Signature Litigation LLP

Abdulali Jiwaji

Abdul has over 20 years of experience in litigation, arbitration and contentious regulatory matters, in London and Hong Kong. He regularly handles disputes relating to investment funds, shareholder agreements, joint ventures and M&A transactions. He also advises on a broad range of commercial disputes, including in the insolvency and insurance context, such as warranty and indemnity claims. On the financial markets side, he has advised on disputes relating to financial products and mis-selling, regulatory investigations and compliance issues, drawing on time spent on secondment to the compliance team of a wholesale bank.

Becca Hogan

Becca has a wide range of experience in commercial disputes with a focus on banking and financial services. She specialises in high value complex matters including both High Court litigation and arbitration. Becca has extensive experience advising on regulatory matters including regulatory investigations involving the FCA. Becca’s recent experience includes acting for the former management of a Thai renewable energy company in a $2bn dispute defending allegations of fraud and conspiracy and acting for a large institutional and retail claimant group litigation against the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Bernhard Maier

Bernhard is Counsel at Signature Litigation specialising in commercial and investment treaty arbitration, with a particular focus on the natural resources, mining and technology industries. He also represents clients in contentious and non-contentious public international law matters and sits as an arbitrator. Bernhard is a member of the UK Attorney General’s C Panel of Public International Law Counsel to the Crown and a Professor at King’s College London. Bernhard is regularly invited to speak at leading industry conferences such as the Financial Times’ inaugural Cyber Resilience Summit. Bernhard has acted for claimant and respondent parties in a wide range of investment treaty and commercial arbitration matters (including under the Energy Charter Treaty and ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC, LCIA, VIAC, ASA, DIS and AAA Rules), as well as related cross-border litigation and enforcement issues. Highlights of Bernhard’s practice include acting for the claimants in a US$250 million shareholders’ dispute pertaining to a leading financial technology (fintech) company in Asia, securing wins for the governments of Barbados, Kenya and Slovakia in three separate high-profile investment treaty arbitrations and settling a nearly US$50m dispute for a client in the cloud computing business.

Colin Grech

Colin is a Senior Associate at Signature Litigation with a broad depth of experience, having advised clients in a wide array of contentious and non-contentious matters. Whilst Colin’s main focus is on dispute resolution, his non-contentious work involves large scale corporate and transactional matters. He has previously advised on complex trust and company structures, multi-jurisdictional corporate finance transactions, having acted on both sides for clients involved in large lending facility agreements, and also provides general corporate and commercial advice to local businesses in Gibraltar. Colin’s contentious practice has involved admiralty work including ship arrests, criminal work (where he has gained ample court experience) and he has advised on disputes in the following practice areas: corporate (including unfair prejudice petitions, breach of fiduciary claims against directors and disputes between shareholders), commercial (including breaches of joint venture agreements, disputes concerning private equity funds and he continues to advise one of the largest air-conditioning manufacturers in Europe in relation to an ongoing dispute with a national supplier), construction, landlord and tenant, employment (acting for both employer and employee), contract, trade licencing and distributed ledger technology. He frequently advises clients in a broad spectrum of financial services disputes which will often include elements of regulatory work. Colin also has experience in arbitrations, both commercial and international, having acted for clients in arbitrations under the LCIA Rules and in a very large investor-State arbitration under ICSID rules (acting for the investor). Colin also has a growing insolvency practice, having successfully acted for the cell liquidator of a private cell company against a regulated trust administrator in Gibraltar. This was the first time in the jurisdiction that an administration order (and subsequently a liquidation order) was granted by the Supreme Court against a regulated trust administrator. Colin’s contentious work has seen him regularly appear before the Supreme Court of Gibraltar (alone) and before the Gibraltar Court of Appeal (led). Colin was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2010 and was subsequently called to the Gibraltar Bar in 2011.

Daniel Spendlove

Daniel focuses on complex and high value commercial litigation and arbitration, both for claimants and defendants. He represents clients across a range of industry sectors, including financial markets, investment funds, mining, oil and gas, and insurance/reinsurance. Most of his cases are international in nature, and he has co-ordinated proceedings in numerous common and civil law jurisdictions. He is particularly experienced in disputes emanating from the CEE region. Daniel has been, and continues to be, involved in some of the largest and highest profile cases in the London disputes market. In recent years he has acted in several cases which have featured in The Lawyer’s “Top 20 Cases of the Year”. He has also advised in internal investigations and civil fraud cases. As a solicitor-advocate, Daniel has rights of audience in the Higher Courts of England and Wales. Daniel has published articles and delivered talks on a number of topical issues, and regularly comments in the trade and legal press. He is a Contributing Editor of “Getting the Deal Through: Complex Commercial Litigation”, and is a member of the Commercial Litigation Association, the International Bar Association, the British-Ukrainian Law Association, and the London Solicitor Litigation Association. Daniel also sits on the Litigation Committee of the City of London Law Society and is a member of the Global Partnership Family Offices.

