty bullish.’ Stuart Dench, managing partner at Stewarts is of a similar view, seeing it as ‘unlikely that the UK will move wholesale towards a US-style class actions system,’ but observing that if it is to be the case, ‘it would have a dramatic impact.’
Looking beyond group actions, Fell highlights ‘competition follow-on claims, ESG disputes, financial institution disputes, fraud claims, and investigations [as being] the richest seams of work over the next four or five years.’
Peter Wickham at Slaughters also highlights ESG as a growth area, commenting that ‘everyone’s talking about ESG, and it’s clearly going to be a huge growth area, for probably the next 25 years, through to 2050 which is the Paris Agreement net-zero end date.’
Caisley agrees that it is a ‘prime example of a very hot area,’ and notes: ‘We’re seeing claimant law firms really pushing the envelope in that area and seeking to bring novel actions.’ Sarah Parkes, disputes partner at Freshfields, identifies a link between Covid-19 and increased ESG litigation, noting that supply chain disruption impacted by extended lockdowns in China has led to customers being increasingly used to looking at supply chains.
Looking ahead
While the confidence in London’s place as a leading jurisdiction for disputes remains unwavering domestically, firms are conscious of the need to build up internationally post-Brexit. Parkes comments that ‘Brexit acted as a catalyst for other jurisdictions to develop, including the Netherlands and Germany,’ adding that ‘the disputes market has got busier in Europe, but we haven’t seen a downturn in London.’ Her fellow partner Sansom highlights other European countries including Spain, France, and Belgium as other key markets for the firm.
‘The courts are going to be very wary of moving towards a US-style class action regime, and judges in the UK will be nervous about opening the floodgates.’
Rob Fell, Travers Smith
Davies says: ‘One of the advantages of being a multijurisdictional firm is that you can focus on the UK and new markets, and we’re seeing particular growth in Singapore and Middle East disputes.’
What is clear though is that in the medium term at least, London is set to remain a hive of activity, with a range of ground-breaking cases set to go through the courts in coming months and years. Whether the Competition Appeal Tribunal will continue in its current approach of allowing a broad range of competition class actions to be brought, or the recent Meta ruling requiring the class representative to reformulate the claim to achieve certification indicates a shift in approach, will be watched closely by litigators.
Similarly, if Pallas Partners jumps through the many procedural hoops required and successfully represents ClientEarth against the Shell board of directors, there will be a possible onslaught of similar claims, in a new era for climate litigation.
Ros Prince from Stephenson Harwood notes seeing ‘a general-pick up in the last few months in litigation,’ a trend which Michael Roberts at Hogan Lovells also comments on, concluding: ‘the London disputes market is really hot at the moment – there is a lot of work around, and that looks set to continue.’ LB
Firm-by-firm
Allen & Overy
No. of dispute partners in London: 29
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 158
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 128
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 612
London partner-level recruits in last two years: David Herlihy from Skadden, Andy McGregor from RPC and Michael Godden from Norton Rose Fulbright
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
No. of dispute partners in London: Six
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 26
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 31
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 282
Major recent cases: Representing HSBC in a five-year case brought by the ECU Group related to FX trading; defending the Austrian airline Laudamotion and Ryanair Holdings against claims brought by AerCap
Clifford Chance
No. of dispute partners in London: 30
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 150
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 110
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 380
Major recent cases: Representing POSCO E&C in an ICC arbitration concerning a $2.7bn dispute arising from the construction of a new ‘smart’ city near Incheon; defending Airbus in the Technology and Construction Court in a claim brought by Qatar
Debevoise & Plimpton
No. of dispute partners in London: Seven
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 50
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 55
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 392
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Jeff Sullivan from Gibson Dunn; Patrick Swain from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Major recent cases: Representing three members of the Hinduja family regarding billions of dollars’ worth of claims involving the status of the family’s significant business assets in the UK and abroad; representing Victor Pisante and several associated companies in a successful deceit claim
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
