Partner
Lawyers
Specialising in commercial dispute resolution and international arbitration, Adam Forster's practice encompasses all aspects of domestic and international trade, commerce and finance.
Adam advises on proceedings in the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the London Court of International Arbitration, on a range of matters including financial services, shareholder and partnership disputes and insolvency.
Adam acts on behalf of clients, typically institutional investors, in matters involving international banks and also acts for a range of corporate clients, together with high net-worth individuals.
Commercial disputes partner with a particular focus on banking and finance disputes. He also handles wide-ranging commercial disputes across a variety of different sectors. Alan has experience in English Court of Appeal, High Court and tax tribunal proceedings, as well as in international arbitrations on matters as diverse as oil and gas joint venture disputes, outsourcing disputes involving global corporates, multi-jurisdictional shareholder disputes, claims arising from insolvencies and banking litigation arising from the global financial crisis. He also has a particular interest in civil fraud and corruption claims. Alan's clients include hedge funds, large multinational corporates, private equity houses, liquidators of insolvent companies and banks. Recent experience includes: Acting for the Federal Republic of Nigeria in a claim for $875 million against JP Morgan (one of The Lawyer magazine's Top 20 Cases of 2019). Acting for the general partner of a fund in a €160m claim brought on behalf of the fund's limited partner investors against the manager of the fund for gross negligence, following the making of a catastrophic German real estate investment. Acting on behalf of an AIM-listed Isle of Man incorporated investment company in a shareholder dispute arising from the shareholder's purchase of $60 million convertible preference shares issued by the company. Defending a big four accountancy firm in a £40 million claim brought by former clients. The dispute arose from allegedly negligent tax advice. Representing a listed German real estate company in a claim against an international investment bank arising from a disputed make-whole payment, allegedly paid under duress on the early repayment of a €205 million term loan. Acting for a retail bank in relation to various warranty and indemnity claims arising from complex and inter-related IT issues. CF Partners- acting on its successful claim for breach of confidence against Barclays Bank and Tricorona AB (one of The Lawyer magazine's Top 20 Cases of 2013).
Partner. Alan is an insurance lawyer specialising in construction disputes and professional indemnity claims acting on behalf of a variety of Lloyd’s syndicates, insurance companies and construction professionals, including architects, engineers, surveyors and contractors. Alan's practice has involved him handling many high-value complex disputes, both in the UK and worldwide and across a variety of different forum, through litigation arbitration and adjudication. He is a contributor to Hogarth’s Insurance Law for the Construction Industry.
Alex Wilson is a highly experienced media lawyer and litigator, dealing with a broad spectrum of media and communications claims.
Alex is an expert in defamation, privacy, data and similar actions. He has a vast range of experience, acting for a wide variety of media organisations including newspapers, publishers, broadcasters, online media companies and media insurers.
Alex has represented clients in cases before the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. He has experience taking cases to trial as well as disposing of them at an earlier stage, by way of interim applications or by negotiating favourable settlements. He also provides pre-publication advice and is regularly instructed to respond to pre-publication legal threats (including injunctions).
He is recognised as a "true star", "very impressive" and "really good with clients" by the legal directories.
He spent a year on secondment at a national newspaper group in 2016/17 and is the Secretary to the Media Lawyers Association.
Partner. An experienced litigator and solicitor-advocate with a particular focus on media, reputation and data related matters, Alex advises clients including media organisations, broadcasters, online platforms, publishers, journalists, insurers and other household name clients on a broad range of contentious matters.
His media work includes providing urgent pre and post publication advice to national titles and defending libel, privacy and other related claims. Alex recently led the legal team in a seven-week trial in the Mirror Newspapers Hacking Litigation, which included a claim brought by the Duke of Sussex. He also acted for the Financial Times in defending a libel claim brought by ENRC.
Alex advises clients on contentious data matters including subject access requests and claims arising from data breach incidents. In 2021, he acted for techUK in its intervention in the Supreme Court case of Lloyd v Google.
Alexandra is an insurance lawyer with particular expertise in both construction and surveyors’ claims. On the construction side, she acts predominantly for architects and engineers and has been involved in many complex and high-value disputes involving projects in the UK and worldwide, in litigation, adjudication and arbitration.Alexandra also has a wealth of experience in acting for surveyors, both via their insurers and upon direct instructions. She has been involved in advising on and defending a wide variety of claims, arising from all aspects of the typical surveying practice, from survey and valuation to property management. She acts for many of the largest UK practices, and has led the successful defence of a number of valuation claims which now help define the law in this area, including K/S Lincoln and others v CB Richard Ellis Hotels Ltd and Titan v Colliers. She also works with the RICS on various risk management and education issues and sits on their residential cross-sector and market liaison groups. Alexandra is a regular speaker and author on a wide range of topics affecting both construction professionals and surveyors, is co-editor of Hogarth’s ‘Insurance for the Construction Industry’ and was involved in the 2008, 2011 and 2016 revisions to the RICS minimum terms. She also chairs RPC's Female Insurance Group, which puts women from across the insurance industry in touch with one another for support and professional development.
Alice is a Senior Associate and Employed Barrister with significant trial experience, who specialises in both civil and criminal fraud investigations and litigation conducted by regulatory bodies, including HMRC and the SFO. She has assisted both corporates and high net worth individuals in complex criminal investigations and conducted internal investigations for a range of offences.
Alice’s extensive experience as a prosecutor of white collar crime at the SFO, puts her in a unique position to assist those facing a fraud investigation/prosecution. Familiar with the fast-paced and ever changing criminal landscape, Alice has insight into the decision making processes of the prosecuting authorities and is able to utilise her courtroom experience to assist clients involved in a fraud investigation.
Alice has assisted a number of corporates and charities with the creation and implementation of robust policies and procedures to address risks posed by bribery and corruption, tax evasion, regulatory offences and money laundering.
Alice forms part of the firm's Sanctions Group and has advised financial institutions, corporates and charities on the sanctions impacts of transactions, particularly those involving the complex sectoral and trade sanctions regimes, advised on the application of Export Control provisions to international trade, particularly those under the Wassenaar Arrangement and assisted with queries around listing and de-listing of individuals under the EU and UN sanctions regimes.
Andrew Roper deals predominantly with subrogated recoveries from a wide range of client insurers and insureds, specialising in claims arising from property damage.
Andrew regularly advises on all matters related to insurance claims from inception through to conclusion, liaising with experts, loss adjusters and counsel throughout the litigation process.
He specialises in subrogated recovery and liability litigation.
Partner. Arash is a Construction & Engineering Partner in RPC's Real Estate and Construction team, advising on the preparation of the full range of construction documentation; acting for employers, developers and investors.
Arash is a non-contentious construction lawyer with significant experience in real estate development and energy projects.
Arash has advised his developer clients on some of the largest real estate development projects in London and has a versatile skillset across various sectors having worked in the UK, UAE and Qatar as well as having attained invaluable in-house experience at a leading UK engineering company.
Arash has a masters in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution from King's College London.
Ben is a Partner in RPC's Intellectual Property and Technology group and advises on all aspects of intellectual property protection and enforcement, with a focus on trade marks, passing off, copyright, designs and confidential information. Ben works with clients across a wide range of industries, including food and drink, media, retail, online/e-commerce, financial services and insurance.
Partner specialising in directors’ and officers’ liability and financial institutions and professional indemnity claims, including crime policies. In addition, Ben has experience of construction claims (in particular coverage disputes) and binding authority disputes. He also drafts and advises insurers and brokers on policy wordings. Ben is as an excellent technical lawyer, who prides himself on providing clear, commercial and strategic advice. He is instructed by insurers and insureds to defend liability claims - recent instructions include defending a director against civil claims brought by a liquidator, advising directors on responding to an Insolvency Service investigation and drafting submissions to the Insolvency Service for a director to deter the commencement of disqualification proceedings. He also advises insurers on complex coverage disputes - recent instructions include the successful defence of D&O insurers in an arbitration brought against them by the liquidator of a collapsed Bank and the defence of a PI insurer in an (ongoing) arbitration brought against it pursuant to the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010. Many of Ben’s cases are international and he has considerable experience of Eastern European jurisdictions.
Ben is an insurance partner with particular specialism in defending claims against construction professionals, brokers and solicitors. He has acted on a large variety of claims, ranging from complex multi party, high value claims to the lower value and more straightforward. Ben is also regularly instructed on D&O claims, both to provide coverage advice to insurers and to defend the directors. Following secondments at two major London market insurers, Ben has obtained a detailed understanding of the insurance industry and the relevant commercial drivers.
