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 it 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.

Seladore has a vast wealth of collective experience at all levels of the English higher courts and the team are veterans of complex multijurisdictional disputes, with wide experience of coordinating parallel cross-border litigations, and proceedings before a number of courts. The firm also has considerable experience in acting for clients under all major sets of arbitration rules, including LCIA, ICC, ZCC, SCC, DIAC, SIAC, UNCITRAL, OHADA, TAI and others.

The firm also has a corporate crime, internal investigations, & regulatory practice led by specialist partner Dan Hudson. 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 manage an issue with discretion from the moment it is first identified internally. Being an unconflicted specialist firm, Seladore combines heavyweight forensic skills, astute judgment and the level of independence necessary for companies to maintain the trust of investors, regulators, and other stakeholders throughout the process. The firm has genuine expertise in  navigating the interplay between potentially competing civil and criminal processes and dealing with the relevant criminal investigatory and prosecution authorities.

The firm continued its strong growth in 2024, working on some of the biggest cases to ever pass through the commercial courts and expanding its high-calibre team.

2024 also saw the arrival of Laurence (Larry) Shore as partner at Seladore. Larry, who joined from a leading Italian law firm, is a distinguished international arbitration practitioner with a wealth of expertise, and heads Seladore’s newly-opened Milan office.

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.