No. of dispute partners in London: 38
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 138
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 157
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 630
Major recent cases: Acting for Deutsche Bank in a complex contempt application against Alexander Vik; representing Mastercard in the ongoing competition damages class action brought by Walter Merricks
Herbert Smith Freehills
No. of dispute partners in London: 64
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 348
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 185
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 1,197
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 45%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Will Glassey from Mayer Brown
Major recent cases: Acting for AerCap in a $3.5bn insurance claim over 116 aircraft and 23 engines lost in Russia; acting for Iveco and Fiat Chrysler regarding follow-on damages claims stemming from the European Commission’s settlement decision in Trucks
Hogan Lovells
No. of dispute partners in London: 42
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 155
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 225
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 863
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 24.5%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Emerson Holmes from King & Spalding; Joel Smith from Herbert Smith Freehills
Major recent cases: Representing ENRC in a high-profile, long-running case against the Serious Fraud Office and former Dechert partner Neil Gerrard; representing the London Metal Exchange in an important court victory on the application by AGQ Capital Management and investment funds seeking a Norwich Pharmacal order
Latham & Watkins
No. of dispute partners in London: 16
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 63
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 257
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 1,039
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 30%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: James Lloyd from Orrick
Major recent cases: Representing a consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital Group on its acquisition of Chelsea Football Club; representing Saudi National bank in a long-running case arising from the multi-billion dollar dispute between the Al-Gosaibi family, Maan Al Sanea and the Saad Group of companies
Linklaters
No. of dispute partners in London: 35
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 162
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 77
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 375
Partners focusing on commercial litigation: 16
Major recent cases: Acting for the Internet Association on its intervention in the appeal to the Supreme Court in Lloyd v Google; acting for Natwest Markets in its successful defence of claims brought by the ECU Group regarding alleged manipulation foreign exchange markets arising out of $11.6bn of FX trades
Simmons & Simmons
No. of dispute partners in London: 50
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 165
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 96
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 352
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 30%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Marisa Broughton from Withers & Rogers; David Kidman from DWF; Mark Jephcott from Herbert Smith Freehills
Major recent cases: Representing Sushovan Hussain on the $5bn claim brought by Hewlett-Packard arising out of alleged fraudulent misrepresentations made about the financial state of Autonomy Corporation; defending Business Mortgage Finance against an activist-led campaign to assume control of securitisation structures with original balances of notes over £1.3bn
Slaughter and May
No. of dispute partners in London: 15
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 161
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 17
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 166
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Gayathri Kamalanathan from Deutsche Bank; Ralph Sellar from Debevoise & Plimpton
Major recent cases: Acting for Shell on the ClientEarth case; acting for BHP on the collapse of the Fundao Dam in 2015
Stephenson Harwood
No. of dispute partners in London: 52
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 186
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 73
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 258
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 50%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Michael Bywell from Hausfeld; Tal Goldsmith from Wedlake Bell
Major recent cases: Representing Hulley Enterprises in three high-value arbitration awards against the Russian Federation; representing Umbrella Merchant Proceedings against Mastercard
Stewarts
No. of dispute partners in London: 66
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 152
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 152
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 185