Legal Director Ben is a litigator with particular expertise in property-related disputes. He has been involved in many complex and high-value matters in the UK, as well as many with an international aspect. He has acted on all sides of a typical property litigation practice including business leases, developments, dilapidations, vacant possession strategies and property-related insolvency. Ben also has significant experience in other areas of litigation which complement his practice, including general commercial litigation, fraud, anti-money laundering work (particularly in property) and privacy and information. Ben has experience acting for public limited companies, global brands and well-known private individuals including politicians, celebrities and sports people.
Ben is a partner in the RPC Corporate team. He advises clients on all aspects of corporate tax matters, including mergers and acquisitions and corporate reorganisations. Ben also advises on real estate, banking, employment and incentives tax issues. He regularly advises on VAT, stamp duty and stamp duty land tax. He also advises high net worth individuals on the UK tax treatment of their investments. Ben has particular experience in the real estate, banking, insurance and investment funds sectors. Ben is a regular speaker and author on transactional tax topics.
Partner. Insurance lawyer and commercial litigator. Expertise in property insurance, casualty claims including product liability and construction and property related cases in the UK and worldwide. Particular emphasis on coverage and adjustment issues, fraud and moral hazard. Significant litigation experience, particularly involving the food and pharmaceutical sectors including follow on damages actions and other contentious competition matters.
Partner
Charlotte is a Senior Associate in RPC's Commercial and Banking Litigation Group. She has substantial experience in high value and complex banking and financial markets litigation, both domestically and internationally. Her practice includes handling investment and mis-selling disputes, fund management disputes, professional negligence claims, enforcement actions, asset recovery, claims relating to manipulation of LIBOR and civil fraud. She regularly represents banks, hedge and investment funds, pension funds, asset managers, major corporates and high net worth individuals. Recent experience includes: Rowe & Ors v Ingenious Media Holdings plc & Ors (listed in The Lawyer's Top 20 cases of 2018) Bank St Petersburg v Arkhangelsky (listed in The Lawyer's Top 20 cases of the year 2014 – judgment 2018) Acting for a family office in relation to claims arising out of fraudulent misrepresentations in relation to the sale of LIBOR linked swap instruments Acting for an Icelandic bank in relation to multi-million-pound claims against two investment banks relating to in relation to their involvement with allegedly self-referencing credit default swaps through a Tchenguiz trust entity. Acting for the general partner of a fund in a €160m claim brought on behalf of the fund’s limited partner investors against the manager of the fund for gross negligence.
Partner. Chris Ross is a highly experienced litigator specialising in commercial, banking and civil fraud disputes.
He acts for clients across a variety of matters including shareholder disputes, matters related to complex derivatives and other structured products and multi-jurisdictional fraud cases. His clients include high net worth individuals, company directors and sophisticated institutional investors. He has particular expertise in group actions and litigation funding arrangements.
Chris is a member of the firm's cross-practice Competition Litigation team. He has advised clients in both bringing and defending follow-on damages claims in relation to competition law infringements at both domestic and EU level.
He is a Solicitor Advocate with Higher Rights of Audience.
A Partner in RPC's Corporate team, Chris advises clients on strategic corporate matters and transactions in the UK and internationally.
Chris' practice covers private M&A, private equity, investments in unlisted companies and joint ventures.
With almost 20 years' experience as a corporate lawyer, Chris has a wide practice covering multiple industries including particular expertise in financial services, insurance and technology.
Partner. An IP and technology litigation specialist, Ciara is dual qualified in England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland and has acted in several international disputes.
Having acted in several disputes before the English and Irish Courts, the UK IPO, the ICC and CIETAC, Ciara's practice also has a significant international element and sees her advising clients on multi-jurisdictional disputes across the full range of IP rights including trade marks / passing off, copyright, patents, design rights, breach of confidential information and IP licence disputes.
On the non-contentious side, Ciara supports clients on brand protection and counterfeit issues, IP projects and licensing, sponsorship/endorsement arrangements, franchising and commercial contracts. She also provides specialist advice on IP and technology acquisitions and disposals.
Clients range from luxury goods, retail and food to FMCG, technology, media, life sciences, insurance and financial services.
Ciara has been published in several leading journals including Managing IP, e-Commerce Law and Policy, SCL, LexisNexis and ILO and regularly speaks at client and industry conferences. Ciara is a member of the editorial team that produces the annual TerraLex Cross-Border Copyright Guide.
Partner. Claire Revell is an insurance litigator who specialises in defending professionals in professional negligence claims and advising insurers on policy coverage. Claire has acted for a range of professionals, including accountants, construction professionals and brokers but currently focusses on defending lawyers. Her caseload includes high value and multi-million-pound claims as well as more straightforward matters, acting for a range of clients from sole practitioners to international firms. She also has significant experience in employment practices claims and has advised insurers both on policy coverage and defence. Claire also acts for directors facing a range of claims, again including claims of significant value and with complex issues.
Connor is a partner who advises listed and pre-IPO companies on M&A, equity fund raising and corporate governance.
Connor has experience in representing public companies on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market and AIM, as well as private companies, shareholders, investment funds and financial institutions on UK and cross-border matters.
Dan Wyatt is an experienced commercial litigator with particular expertise in complex, international, high value civil fraud, crypto / digital asset, financial services, and shareholder/partnership disputes. His work is usually multi-jurisdictional, and frequently involves Former Soviet Union countries.
Dan advises on proceedings in all levels of the English courts, as well as on arbitration proceedings.
Clients have praised Dan's "commercial pragmatism", and noted that he is "personable and extremely responsive" and "has the ability to drive towards a solution to end the litigation rather than protracting it at great expense to both sides". They have also noted that he "clearly identifies the key issues in complex, fact-heavy cases" and "has the ability to explain complicated issues in a very simple and easy to understand manner". Dan has also been commended for his "good litigation sense with sound legal and tactical understanding and strong project management skills".
Dan's notable recent High Court cases include the following:
PJSC Bank "Finance and Credit" & Anr -v- Zhevago & Ors
Filatona & Deripaska -v- Navigator, Chernukhin, & Navio
AS Latvijas Krajbanka (In Liquidation) -v- Antonov
Pyrrho Investments -v- MWB Property Limited & Ors
Daniel is a litigation partner with a particular focus on banking and financial markets disputes. He regularly acts for banks, asset managers, hedge funds and high net worth individuals. He is recognised for his work relating to derivative products and the close-out of complex financial transactions. Daniel also has extensive experience of the enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards and interim/injunctive relief, including worldwide freezing injunctions. Daniel has co-authored the England & Wales chapter of the 2019 ICLG Financial Services Disputes guide.
Daniel is a Partner with experience of advising on a broad range of professional liability disputes, including claims against solicitors, construction professionals and technology companies. He also advises on cyber security and data protection matters, including breach response.
Partner and Head of IP and Tech.
Experienced and commercially focussed, David Cran works closely with clients to resolve their IP, technology and commercial issues.
David specialises in IP, technology and commercial matters, with significant experience in both disputes and transactions.
David advises on all areas of intellectual property, confidential information, IT/software and commercial issues. His work covers a wide range of industry sectors, including retail, financial services, insurance, IT/telecoms, media/digital media, energy, manufacturing and life sciences. David frequently advises on international matters, particularly involving the US, Europe and the Far East, including coordinating multi-jurisdictional disputes and deals.
David is recommended in the leading legal directories for IP and technology, including in Chambers, Legal 500, Who's Who Legal, World Trademark Review and IAM Patent, having been described as "technically polished", "very commercial" and "a class act".
David is named in The Lawyer's Hot 100 2023.
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Partner
Davina advises corporates, financial institutions and individuals on a range of complex commercial and financial disputes. These have included claims arising out of financial structures such as hedge fund linked notes and syndicated loans, as well as breaches of warranty and professional negligence. Davina also has extensive experience of national and international internal, regulatory and criminal investigations in relation to money laundering, bribery, sanctions, smuggling and compliance with financial regulation. She also has experience in art-related disputes.
