Seladore Legal

Seladore Legal is a London-headquartered law firm specialising in complex, cross-border litigation and international arbitration. The firm’s partners include some of London’s most experienced and acclaimed litigators who have worked on many of the biggest commercial disputes of recent years.

The firm does not undertake transactional work, leaving the firm able to pursue claims where necessary against large financial institutions, multinational corporations and government entities as the case may be. It takes a focused, partner-driven approach, developing and pursuing effective solutions for clients faced with the most difficult and challenging problems.

Seladore Legal was founded in 2020 by highly experienced former Herbert Smith Freehills lawyers Simon Bushell and Gareth Keillor. Simon spent 26 years at Herbert Smith Freehills, having established its Russia and CIS disputes practice and led its civil fraud team. He subsequently became Chair of the Litigation Department at Latham & Watkins in London. All of Seladore’s partners have trained and worked at Herbert Smith Freehills.

The firm continued its strong growth in 2023 working on some of the biggest cases to ever pass through the commercial courts, expanding its high-calibre team and moving into new offices.

2023 also saw the arrival of partner Dan Hudson, who was formerly at Herbert Smith Freehills. Dan spearheads Seladore’s unique corporate crime, investigations, & regulatory practice. This complements Seladore’s already well-established practice in civil fraud, with the recoveries of assets and damages arising from bribery, corruption and other forms of misappropriation having a significant overlap with criminal and regulatory issues. Seladore’s unique white collar crime capability enables it to better navigate the interplay between potentially competing civil and criminal processes and deal with the relevant criminal investigatory and prosecution authorities.

Cases

The team at Seladore is working in some of the largest and most complex disputes of the year. These include:

• Representing jailed Russian businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov in his $13.8 million UMC claim brought against TPG, DP World and various Russian state interests. It is the largest claim ever brought in the High Court of England and Wales outside the collective redress regime. Seladore has also acted for Mr Magomedov in ligation and arbitration around the world as he pursues damages following the unlawful dismantling of his business empire.
• Successfully acting for the President of Mozambique in relation to claims stemming from the so-called ‘Tuna Bond’ case brought by the Republic of Mozambique against Privinvest, with allegations of bribery and collusion against the state following the issuing of loans to fund projects in the region.
• Acting for Kidman Asset Management (in liquidation) as it seeks to recoup funds on behalf of creditors of a fraudulent company run by London-based Italian financier Massimo Bochicchio.