It is fair to say that the volume and nature of commercial disputes generally reflect shifts in the prevailing winds of social, economic and political change. In the ten years since we established commercial litigation at Stewarts, the various forms of upheaval gave rise to a host of high-value, complex litigation and arbitration. This trend of upheaval and dramatic transformation looks set to continue over the next few years.
The financial crisis of a decade ago caught many unaware in terms of its fallout. It was not just another humdrum recession leading to the classic spate of insolvencies and repossessions of the kind we saw in the early 1990s. This was different. Although it gave rise to many claims against professional advisers and other deep-pocketed defendants, many of those who were seen as the cause of the disaster escaped unscathed. They were bailed out or not prosecuted or went unchallenged.