Ed is a Legal Director in the RPC corporate team, specialising in banking and wider corporate finance and treasury transactions. He advises UK and international clients on a wide range of finance matters, including acquisition finance, corporate facilities, real estate finance (both investment and development), investment funds, treasury transactions and derivatives. His recent experience includes advising well-known high street retailers on a range of banking facilities, and large insurance clients on investment transactions and the financing of their regulatory capital requirements. He also advises international clients on group structuring and intra-group financing arrangements.
Partner
Partner. Emily is a Partner in RPC's corporate team, focussed on delivering pragmatic and commercial advice.
Emily is a specialised in transactional liability / W&I insurance. Emily has additional expertise in a range of corporate advisory matters, including corporate governance and complex restructurings.
Senior Associate. Emma Wherry is an insurance lawyer within the professional risks team.
She specialises in disputes involving construction professionals and surveyors.
Felicity Strong is a Partner in the Construction team.
Felicity specialises in defending high value, complex construction claims and in advising on policy coverage. She defends claims against all classes of construction professional, with a particular focus on architects, engineers and surveyors.
Felicity is experienced in all forms of dispute resolution, including litigation, arbitration, adjudication and mediation.
Partner. Finella specialises in advising banks, insolvency practitioners, funds, corporates and all stakeholders of insolvencies on both contentious and non-contentious restructuring, formal insolvency and turnaround situations. She represents office holders, lenders or distressed companies in business rescue and corporate turnarounds. With over 18 years' experience, Finella has a broad range of experience advising on a number of complex and high profile domestic and multi-jurisdictional matters including trading administrations, bankruptcy and receiverships to fraud and syndicated restructures.
Senior Associate
Partner
Associate. Genevieve defends medical malpractice and product liability claims and has experience in both significant, high-value, high-profile insurance litigation and smaller value claims. Alongside litigation, she handles healthcare regulatory matters, including professional conduct proceedings and inquests. Genevieve gained valuable understanding of the insurance market working in-house in the claims handling department of a Lloyd's approved Managing General Agency providing underwriting solutions to the Health Industry. She also advises on coverage.
Georgia is a Legal Director in RPC's IP & Technology group and advises on contentious and non-contentious matters. She has particular specialism in disputes relating to both intellectual property (including trade marks, passing off, designs and copyright) and information technology. Has acted in reported cases including: Champagne Louis Roederer v J Garcia Carrion (trade mark infringement); Leofelis v Lonsdale (inquiry as to damages); Sir Robert McAlpine v Alfred McAlpine plc (passing off).
Legal Director
Harry is a Senior Associate in RPC's Tax Disputes team. He advises clients on disputes across the spectrum of direct and indirect taxes.
Harry advises corporate and individual clients on a wide range of contentious tax issues - from managing enquiries and information notices, through to hearings in the Tax Tribunals and higher courts.
He has particular experience in advising in relation to main purpose disputes and applications for judicial review, and on international tax issues including double taxation disputes.
Harry has previously worked in HMRC's Solicitor's Office (in a litigation team), and in the corporate tax department of an international law firm where he had a mixed contentious and advisory/transactional practice. He brings this broad practical experience to bear in advising clients on their engagement with HMRC. He also has experience advising in relation to broader regulatory matters, including charity regulation and the UK's anti-financial crime / anti-money laundering regime, and forms part of the firm's sanctions group.
Partner. Helen is an experienced litigator specialising in resolution of complex technology and commercial disputes. She has advised and acted for clients on a wide range of disputes in the High Court, with a particular focus on outsourcing and public sector technology disputes.
Helen has a wealth of experience handling complex, multi-party and multi-jurisdictional disputes both in and out of court.
Helen’s practice focuses on technology and outsourcing disputes across a range of both public and private sectors, from government digitalisation projects to national internet infrastructure disputes and investment trading platform disputes. Helen recognises the unique difficulties that these sorts of disputes give rise to and the importance of working closely with clients at an early stage to strengthen their position during on-going commercial relationships and avoid litigation wherever possible. She is, however, experienced in strategically commencing and defending proceedings in all of the key divisions of the High Court in London - including the Technology & Construction, Commercial and Chancery Courts. Helen also acts for clients in respect of breach of confidential information, including obtaining emergency injunctive relief where necessary.
Helen has been consistently ranked as a ‘Rising Star’ for Premium Litigation the Legal 500 UK, as well as being acknowledged for her outsourcing work by Chambers & Partners UK in 2022.
A Senior Associate in RPC's Commercial, Technology & Outsourcing team, Hettie advises clients in a variety of sectors, including household brands, retailers, tech businesses, and creative and media agencies.
Hettie has worked within a wide range of industry sectors with a particular focus on consumer facing businesses and e-commerce. She brings a unique perspective to her practice, having worked extensively both in private practice and in-house, collaborating with stakeholders at all levels.
Putting her clients' individual desired outcomes at the heart of her approach to drafting, negotiating and advising on commercial matters, Hettie is able to cut through the legalese to deliver targeted and pragmatic legal solutions.
Partner. Experienced banking and financial services litigator, with a particular focus on complex products and technical quantum and causation issues. Significant experience in arbitration, fraud, public/administrative law, IT and procurement and general commercial disputes.
James Mee is an award-winning transactional lawyer who has been instrumental in driving RPC's transactions business since joining from a magic circle firm in 2004.
Awarded a Corporate Team of the Year accolade from the Lawyer in 2012 for a multi-billion pound sector transformational consumer products transaction, he has been shortlisted for deal awards in each of 2017, 2019 and 2021. He is a leading individual / recognised in all of the major legal directories for transactional work and sector knowledge and is an Acritas Star following recommendations by clients.
Following on from the 2012 deal and award, James established and then led RPC's transactional insurance sector business. This has gone from strength to strength and is now widely regarded as one of the City's leading legal practices in this highly dynamic sector.
In addition to being an active deal do-er in the insurance and wider financial services sectors (leading more than 20 transactions in each of 2020 and 2021), James acts for corporates, private equity and other investors and management teams in a range of sectors, including in recent years the retail and consumer products, tech and data, and sports and leisure sectors.
Aligned to his role at RPC, James is a commentator on transactional and market issues, a panellist at industry events and roundtables, and was one of the two external lawyers asked to assist the London Market Group's Brexit Working Party.
James previously sat on the Board of RPC Tyche, the insurance software business RPC recently sold to global professional services firm Aon.
James was selected for The Lawyer's Hot 100 in 2014 for his transactional work and his focus on driving inclusion and diversity change for the better in the legal industry.
From 2017 to 2020, James was Co-Chair of the LGBTQ+ Insurance Network (Link), that won a Queen's Award in the The Queen's 2019 Birthday Honours.
James is currently Chair of the Board of Governors at the English National Ballet School.
Managing Partner. An international property and international casualty insurance lawyer by background, James previously headed RPC's Insurance and Reinsurance Group and served on the firm's management board. James is dual-qualified in England & Wales and Hong Kong. He has significant experience acting for Lloyd’s syndicates and insurance companies, specialising in first party property claims, coverage, subrogated recoveries and policy wordings.
Partner in RPC's insurance group; specialising in financial risks. Advises London market non-marine insurers/reinsurers on complex coverage disputes, in particular involving financial and professional lines policies, including PI, D&O, W&I and crime insurance. Also acts in the defence of claims against financial professionals, including directors, insurance brokers, IFAs, trustees, tax advisers, wealth managers and investment/asset/fund managers.Recognised in The Lawyer Magazine's Hot 100 2016.
James is a corporate and business law specialist, who advises on AIM and main market listings, IPOs, reverse takeovers, cross-border M&A and joint ventures. He acts for AIM, ASX and TSX listed companies, private companies, sponsors, nomads, brokers and other financial intermediaries.
James represents clients in many sectors, such as financial services, pharma, tech and mining and oil and gas, advising on their operations in jurisdictions including the MENA region, United States, Spain, Latin America and Australia.
James is consistently recognised as a leading lawyer for Corporate and M&A in Chambers UK and in The Legal 500 UK. Much of James's work is international acting for clients that are listed on the LSE, AIM, TSX and ASX with operations based in a number of jurisdictions.
Partner Jeremy Cunningham is a corporate transactional lawyer focused on delivering commercial solutions to clients. He represents financial institutions, corporations, insurance companies, investor groups and management teams on a variety of transactional matters. This includes: M&A transactions, private equity investment, venture capital investment, joint ventures and strategic alliances, group restructurings and commercial arrangements including outsourcings.Jeremy has wide-ranging experience of cross-border transactions across the UK and Europe, Asia and the US, with particular expertise in the TMT, financial services, consumer and insurance sectors. Jeremy is qualified in England & Wales and Hong Kong.
