"This compact team has had a successful year in the market and secured a number of victories…"
Chambers UK 2010.

We frequently achieve successful results for our clients in substantial and complex commercial disputes, and are often against much larger litigation teams in much larger firms.

We have specialist experience in a number of particular sectors of industry, in particular bulk commodities, financial services and professional services, but the broad nature of our experience and our pragmatic approach means that our lawyers are capable of succeeding in disputes arising out of all types of commercial arrangements.

Because much of our work involves disputes with an international element, we have particular experience of resolving disputes over which countries' Courts should have jurisdiction and whether or not arbitration clauses are binding.  We are frequently involved in managing litigation abroad and running parallel Court proceedings in different jurisdictions.  We are regularly instructed to enforce judgments or arbitral awards in England and abroad.

We are often asked to seek emergency injunctions to freeze assets, particularly where fraud may be involved, and we have the experience and the resources to enable us to do so at short notice. 

But whatever we do we constantly strive to achieve results beyond our clients' expectations.  In whatever form, litigation is no more than a means to an end, and we never lose sight of our clients' requirements and of the importance of commercial solutions.

Examples of some of the commercial disputes in which we have recently acted include:

• a successful challenge to the English Court's jurisdiction in a dispute concerning freight charges relating to the export of fruit from Africa to France and Belgium
• a freezing injunction to freeze assets in England in support of ongoing Court proceedings in Germany
• proceedings involving some US$300m relating to bank loans to a substantial Russian energy concern
• proceedings involving some €20m in dispute and issues of misrepresentation and fraud between an Austrian Bank and a Swiss individual
• a peripheral but substantial aspect to the Madoff litigation in the US
• a multi-million US$ dispute concerning credit derivative insurance and issues relating to construction of ISDA standard agreement
• a commercial agency dispute relating to technical design for power plants in China
• a £multimillion dispute concerning breaches of an asset sale and purchase agreement between a substantial English water company and a global French/Swiss company.