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 100%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Alejandro Garcia from Clyde & Co; Alex Jay from Gowling WLG; Aaron Le Marquer from Fenchurch Law; Marcus Parker from Harbottle & Lewis
Major recent cases: Acting for sovereign wealth fund ‘Ras Al Khaimah’ in RAKIA v Azima; leading on a $200m+ matter for ‘Lands’, a Cayman company issued by the Libyan Investment Authority, in relation to investments with US and European banks made before the civil war
Travers Smith
No. of dispute partners in London: 15
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 54
Major recent cases: Represented Hewlett-Packard claimants in the trial arising out of HP’s acquisition of Autonomy; acting for a European truck manufacturer defending multiple damages claims brought before English courts following on from the European Commission’s Trucks decision
White & Case
No. of dispute partners in London: 27
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 112
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 125
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 590
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Lawson Caisley from Allen & Overy
Major recent cases: Representing Grupo Unidos por el Canal (Panama) and shareholders WeBuild, Sacyr and Jan De Nul in a dispute with the Panama Canal Authority relating to the $5.5bn Panama Canal expansion project; representing the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in a rare ICSID post-award remedy seeking to revise the largest damages award ever issued by an ICSID tribunal
Disruptive boutiques
The landscape for boutique firms in London continues to expand, with ‘a number of the boutiques [having] done very well, and a number of international firms having established a presence as part of the litigation landscape in London,’ according to Patrick Boylan at Simmons & Simmons. Rob Fell at Travers Smith agrees, commenting: ‘We’re seeing some very motivated boutique claimant law firms who are up for a fight.’ Damien Byrne Hill at Herbert Smith Freehills adds that rather than the US boutiques acting as disruptors in the market to existing practices, ‘they generate litigation by putting together claimant groups or funding for claimants where perhaps the group wouldn’t otherwise have formed, or the claim wouldn’t have been funded’.
Continuing to gain traction among these is Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which has grown in London from 17 to 26 partners in recent years. It represented Liza Gormsen in the recent collective proceedings case against Meta, a case at the apex of the trend of group actions and competition claims converging. Martin Davies at Latham & Watkins comments on the success of the firm, noting: ‘One of the thoughts before Quinn was that you couldn’t have a litigation practice that was detached from the transaction practice, Quinn shows you can have that and succeed.’
That Quinn is one of two law firms – both boutiques – to immediately come out and start gathering bondholders following UBS’ acquisition of Credit Suisse highlights the key strength of many of these boutiques: their conflict-free status, which enables them to litigate against banks.
Ted Greeno, Quinn’s London co-managing partner, says: ‘We still do a lot of banking and financial work, which we remain very-well placed to do. The current situation with Credit Suisse is a good example of that, we’re talking to a number of investors in the AT1 bonds about the possibilities for compensation following the UBS takeover and cancellation of their bonds.’
Natasha Harrison, founder and managing partner of Pallas Partners, expands on this, attributing the rise in the success of boutiques as largely due to them being ‘very nimble on conflicts’, explaining that it allows them to ‘scoop up litigation work where other firms that have advised a client previously, for example, on their corporate or finance work, aren’t able to act in subsequent litigation due to conflicts; or from firms who are conflicted out as it would require them to be adverse to a firm client.’
Having launched in London in February 2022, Pallas is ‘highly specialised’ according to Harrison, and is ‘focusing solely on litigation and disputes, and operating at the very top end of the market.’ The boutique has quickly established itself, acting on both the ‘tuna bonds’ scandal and quickly assembling a team, alongside Quinn, to act on resultant litigation coming out of the Credit Suisse acquisition for aggrieved bondholders, as well as representing ClientEarth pro bono against the Shell board of directors.
Similarly working on a wide range of impressive cases is Enyo Law, simultaneously acting for Grennadiy Bogolyubov in a multi-billion-dollar claim brought against him by PrivatBank, and representing Dechert in High Court proceedings over allegations related to former partner Neil Gerrard.
The team is also active on the Mozambique tuna bonds litigation. Enyo partner Jonathan Pagan comments on the success of the firm, noting: ‘We’re seeing more of the specialist boutiques like ourselves and Quinn Emanuel running major litigation in the High Court; 20 or even 10 years ago one might have expected to see the Magic Circle firms, there’s now a much broader range.’
