‘I never saw this as impossible’ – Mishcons’ Shaistah Akhtar on the case that won her Commercial Litigation Team of the Year

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Legal Business Awards 2024 Mishcon de Reya
‘I never saw this as impossible’ – Mishcons’ Shaistah Akhtar on the case that won her Commercial Litigation Team of the Year

Mishcon de Reya‘s hard-fought victory for Nigeria in Nigeria v P&ID saw the firm take home Commercial Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards in September. The team assisted Nigeria in challenging a $6.6bn arbitral award made in favour of BVI-incorporated shell company Process & Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) in 2017. With interest accruing at $1m a day, the team sought to overturn the award on the basis of fraud.

But, when the firm was instructed in 2019, Nigeria was almost three years past the deadline to bring the set-aside challenge. Before the team could even begin to present its fraud case (the result of a massive global investigation effort), it had to fight to extend the deadline – and achieved an unprecedented extension, granted in July 2020.

The team’s hard work paid off. On 23 October 2023, judgment was handed down in Nigeria’s favour by Mr Justice Knowles. It was found that P&ID had obtained the award, now worth over $11bn, by fraud.

Shaistah Akhtar, partner in Mishcons’ dispute resolution group, spoke to LB about getting the call from Nigeria, the biggest hurdles the team overcame, and the pressures of a case with national and international repercussions.

‘A true win’ – Baker McKenzie on record Ecuador $1.6bn debt-for-nature swap and winning Finance Team of the Year

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Legal Business Awards 2024 Baker McKenzie
‘A true win’ – Baker McKenzie on record Ecuador $1.6bn debt-for-nature swap and winning Finance Team of the Year

Baker McKenzie won Finance Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards for representing project manager Oceans Finance Company in structuring and implementing the government of Ecuador’s $1.6bn debt-for-nature swap and providing $300m for the Galápagos Islands – the largest marine conservation debt conversion to date.

LB spoke with partners Matthew Cox and James Tanner (pictured, middle) to learn more about their experience working on this landmark deal, the challenges they encountered, and what it meant to win Finance Team of the Year.

‘Deals like this act as a catalyst’ – Gowling WLG on its Legal Business Award-winning work for AstraZeneca

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Legal Business Awards 2024 Gowling WLG
‘Deals like this act as a catalyst’ – Gowling WLG on its Legal Business Award-winning work for AstraZeneca

Gowling WLG won this year’s LB Award for Life Sciences Team of the Year for its role in advising AstraZeneca on a collaboration and license agreement with biopharmaceutical company Quell Therapeutics worth more than £2bn. LB spoke with two of the partners who worked on the deal to discuss why it’s important and what it means for the team. 

Vodafone UK head of legal Karen Thorpe on winning LB’s In-House Team of the Year and Vodafone’s ‘once in a lifetime’ merger with Three

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Legal Business Awards 2024 Vodafone
Vodafone UK head of legal Karen Thorpe on winning LB’s In-House Team of the Year and Vodafone’s ‘once in a lifetime’ merger with Three

With work including the proposed merger of Vodafone and Three’s UK businesses – a deal that would create the largest mobile operator in the UK; the successful defence of the £1bn Phones 4u litigation – the culmination of a decade’s worth of work for Vodafone’s legal team; and the launch of a major in-house transformation project, it’s fair to say that Vodafone’s lawyers have been keeping themselves busy.

 Legal Business caught up with Vodafone UK’s head of legal, Karen Thorpe (pictured, sixth from left), to discuss an award-winning year.  

‘What sort of profession do we want to have?’ – young Black lawyers on diversity, inclusion, and what needs to be done

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Diversity
‘What sort of profession do we want to have?’ – young Black lawyers on diversity, inclusion, and what needs to be done

‘There’s lawyers all over the world. The question isn’t whether or not Black people can be lawyers. The question is, what is it about England and Wales that means that Black lawyers don’t get the same opportunities as their white counterparts? And there’s no way to explain that other than racism.’

This comment from one City associate frankly states the issue. ‘When we talk about DEI’, they continue, ‘it’s often a very polite, corporate way of saying “Don’t be racist.”’ Law firms are, perhaps understandably, reluctant to use words like racism in their communications. But failure to acknowledge the problem makes it all the harder to resolve.

‘Leave no stone unturned’: LB speaks to Barrister of the Year Edward Henry KC

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Legal Business Awards 2024
‘Leave no stone unturned’: LB speaks to Barrister of the Year Edward Henry KC

Mountford Chambers’ Edward Henry KC won the title of Barrister of the Year at the Legal Business Awards this past September. LB‘s disputes correspondent Isabel Caine spoke with him to hear about his process, the art of cross examining, and his work on the two major cases that won him his trophy.