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Partner
Partner. Jon is a Partner in RPC’s real estate team, advising property sector and other businesses and organisations on a wide range of real estate deals and projects.
His expertise covers strategic acquisitions and disposals, hybrid commercial / property projects, and business space deals and projects including for major operators in retail, media, education, healthcare, technology and creative industry sectors, and for a range of property sector businesses and organisations.
With over 20 years experience, Jon handles a wide range of commercial real estate transactions and advisory work. In addition to his work for property sector organisations, a particular focus is on handling high value business space lettings (principally, but not exclusively, in the London occupier market) for corporates for whom property is not core business.
Jon has acted for major UK, US and Europe based clients in connection with their business space and other real estate requirements, including advising on strategically important hybrid commercial and property deals.
Jonathan is a Partner specialising in banking and financial markets disputes and contentious regulatory matters. He has extensive experience acting in litigation and arbitration matters for a broad range of clients, including corporates, funds, financial institutions and sovereigns. His experience includes conducting internal investigations and advising on a variety of compliance and regulatory issues, including FCA enforcement actions. Jonathan is currently acting for the Federal Republic of Nigeria in its High Court claims against JP Morgan and Shell and ENI arising from the corrupt allocation of the OPL 245 oil block. Jonathan has spent a significant proportion of his career in Hong Kong, where he is locally qualified. He has also spent time on secondment to the litigation and regulatory teams of two investment banks.
Legal Director specialising in claims against professionals – legal, financial and construction.
Hall of fame
Jonathan Wood has deep rooted experience supporting clients in a wide number of jurisdictions in arbitration proceedings and cross border litigation. He Chairs RPC's International Arbitration practice.
Jonathan specialises in international arbitration and dispute resolution relating to international trade (including Bilateral Investment Treaty claims), joint venture and shareholder disputes, project and energy claims, credit and political risk insurance, reinsurance, cultural property and specie, banking and trade finance, fraud and asset tracing, public and private international law.
He has handled numerous institutional and ad hoc arbitrations as counsel, and related court proceedings, and has sat as arbitrator in many cases.
Jonathan is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is also former Chairman of the International Bar Association's International Sales Committee and is currently a member of the advisory board of the European Regional Forum. Jonathan has been an adviser and litigation counsel to the British Government's Export Credits Guarantee Department ( UKEF) for over 25 years.
Jonathan Charwat is a corporate, commercial and regulatory Senior Associate in the Corporate Insurance & Financial Services team.
Jonathan's primary focus is in the insurance and financial services market. His commercial experience includes a wide range of insurance distribution arrangements and agreements as well as reinsurance and other commercial agreements. From a regulatory perspective, Jonathan advises clients on insurance product distribution and governance including intermediary remuneration arrangements, internal governance and regulatory compliance, insurer-intermediary distribution structures, customer facing and product documentation, and developments in insurance regulation. Jonathan has also acted on a number of M&A transactions for both the insurance and corporate market including Lloyd's specific arrangements and a scheme of arrangement.
Jonathan also has a good deal of in-house experience having undertaken secondments at Arch Insurance, Marsh and Swiss Re Life Capital. Prior to joining RPC, he also worked for two years in-house in a corporate governance and commercial contracts role for Volex plc working out of London and China.
Josh is a sports, disputes and commercial lawyer, and is a Partner in the firm’s sports, IP and commercial groups.
Josh advises on contentious, advisory and transactional matters. His disputes work covers sports, IP, commercial, media and entertainment, and technology cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal and UK Supreme Court, as well as sports arbitrations, disciplinary panels, and international arbitration.
Josh also supports clients in relation to sponsorship and partnership arrangements, sports data and content supply agreements, IP licensing and general “BAU” commercial contracts involving sports, media and entertainment, and technology. Josh also has extensive experience advising retail and consumer brands (including in the food and drink space).
Noted in legal directories as having “deep sector knowledge and exceptional judgement” on sports related matters, Josh represents clients on regulatory, governance, disciplinary and safeguarding matters across a range of sports from football and rugby to lacrosse. Josh similarly advises a range of stakeholders and non-endemic consumer brands in esports, gaming and content, and sports betting.
Josh was selected as a Sport Industry NextGen Leader for 2021, a Rising Star by Legal 500 (2021-present) and, prior to becoming Partner, an “Associate to Watch” by Chambers & Partners (2022).
Josh has frequently contributed as an author to Entertainment Law Review and LawInSport on IP, sports and entertainment related matters, and is a regular speaker at sports law and industry events.
Having spent time on secondment to a major global insurer, Josh also advises on policy wording, coverage, defence and pursuit instructions in sports, IP, media and entertainment, and technology matters.
Partner and Head of Corporate. Karen Hendy is an insightful and pragmatic Partner and leads RPC's Corporate practice.
Regularly acting for both public (listed) and privately held companies, Karen supports clients undertaking a broad range of corporate transactions, including public and private M&A, and equity capital markets work.
She also provides advice on corporate law and governance issues. Karen has particular expertise in the retail sector.
Karen was also featured in The Lawyer Hot 100 list for 2018.
Karen has been recognised as Leading Individual for Retail and Consumer by The Legal 500 UK (2021).
Partner. Karen is a highly regarded insurance lawyer specialising in the defence of complex and high-value claims against professionals. She also has vast experience advising insurers on coverage issues. Karen has been involved with claims against members of the legal profession since qualification, both in a defence capacity and in providing monitoring services and strategic advice to excess layer insurers on claims attracting significant market interest.In addition to claims against lawyers, Karen has also defended and provided coverage advice and monitoring services relating to claims against accountants, tax advisors, insolvency practitioners insurance intermediaries and corporate service providers (particularly offshore).
Senior Associate
Partner. Kelly advises on complex international and national employment matters, with particular focus on outsourcing, restructuring and the people aspects of organisational change. She works alongside clients' HR and Legal teams in developing and implementing strategies for the recruitment, retention and motivation of employees. She has a focus on 'employee engagement' and is passionate about issues of diversity and inclusion. Kelly develops and provides training and seminars for clients' HR, legal and business teams and co-delivers RPC's regular seminars and roundtables on a variety of topics. She is a frequent contributor to practitioner and academic publications. Kelly was part of the successful RPC team in the UK's leading case on restrictive covenants -Egon Zehnder v Tillman. This 2019 case is the first time in a century that the highest UK court has considered the issue of non-compete covenants and the judgment sets the law in this area.
Keziah is an Associate in RPC's Tax Disputes, Financial Crime and Regulatory team. She is an experienced litigator and has acted for a broad range of clients in disputes involving both direct and indirect taxes.
Keziah advises corporate and individual clients on a broad spectrum of contentious tax issues including both direct and indirect tax matters. She has advised HNW individuals, large regulated and listed companies and SMEs. She has experience handling complex and cross-border tax investigations and litigation before both the First-tier and Upper Tax Tribunals and courts, including the Court of Appeal.
Keziah has in-depth knowledge of customs enquiries, investigations and policy matters. She has particular expertise in the complexities of rules of origin and the Union Customs Code, as well as issues which arise post-Brexit, including the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Keziah has acted in challenges on public law grounds by way of Judicial Review. Prior to joining RPC, Keziah worked in HMRC's Solicitor's Office gaining a varied experience across both litigation and policy advisory teams and is therefore well placed to anticipate and navigate clients through interactions with HMRC.
Partner
Associate. Kirtan is a commercial disputes lawyer with a focus on international arbitration.
Kirtan is an experienced commercial and financial disputes lawyer, who specialises in international arbitration and multi-jurisdictional disputes.
She has been recognised as a Future Leader in Arbitration by Who's Who Legal for four years running: 2018 – 2021. She is also noted in The Legal 500.
Kirtan has acted for sovereigns, financial institutions, hedge funds, energy companies, car manufacturers and hotel operators. She has experience of commercial litigation and a range of arbitral rules, including the LCIA, ICC, SIAC, SCMA, DIAC and ICSID Rules. Her work has spanned both civil and common law jurisdictions, such as Japan, India, England, Indonesia, the UAE and the Netherlands. She has a particular interest in disputes with an Asian dimension.
Before joining RPC, Kirtan worked at the Singapore and London offices of an international law firm. She is qualified to practice in Singapore, New York State and England & Wales.