Seladore Legal is another boutique coming to prominence. According to founding partner Simon Bushell: ‘We were founded in 2020 as a disputes-only firm, so it’s fair to say the people in the firm are from the best law firms for disputes resolution – almost everyone has come from HSF or a comparable UK or US global law firm, with very few exceptions.’ He reports the team is busy on a ‘tremendous range of interesting matters, fraud cases, sports law, international arbitration, international insolvency, cross-border insolvency, and shareholder disputes, and we’re treading globally for a reasonably new firm.’
Practitioners are squarely at the heart of the boutiques, with Bushell observing: ‘The firm thrives on our relationship with people – I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and I’m still in contact with people I worked with years ago. I feel enormously proud that those relationships are standing us in very good stead here.’ Harrison similarly stresses the importance of the individuals in the team, explaining the long-term strategy of the firm as focusing on ‘three core areas of practice: litigation, arbitration and investigations, with our lawyers in London and New York being the go-to lawyers for high-value and complex disputes.’
Both Pallas and Seladore are looking to retain their status as boutiques; Pallas currently stands at seven partners focusing on disputes in London, and nine worldwide, and Harrison can ‘never imagine being more than 30 lawyers in London, and 30 in New York.’ Bushell, with a current team of four partners focusing on disputes in London, more broadly outlines his strategy going forward as ‘continuing to do what we do very well and focus on the quality of the people that we hire.’
Other litigation boutiques gaining traction include Signature Litigation, which has 15 disputes partners in London and 20 worldwide, and recently welcomed Tsegaye Laurendeau from Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes, as well as Simon Fawell, previously of Dechert and Sidley.
Enyo Law
No. of dispute partners in London: 16
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 34
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 100%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Jamie Leader from Eversheds Sutherland
Major recent cases: Acting for Gennadiy Bogolyubov in a claim brought against him by PrivatBank; acting for Dechert in High Court proceedings brought against it over allegations regarding former partner Neil Gerrard
Pallas Partners
No. of dispute partners in London: Seven
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 18
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 9
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 25
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 100%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Tracey Dovaston, Matt Getz, Nelson Goh, Will Hooker, Fiona Hutriss, and Neil Pigott (firm founded in 2022 by Natasha Harrison and this team from Boies Schiller Flexner’s London office)
Major recent cases: Acting for Madison Pacific in complex litigation (and related arbitration) proceedings relating to the bail-in of the Ukrainian bank PrivatBank, and the resultant failure to repay €500m of notes; acting for Smile Telecom’s majority shareholder and senior lender over two restructuring plans, breaking new ground before the English Courts
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
No. of dispute partners in London: 26
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 96
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 295
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 1,020
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 100%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Paul Baker from Simmons & Simmons, Dominic Roughton from Boies Schiller Flexner, Lambros Kilaniotis from RPC
Major recent cases: Acting for Phones 4U alleging that three UK-based mobile network operators and their parent companies colluded to procure a coordinated exit from contractual relationships, leading to the administration of Phones4U; securing a notable victory in the Supreme Court for Ukraine, resisting a summary judgment in a claim brought by Russia for payment on a $3bn bond
Seladore Legal
No. of dispute partners in London: Four
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 13
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 100%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Gary Milner-Moore from Herbert Smith
Major recent cases: Acting in relation to the huge multi-party fraud claim brought by the Kuwait Public Institution for Social Security against Fahad Al-Rajaan and others; acting for DTEK Renewables in connection with the alleged misapplication by a Ukrainian state entity of $120m
Signature Litigation
No. of dispute partners in London: 15
No. of dispute lawyers in London: 36
No. of dispute partners worldwide: 20
No. of dispute lawyers worldwide: 59
% of overall firm income from dispute resolution: 100%
London partner-level recruits in last two years: Tsegaye Laurendeau from Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes, Simon Fawell from Dechert
Major recent cases: Representing Privinvest companies and Iskandar Safa in a claim brought by the Republic of Mozambique against Credit Suisse, Privinvest, and others; acting for Georgian Co Investment Fund owned by the Ivanishvili family, claiming against various entities in the Credit Suisse Group for $500m to $800m losses