Partner specialising in defending claims against leading law firms and other professionals in relation to complex and high-value claims. She has particular expertise in defending solicitors claims concerning a wide range of underlying areas of law, including corporate transactions, trusts, commercial property transactions, litigation and employment. Laura also acts for insurers in relation to coverage issues arising out of professional indemnity policies.
Partner Leigh Williams is a commercial dispute resolution lawyer who deals in all aspects of marine and non-marine insurance and reinsurance. Leigh's expertise covers onshore and offshore energy, power and heavy industrial insurance risks, both coverage and defence. Leigh qualified as a barrister and practised for five years at commercial set 7 King's Bench Walk. His marine disputes-related experience includes charterparty, carriage of goods, sale of goods and ship sale disputes. In the non-insurance context, Leigh has assisted clients with ultra-high value disputes concerning company M&A, shareholder interests, joint ventures, bonds, directors' duties and financial regulation both in court (domestically and abroad) and in international arbitration.
Lucy Kerr is part of the Regulatory Group and advises clients on contentious financial services regulatory matters, as well as commercial disputes.
Lucy has extensive experience of defending financial services firms in relation to regulatory enforcement actions, as well as acting for clients in relation to wider banking and private equity disputes.
Lucy Dyson is a partner and insurance and reinsurance lawyer who specialises in complex casualty (re)insurance coverage and litigation.
She routinely advises insurers on domestic and international losses under public, products and pollution liability covers, including primary and excess/umbrella liability, PCA94/86, CGLs and the Bermuda Form.
Her practice particularly involves advising on losses in the energy, mining, manufacturing, infrastructure and hospitality sectors. This includes high severity events (explosions, spillages, fires), catastrophic injuries/fatalities, product liability and long tail exposures, including occupational illness and pollution.
She has significant experience advising on multi-jurisdictional claims, particularly in Latin America, the Caribbean, the USA and Africa. Lucy also speaks Spanish.
In addition, she advises on policy wordings issues and product recall matters (including consumer goods, food and beverage and pharmaceutical).
Partner. Mamata is a Partner in the General Liability and Medical team.
Mamata's work covers complex personal injury cases involving fatalities and/or catastrophic injury, Product Liability claims, policy coverage and incidents involving health and safety / environmental investigations.
Mamata advises clients who are being investigated by various enforcement authorities including the Police, Health & Safety Executive, Local Authorities, Trading Standards and Fire Authorities.
She also advises clients on a range of product liability issues, including liability claims and issues surrounding product recall.
Partner
Marlon is an experienced commercial lawyer, specialising in complex strategic work for clients in the media, retail and technology sectors.
His wide-ranging practice covers all sides of the media, broadcasting and communications spectrum, acting for brands and content owners, global platforms, broadcasters and telecoms companies on a broad range of commercial and content-related matters. Specialising in complex commercial contracts and technology arrangements for clients, he often works for both suppliers and customers of services. Relying on his extensive in-house and private practice experience he is consistently able to find the best outcome for his clients.
He regularly works on complex commercial work with a media focus including sponsorship and endorsement deals (including sponsorship tie-ups with Team GB and Paralympics GB for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics), marketing related agreements (such as creative agency, media buying, and talent agreements), broadcasting, digital content and production agreements, publishing deals, as well as more tech/digital focused deals (including gaming platform, digital multiplex, content distribution and transmission arrangements).
Much of his work is for digital/media clients, but he also regularly advises brands in other sectors, including retail, food and drink, leisure, insurance and financial services.
Of Counsel. Matthew has a broad practice within RPC's commercial disputes department, with a particular focus on banking and financial services disputes.
Matthew acts on complex commercial litigation matters for corporates and financial institutions, most often with international dimensions. He regularly acts on matters appearing in the English High Court and Court of Appeal, including matters appearing in the UK Financial List. Matthew also has experience acting alongside US and MEA counsel on a wide range of litigation and advisory matters, often where relief is sought from the English Courts in support of foreign proceedings.
Partner
Partner. Matthew Jones specialises in high-value UK and cross-border patent disputes, with significant experience across multiple technology sectors.
Matthew has nearly 20 years' experience as an IP lawyer, with an expert knowledge in patent litigation. He also has experience of FRAND licensing disputes.
His work covers a wide range of technology and industry sectors, including telecommunications, electronics, cryptography, mechanical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
He has a PhD in biochemistry, specialising in quantum enzymology, giving him a keen understanding of the technology and life sciences sectors.
Matthew has also worked in-house as a senior counsel at a multinational pharmaceutical company, giving him a further insight into the commercial pressures facing large companies in complex patent disputes.
Matthew is recommended in leading legal directories, including in Legal 500 and 1AM.
Of Counsel. With experience advising clients across a variety of industries, Melanie Musgrave specialises in UK and EU competition law issues.
Merger control, compliance, commercial arrangements and investigations by the competition regulators, including dawn raids are just some of the matters Melanie supports clients on.
Melanie advises clients on all aspects of merger control from the structuring of the corporate deal, providing a worldwide analysis of merger filing requirements where appropriate, through to project managing multi-jurisdictional filings and drafting notifications to the UK and EU competition authorities. She also assists clients in responding to information requests about third party mergers.
She works with clients on the competition aspects of their commercial arrangements and practices, and on their individual compliance programmes and requirements. Melanie helps clients deal with cartel and other antitrust investigations by the UK and EU competition authorities, including advising on potential follow on damages claims. She also acts for clients in connection with market investigations and sector enquiries.
Partner. Michelle Sloane specialises in the resolution of tax disputes and white collar crime. She advises both corporates and individuals on complex tax enquiries, tax assessments and criminal investigations.
Michelle has particular expertise in relation to VAT, and customs and excise duty disputes. Michelle has in-depth experience of high value appeals at all levels including before the Tax Tribunals, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and Court of Justice of the European Union. Her expertise includes Judicial Review proceedings scrutinising HMRC’s conduct.
She also advises those facing HMRC criminal investigations, allegations of participating in missing trader intra-community fraud and assists clients manage urgent issues such as HMRC "dawn raids".
Before moving to the UK in 2006, Michelle worked for the New Zealand government as a tax investigator and legal adviser to the tax investigations team where she gained valuable insight into the decision making process of revenue authorities.
Partner. Mike’s practice focuses on advising London market non-marine insurers on complex coverage issues. He also has significant experience of defending claims and regulatory investigations against professionals.
Mike is a solicitor advocate with extensive experience advising insurers on coverage issues arising under a wide range of policies, including D&O, FI, Crime and Civil Liability, Investment Management, Trustee Liability, and PI.
He has also advised on claims and regulatory investigations against professionals including accountants, auditors and solicitors, both in the UK and offshore. Mike has experience handling and resolving claims in the Courts, by arbitration and by way of mediation.
Prior to joining RPC, Mike practiced for more than 10 years at another international firm, during which time he also undertook a secondment to the claims team of a major London insurer.
Prior to qualifying as a solicitor Mike spent several years working within the finance function of two large commercial property companies in London.
Partner. Naomi Vary specialises in resolving political risk and trade credit disputes. She is a leading lawyer in the field of political risk, trade credit, political violence and standalone terrorism insurance. She advises London and overseas insurers and reinsurers on a wide range of matters, predominantly involving coverage disputes, but also relating to wordings advice and recovery actions following claims.In addition to her specialist area, Naomi has experience in claims involving most major classes of loss, including contingency and bloodstock.Naomi has worked on political risk and trade credit cases originating from numerous jurisdictions. Her experience includes working on political risk cases involving claims for expropriation, embargo, licence cancellation and selective discrimination, and trade credit claims involving commodity trading and bank lending.
Partner. Neil is an experienced corporate lawyer, advising on M&A, joint ventures and other significant commercial transactions. He advises clients from a range of sectors, including technology, media and retail. Neil has a particular interest in the insurance industry, advising a number of major insurers and reinsurers from both Lloyd's of London and the London companies market. His experience includes reinsurance transactions, special purpose arrangements at Lloyd's and insurance business transfers under Part VII of FSMA.
Hall of fame
Professional liability defence litigation. Acts for magic circle and leading firms in complex and high-value claims.
Partner, Head of Japan Desk. Nigel is a senior corporate lawyer with extensive experience and a deep cultural knowledge of Japan and Japanese business. Focusing on a broad range of work including acquisitions, disposals, investments, joint ventures, restructuring and general corporate, Nigel advises a wide range of leading Japanese corporates across multiple sectors and geographies. He is fluent in Japanese and maintains a wide ranging and extensive network of contacts both in the UK and Japan.
Nigel is a senior lawyer, Of Counsel, specialising in IT, technology projects, outsourcing, complex commercial services contracts and procurement support. He has gained a wealth of experience, acting for both suppliers and customers (both private and public sector) and has worked in a number of jurisdictions.
Hall of fame
Senior Partner. Oliver is Senior Partner at RPC and a recognised specialist in commercial law. He has over 25 years' experience with particular expertise in commercial contracts, advertising and marketing, regulatory investigations/proceedings, data protection, consumer, intellectual property and digital.
He is ranked in the Legal 500's "Hall of Fame" and "Top Ranked" by Chambers and Partners for both commercial and advertising/marketing.
He works with some of the world's highest profile brands and digital platforms, providing advice on all aspects their commercial operations and consumer engagement. He is the co-editor of the leading text book ‘Advertising Law and Regulation’ (Bloomsbury Professional).
He is Chairman of the City of London Law Society Commercial Law Committee, a member of the Ad Law Group and an editorial board member of Digital Business Lawyer and Entertainment Law Review.
He was awarded "Best Client Partner" at the 2016 British Legal Awards and is recognised by Acritas for outstanding client service.
Parham is a litigation partner specialising in banking disputes, financial markets litigation and regulatory investigations. He represents a wide range of clients including continental banks, hedge funds, family offices and HNW investors. Parham also has extensive experience conducting complex investigations in corporate and contentious regulatory settings, acting for clients in significant enforcement actions by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Partner
Paul is a restructuring and insolvency partner and has extensive experience advising companies and individuals in relation to all aspects of domestic and cross-border insolvency and restructuring matters. He has represented all types of stakeholders across capital structures in relation to distressed debtors, including company boards, funds, lenders, bondholders, ad hoc committees, insolvency practitioners, trade creditors and other parties-in-interest. Paul has also advised clients in relation to complex fraud situations, domestic and international debt and asset recovery mandates and financial regulatory matters.
A leading partner in commercial, outsourcing and technology matters who delivers pragmatic and strategic legal advice to complex matters in order to meet clients' commercial goals. Highly-ranked for commercial contracts in both Legal 500 and Chambers, Paul supports a broad range of businesses – including many well-known brands – in their daily operations and also when undertaking transformational projects. Paul is able to guide clients in the development of new products or services in the UK and globally, navigating complex supply chain challenges, entering into strategic alliances, establishing new routes to market and harnessing technologies to increase competitiveness or efficiencies. Paul is highly experienced in helping manage change within organisations whether it is through delivering technology solutions or establishing new relationships with suppliers, networks or customers. He provides creative and workable solutions for complex legal questions and understands that a successful transaction is one that must strike the right balance in managing risk while achieving our client's commercial objectives.
Legal Counsel. Paul advises London and overseas insurers in the political risk and trade credit market. This advice involves claims, coverage disputes, wordings, and subrogated recovery actions. His experience includes representing insurers in disputes, often subject to international arbitration, concerning alleged expropriation, political violence, commodities trading and bank lending. Paul also has significant experience of both commercial and investor-state arbitration. Paul has arbitrated disputes under the LCIA, ICC, PCA, UNCITRAL and ICSID rules. Paul has acted for and against a number of Middle-Eastern and African governments in disputes concerning sectors including energy, power and telecommunications and often involving matters of public international law. Paul has also represented international energy, commodities, telecommunications and technology clients in a number of commercial disputes.
Peter trained and qualified in London before moving to Bristol in 1994. He became a partner in 2005 and joined RPC as a partner in 2012. He specialises in claims against construction professionals, solicitors and surveyors. He also regularly advises on policy coverage issues and is currently writing an e-learning course on insurance law. He was co-author of the Professional Negligence Pre-Action Protocol.
Rachael Healey specialises in professional indemnity and financial services dispute resolution work.
She specialises in advising on claims against accountants, financial professionals, off-shore trustees, lawyers and pension professionals.
Rachael has experience dealing with various disciplinary and regulatory matters including before the ACCA and ICAEW, the Pension Ombudsman and the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Rachael also has extensive experience with coverage disputes.
Partner. Rathi is a general commercial litigator who has acted on a broad variety of high-value, multifaceted, cross-border litigation matters for national and international clients.
Rathi has considerable experience in retail and competition litigation, including acting for a consortium of retailers in relation to a breach of competition law claim in respect of multilateral interchange fees. She also acted for a large national retailer in its claim against a supplier of faulty goods which resulted in a nationwide product recall.
In addition, Rathi has assisted many oil and gas clients with complex litigation including a dispute in relation to the decommissioning of an oil and gas platform in the North Sea.
Rathi is particularly interested in digital payment systems and has represented a large cryptocurrency exchange defending numerous claims as a result of a cyber attack, which caused loss to customers.
Partner Rhian Howell is a leading professional negligence expert with significant experience dealing with claims against lawyers and construction professionals.
She also handles disciplinary and regulatory matters on behalf of professionals and has a particular reputation for dealing with fraud and dishonest assistance claims against solicitors.
Rhian led the defence on behalf of BPE in the leading Supreme Court decision of BPE Solicitors and another (Respondents) v Hughes-Holland (in substitution for Gabriel) (Appellant) [2017] UKSC 21 which limited the extent of a professionals' exposure when errors are made.
Rhian also regularly provides training to clients on risk management, legal updates, as well as best practice when handing claims.
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Partner; commercial litigation and arbitration; corporate and regulatory investigations.
Partner in the media team, specialising in media litigation, most often in the fields of defamation, privacy, data protection and harassment law.
Rupert predominantly advises publishers and intermediaries in defending claims and exercising their free speech rights, acting for a spectrum of well-known clients including national newspapers, magazines, book publishers and journalists. He is experienced in litigating complex and developing areas of law, including on foreign jurisdiction issues, intermediary liability and the impact of European law on domestic information rights. Prior to joining RPC in 2016, Rupert predominantly advised prospective claimants.
An expert in white-collar crime, Sam Tate is a partner with extensive practical experience of complicated cross-border investigations and crime prevention programs.
Sam works closely with a number of FTSE 100, international and privately owned entities and individuals in relation to financial crime proceedings, investigations, and practical crime prevention programs. He recently led the settlement on the ground-breaking 11th and 12th UK DPA’s and conducted the independent investigation for the Financial Times of allegations made by Wirecard against its reporters.
He is a regular speaker and moderator at industry and government events and was previously Head of Anti-corruption in EMEA for a global financial crime consultancy. Sam's experience also includes private prosecutions and senior roles within the Court/FCA appointed sanctions/AML related monitorships of two global banks.
Sam is a co-author of the leading UK anti-corruption compliance text book “Bribery: a Compliance Handbook” published by Bloomsbury and he has extensive practical experience as the Subject Matter Expert for anti-bribery and money-laundering at a global full service oil and gas company and a seconded Executive Director to the litigation and regulatory team of a US investment bank.
Sam is a regular speaker and moderator at white-collar crime events and conferences (IBA/ABA/C5/OECD/AMLP) and he was a member of the Cabinet Office Anti-corruption Forum. Prior to joining RPC as a Partner, Sam was Head of Anti-corruption in EMEA for a global financial crime consultancy where he advised and worked with Lisa Osofsky, now Director of the SFO. Sam's experience further includes five years at a magic circle law firm within the financial crime and disputes team.
Partner. Sarah is a Partner in the IP and Technology team. With a particular focus on contentious and advisory matters, in the past 12 months Sarah has acted for various of the firm's key clients on strategic litigation and consultations.
Sarah's particular focus is on trade marks, copyright, passing off, designs and confidential information but she routinely supports clients on technology and commercial matters too. She has a wealth of litigation experience, having acted on large scale disputes with both a UK and international focus.
Sarah regularly authors articles on intellectual property and has been published in the Entertainment Law Review, the Distillers and Brewers Journals, Luxury Law, as well as on Lexis Nexis. Last year, she presented at the Informa Connect IP Winter Law School on 'Trade Marks in the digital age", with an emphasis on trends within the ecommerce space and is due to speak there again this summer.
Scott is a Partner in the Professional and Financial Risks department. He has a wealth of experience in defending a wide variety of claims and regulatory complaints against professionals, in particular lawyers and accountants. He has acted for major national and international firms, including a number of Top 200 UK law firms, as well as small and medium-sized professional services businesses and sole practitioners. Scott's experience spans defending multi-million-pound claims in the High Court and the Court of Appeal to lower value County Court proceedings, as well as complaints to Ombudsman services such as the Legal Ombudsman. Scott frequently advises on regulatory and compliance matters and has defended professional clients subject to interventions, investigations and formal disciplinary proceedings brought by their regulators, including the SRA and the ICAEW. Scott is an expert in professional indemnity insurance and is frequently instructed to advise on policy coverage disputes.
Shai Wade is a Partner and Head of International Arbitration at RPC.
Shai advises on international arbitration, serving both as counsel and arbitrator in complex and large-scale disputes.
Shai is an international arbitration lawyer with a particularly strong expertise in cases arising from the upstream oil and gas and energy sectors as well as in joint-venture, shareholder and partnership disputes and cases involving IT, telecoms, construction, infrastructure, mining and international sale of goods disputes.
He is the co-author of a leading textbook on LCIA arbitration and serves as counsel and arbitrator under rules of the major arbitration institutions, including the ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, ICSID and others.
Shai has represented clients from every continent around the world in disputes concerning a variety of national laws. He is an expert in international investment law regularly advising clients on their rights under international treaties.
Sian Morgan is a Partner in the medical and life sciences team, having joined RPC in June 2015. Sian has over 20 years’ experience defending clinical negligence claims in every discipline of medicine and has special expertise in high value and complex multi-party claims, as well as group actions.
She is regularly instructed to advise, represent and advocate for healthcare and care home clients in relation to inquests. She has a particular interest in the in-sourcing and out-sourcing of NHS services due to working with a number of clients who provide clinical services for the NHS.
Since joining RPC, Sian has also specialised in advising insurers on coverage and medical malpractice policy wording and providing guidance on NHS indemnity. Having developed an expertise in assisting healthcare organisations with CQC inspection appeals, she has also been instructed to assist two children’s homes in appealing OFSTED decisions.
Sian is known for her pragmatic and commercial advice, her sensitivity to clients’ needs and her straightforward but robust approach with opponents.
Head of Insurance. Partner dealing with insurance, professional negligence and commercial litigation. Simon has a particular expertise in handling claims against financial professionals and in advising insurers on complex coverage disputes.
Simon is a litigation partner and Head of Financial Disputes. He specialises in banking disputes and financial markets litigation, often against the largest investment banks. He has acted in claims involving for example derivatives, structured products, repo arrangements and CDOs. He regularly advises on disputes arising out of loan facilities and financial restructurings. He has acted for a wide variety of clients including hedge funds, corporates, HNW investors, financial institutions and insolvency office holders. He also has wide experience of multi-jurisdictional litigation arising out of complex fraud and asset tracing, as well as commercial contracts and shareholder disputes. Simon has assisted corporate clients with regulatory and internal investigations of both a domestic and cross-border nature.
Simon is a Partner in RPC’s Commercial team, with over 15 years' experience advising on and negotiating commercial contracts. Simon's practice has a particular focus on the Retail sector, having provided strategic advice to numerous household names in the sector over the past 10 years. His knowledge of the Retail sector has been further enhanced by spending over a year in-house at 3 global FMCG businesses.Simon specialises in advising clients on complex, business critical, outsourcings and services/goods agreements with a particular focus on supply chain and logistic arrangements and BPOs.
Partner
Simy Khanna is a Partner in the Professional Indemnity team. She specialises in professional negligence and coverage advice involving a range of professions. She has particular experience of dealing with claims against firms of solicitors, including a number of the Top 50 firms, arising from all aspects of private practice, including corporate and commercial transactions, real estate, and litigation. Simy also advises on coverage issues, including situations where there is a suspicion of fraud. She was involved with Zurich Professional Ltd v Karims, a leading case on solicitors' fraud. Simy spent one year on secondment in the Professional Indemnity team at QBE Insurance (Europe) Limited, dealing with claims against professions and related coverage issues.
Sukh heads RPC’s banking and finance team and handles a wide variety of financing transactions, acting for a core client base of banks, financial institutions, corporate borrowers, fund managers, corporate trustees, individuals and pension funds. A significant part of his work involves advising on international transactions with a cross-border element. Sukh advises on acquisition financing, real estate finance (both investment and development), investment funds, private equity investment, hedging, securitisation, project finance (including renewable energy financing), receivables financing and structured finance. His team also has experience in advising on the contingent asset arrangements for final salary pensions schemes, working alongside the pensions group, and on complex regulatory matters, acting alongside the regulatory group.
Of Counsel. A highly versatile lawyer with experience of a broad range of commercial disputes, Suzan has worked in the Middle East, Asia and South America.
Originally qualified as a barrister, Suzan is a dispute resolution specialist with additional experience working in-house at a Japanese trading house in Tokyo, and at a major bank in London. Prior to joining RPC, Suzan worked at international law firms in London, Dubai and Tokyo.
During a sabbatical from private practice, Suzan lived in Argentina where she taught law on the University of London's external LLB programme and ran workshops for Argentine lawyers.
Fluent in Arabic, French, Spanish and an advanced Japanese speaker, Suzan is an excellent communicator and has extensive experience explaining complicated legal concepts to non-native English speakers.
Partner. An experienced lawyer advising both customers and suppliers on a broad range of technology-focussed transactions, Tania has a particular focus on complex IT services, procurement, large scale technology projects and outsourcing.
Tania's work includes a broad range of IT transactions, such as cloud (such as SaaS, Paas and IaaS), artificial intelligence and robotic process automation, enterprise resourcing planning system implementations and managed services arrangements, software licensing, hosting, and IT support.
Tania helps to provide pragmatic commercial solutions for clients in all phases of the transaction. Her involvement extends throughout the procurement process with strategy development, preparation of proposal requests, evaluation of potential vendors, term sheet and contract negotiations, as well as ongoing contract management and deal restructuring.
Partner Tatiana Minaeva specialises in complex international commercial and sovereign arbitrations. She has more than 15 years' experience, having appeared as counsel in arbitrations for and against the governments of a number of CIS states. Tatiana is on the panel of many of the leading arbitral tribunals, including SIAC, HKIAC, ICC (Russian National Committee), and has acted as an arbitrator under the Rules of UNCITRAL and LCIA. She is widely published on issues relating to complex multi-jurisdictional disputes, and is recommended in Chambers, Legal 500 and Who's Who: Arbitration - Future Leaders.
Partner with specialism in commercial contract disputes and arbitration. Tim has recognised expertise in disputes involving financial services and insurance.
Corporate Partner: M&A in media; technology and retail sectors; corporate governance.Cases include: CSC US$90m acquisition of Fixnetix; Dialog Semiconductor PLC - €40m placing on Frankfurt Stock Exchange; Daily Mail & General Trust PLC merger of Digital Property Group (Primelocation.com and findaproperty.com) with Zoopla; £150m sale of Evenbase by Daily Mail and General Trust; Dialog Semiconductor PLC US$200m convertible bond offering. Company Secretary: Dialog Semiconductor PLC. Company Secretary Ceres Power Holdings Plc. Co-chair M&A practice group TerraLex. Member of the Management Board at RPC.
Partner. Tim provides support and expertise to clients involved in financially distressed or insolvent situations. He is a member of the firm's Restructuring and Insolvency team.
He acts for all stakeholders including insolvency practitioners, debtors, lenders, creditors and company directors. Tim advises on contentious and non-contentious matters and has significant cross-border experience.
Tim has particular expertise in the retail and insurance sectors.
Tim is Co-Chair of the Terralex Bankruptcy Practice Group.
Partner. Toby has extensive experience of advising insurers on a variety of claims including financial institutions, D&O, and professional indemnity claims, often involving parties in a number of jurisdictions and complex coverage issues. Toby also acts for insurers in relation to construction disputes and acts for construction professionals including design and build contractors, architects, engineers and surveyors.
Partner. Toby is a dispute resolution and litigation lawyer based in London. He specialises in insurance and reinsurance with a focus on energy (onshore and offshore), marine, power, mining, property and political risk/violence claims.Toby has significant experience advising energy insurers/reinsurers in respect of claims under construction and operational policies. He also advises insurers/reinsurers on political risk and political violence claims in various jurisdictions.Toby has an in-depth understanding of the practical and commercial aspects affecting the handling of claims and litigation, having spent time on two secondments in the London market.
Toby is a Managing Consultant in RPC's Regulatory and White Collar Crime team, specialising in financial crime investigations and compliance. He regularly works with large, multinational companies to assess and manage their financial crime risks, in sectors including engineering, oil and gas, aerospace, banking, agriculture, hospitality, retail and media. Toby also has extensive experience conducting internal financial crime investigations, including leading interviews, collecting and reviewing large volumes of digital material, drafting reports, identifying areas for remediation and preparing disclosures to prosecutors / regulators when necessary.
Hall of fame
Tom Hibbert is Global Head of RPC's Commercial Disputes practice and a senior partner in the Financial Disputes team. He specialises in investment banking disputes, particularly in the capital markets and arising from structured finance, derivatives and fund management, fraud related disputes and insolvency/restructuring. Tom acts primarily for institutional investors (continental/foreign banks and financial institutions, hedge funds, pension funds and investment vehicles for, for example, high-net-worth individuals) often in dispute with the largest investment banks.Significant cases: JPMorgan Chase v Springwell Navigation Corporation, acting for the investor in a $500m claim involving allegations of mis-selling, negligent advice and misrepresentation relating to emerging markets securities; acting for CF Partners in its breach of confidence claim against Barclays Bank and Tricorona arising from Barclays’ purchase of Tricorona; advising one of the largest financial institutions in Germany in claims arising from the ratings downgrade of a Swap Counterparty and contractual interpretation in relation to a synthetic CDO; advising one of Europe’s largest insurers in relation to claims for rectification of documentation for a synthetic CDO; acting for Bank St Petersburg in its successful proceedings against Vitaly Arkhangelsky; acting for the Federal Republic of Nigeria in actions against JP Morgan, Shell and ENI arising from the corrupt allocation of the OPL 245 oil block.
Partner. Tom typically defends construction professionals, with a particular emphasis on architects, engineers and design and build contractors. This has included advising on claims in Qatar and Europe, as well as in the UK. Tom also acts for the wider construction industry in a range of disputes from defects claims, payment notices and final account disputes. Tom is experienced in all forms of dispute resolution, including litigation, arbitration, adjudication and ADR. Contributing author to Insurance Law for the Construction Industry.
Hall of fame
Partner. Tom combines over 25 years of experience, business acumen and legal expertise in a broad-based commercial practice. His main focus is on joint ventures, outsourcing and commercial contracts (including supply, franchise, brewing, agency, sponsorship, marketing and distribution agreements).
Tom’s core expertise is advising on complex, valuable, innovative and long term commercial contracts which often underpin the client’s business and revenue. He has extensive experience across multiple sectors including retail, leisure and hospitality, real estate, financial services and business support services. He also uses his commercial expertise to support M&A and other deals on transformation and separation projects.
Tom is widely acknowledged in the market as a trusted business and strategic adviser who is “pragmatic, commercial and knows his stuff.”
He is the author of the UK chapter on outsourcing in PLC’s Global Guide and the Chambers Global Guide and a panellist and speaker at numerous conferences and events.
Victoria Sherratt is head of RPC's UK Property Team and is one of the market-leading experts in Property Insurance.
Having specialised in property insurance for nearly 20 years, Victoria has extensive experience of the UK Property Market.
She advises on the full range of first- and third-party property policies, including Property Owners, Operational PFI , Contractors All Risk and Jewellers Block, dealing with commercial and industrial risks both within the UK and internationally.
She has extensive experience advising on policy coverage and adjustment issues, defence of liability claims and subrogated recoveries ranging from jewellery theft to fires in waste processing, recycling and renewable energy plants.
Known for her commerciality, she has developed longstanding client relationships with leading UK insurers. She has a track record of providing concise, high quality advice to help insurers avoid/resolve disputes and limit exposure, and for delivering results when it matters.
Victoria is recommended by leading legal directories and insurance-focussed market surveys such as the Gracechurch Report.
Whitney Simpson is an Of Counsel who specialises in non-contentious consumer finance and payment related matters.
Whitney has experience across a wide range of consumer credit and payment related matters including consumer credit regulation and compliance issues, payment services regulation, regulatory support on corporate matters, advising new entrants to the consumer credit and payments market, and drafting of product terms including those relating to credit cards, store cards and personal loans.
Will Sefton specialises in defending professionals and company directors, and advising liability insurers on policy coverage.
Will and his team act for directors facing the full range of claims, including from liquidators/administrators and investors and those involved in unfair prejudice proceedings. He advises a number of the major D&O insurers on coverage issues on both commercial and financial institution risks.
Will also defends a range of professionals, in particular lawyers and brokers. In this field, Will has experience of defending claims against firms of all sizes, from international to local, from multi-million pound group litigation in the High Court to sub-£50k claims.
Will qualified in 2002 at Clifford Chance and became a partner at CMS Cameron McKenna LLP in 2011. He was one of the founding partners of the RPC Bristol office in January 2012.
Will is an Of Counsel in the Restructuring and Insolvency team at RPC. He specialises in advising all stakeholders (including banks, insolvency practitioners, creditors and boards of directors) on all aspects of domestic and cross-border insolvency and restructuring matters. Will has broad experience of advising clients in respect of distressed, turnaround and insolvent situations. Drawing on his previous experience as a corporate and commercial lawyer, Will has advised on acquisitions, disposals and restructurings of distressed companies and worked on substantive commercial disputes which have had an insolvency context. Will has particular expertise in advising on formal insolvency processes and reorganisations and restructurings conducted through schemes of arrangement (including in the insurance industry).
A partner in RPC’s transactional and regulatory insurance team, William has over 15 years’ experience advising clients and investors in the life and general insurance market on a full spectrum of transactional, reinsurance, commercial and regulatory matters.
William supports insurer, reinsurer, intermediary and investor clients on a range of corporate transactions and has particular expertise assisting clients with reinsurance arrangements, including legacy market transactions. His life insurance experience includes advising insurer and trustee clients on bulk annuity and other longevity risk transactions. He also advises clients on commercial, underwriting and distribution arrangements and has significant experience guiding clients through the myriad of insurance prudential and conduct regulations, as well as Lloyd’s of London-related matters.
His work highlights include:
Advising insurer and legacy market reinsurer clients on numerous successful legacy reinsurance transactions, including LPT, XoL, ADC and RITC structures, and connected collateral arrangements. William has also acted for clients acquiring legacy captive insurers and transferring insurance portfolios under Part VII of FSMA.
Assisting a number of MGA, insurer and reinsurer clients with the development and distribution of new and innovative insurance and reinsurance products and structures, including parametric insurance, life insurance ISAs and captive insurance structures.
Advising a large European life insurer on the reinsurance arrangements linked to its issue of an innovative mortality-linked catastrophe bond designed to protect the insurer against the impact of global pandemics.
Advising a large global insurer on its internal and captive group reinsurance covers and associated premium and claims allocation arrangements.
Advising a number of UK and overseas insurers on various intra-group and third party reinsurance arrangements, including quota shares, adverse development covers and excess of loss reinsurance arrangements.
Supporting a UK insurer client with understanding the PRA’s regulatory expectations in respect of climate change, providing an assessment of their current progress towards compliance and making recommendations for actions to take in order to meet the PRA’s climate change expectations.
Acting for the management team of a new challenger broker, including advising them on a significant investment from a US private equity firm, its regulatory establishment and operational arrangements, and a large renewal rights acquisition with associated employee transfer.
Advising a number of UK and international insurers on acquisitions of, investments in and sales of various MGA platforms and Lloyd’s businesses.
Advising a number of life insurers in relation to bulk annuity buy-in/out transactions, including through the use of fronting arrangements and captive (re)insurers.
Legal Director. Zoe Eastell is a highly experienced insurance lawyer with particular expertise in defending professional negligence claims against construction professionals including architects, engineers, project managers, property managers, surveyors and design and build contractors. She also specialises in defending those accused of professional misconduct, in particular surveyors before the Ombudsman and in RICS disciplinary cases. Zoe has been involved in many high value and complex disputes involving projects both in the UK and worldwide, and is experienced in all forms of dispute resolution, including litigation, arbitration, adjudication and mediation.
Zoe is often instructed in relation to complex policy coverage disputes, including disputes arising from professional indemnity and CAR insurance policies. She also specialises in advising insurers in relation to claims arising from property damage.