Elliott Phillips

Elliott is an internationally recognised barrister (qualifying in England and Gibraltar in 2002) and specialises in global commercial litigation, offshore contentious trusts, estates and private wealth disputes. His practice also includes civil fraud, asset tracing, insolvency (including insurance), and shareholder disputes. Uniquely, Elliott is also able to accept instructions to appear before all Courts in England and Wales. Primarily based in Gibraltar, Elliott is regularly instructed by leading international firms in which Gibraltar proceedings are issued or where there is a strong Gibraltar connection to the litigation. Elliott has considerable experience in trust disputes and appears regularly before the Chancery Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar, the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council.  . Elliott’s cases involve, directions applications, removal of trustees, protectors and executors, challenging trustees’ decisions, breach of trust, advising trustees and beneficiaries on freezing order and Norwich Pharmacal applications in both domestic and in support of foreign proceedings, as well as advising on trusts in the divorce context. Beyond his chancery/commercial work, Elliott led a team in Gibraltar’s first ever abuse of dominate position claim under the Competition Act 2020 and related regulatory appeals up to Gibraltar final appellate level before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Elliott is also a proponent of pro-bono and has led the advocacy on behalf of many families in the context of inquests involving, health authorities, the Ministry of Defence, the Royal Navy, the Prison Service and law enforcement agencies including successfully securing a verdict of unlawful killing. Elliott is recognised in the Private Client Global Elite, a global directory of elite lawyers advising UHNW clients. In 2020 he was also recognised by Citywealth's Leaders List as on of the Top 100 Trust Litigators and Top 35 Private Client Litigators (Europe). In 2015, Elliott was elected as a Member of Parliament in Gibraltar and served as the Shadow Minister for Justice between November 2015 and November 2017 and as HM Leader of the Opposition from 4 December 2017 to 19 October 2019. Elliott was re-elected in 2019 for a further four years and served as Shadow Minister for Health during the Covid 19 Pandemic. Elliott retired from front line politics in November 2023 after 10 years in public life.

Graham Huntley

Graham is a Founding Partner of Signature Litigation and a senior specialist commercial and banking litigator. With his time at Signature and previously as a partner in a major international law firm, Graham has over 35 years’ experience in commercial litigation. Graham has been consistently ranked as one of the UK’s highest ranked commercial and banking litigators and has been involved in some of the most significant cases of recent years. Graham acts for banks, fund managers and life assurers in relation to M&A disputes, regulatory disputes and private investigations, shareholder and joint venture disputes, as well as a range of economic tort claims. Graham also has extensive experience of warranty claims and professional indemnity work for a range of corporate and financial institutions as well as for professionals. His experience of ADR includes three of the UK’s most significant mediations involving financial institutions. Graham is a past Trustee and President of the London Solicitors Litigation Association and has served as a member of several judicial and professional working parties. He has rights of audience in the Higher Courts in England and Wales. He also has a long-standing commitment to pro-bono work, having served as International Pro-Bono Partner for ten years at his previous firm. He is currently a Director of the London Legal Support Trust as well as Chairman of the Capital Cases Charitable Trust.

Hermes Marangos

Hermès is a leading international disputes lawyer having litigated, arbitrated or mediated in over seventy countries complex matters, including international coverage and underlying commercial litigation, particularly in the Americas, Mediterranean basin, MENA, West Africa and Asia.  He is regularly instructed as defence counsel on infrastructure, product and third party liability accounts for major corporates.  Hermès is also acknowledged as a leading expert on issues of political violence and cyber risks, having been involved on such matters from the development of relevant laws and regulations (from NMA464 onwards), litigating and arbitrating these risks internationally. He has qualified both as a barrister and solicitor of England and Wales. Hermès has led teams handling major litigation relating to financial institutions, liability, construction, engineering and energy. He also advises clients on regulatory and corporate matters. Hermès is fluent in seven languages, including Spanish and Portuguese.  He is a Vice President of the Insurance Institute of London and drafts critical wordings for the international market.  He also works closely with various bodies, including the Ministry of Justice, the Bar Council and the Law Society, in promoting English law and jurisdiction worldwide. Hermès is a main co-author of a leading textbook on Reinsurance Practice and the Law, co-author of the book War Risks and Terrorism, and contributor to textbooks on conflicts of law, property risks and Mass Torts in Europe.  He has also contributed to the Getting the Deal Through: Insurance Litigation 2021, and a further Guide on Frustration of Contracts.  He regularly writes on issues relating to private and public interational law and cross-border litigation, cyber disputes as well as continuing on publications on political violence, including war risks and terrorism. Hermès lectures and publishes widely on significant international conflicts of law matters and on specialist risks and legal and forensic investigations.

Ioannis Alexopoulos

Ioannis specialises in commercial litigation and international arbitration, including banking disputes, particularly those involving financial products, investment banking and derivatives, and also in commercial and business disputes with an emphasis on joint venture and shareholder disputes, shareholder protection, business break-ups and fraud. His key industry sectors are financial services, energy/oil & gas, shipping/international trade, telecoms, IT and infrastructure projects. The key geographies for Ioannis’ practice are Greece, the Balkans, Russia, the Middle East, Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa. His cases often involve an international element, usually with competing multiple jurisdictions and laws. His clients include banks or their clients, insurers, intermediaries, venture capitalists and equity investors and large corporates in England and internationally. Ioannis has extensive expertise representing clients in arbitrations under the ICC and LCIA rules, as well as others including SCC and UNCITRAL, and his cases often involve an international element, usually with competing multiple jurisdictions and laws. His clients include banks or their clients, insurers, intermediaries, venture capitalists and equity investors, and large corporates in England and internationally. Ioannis also advises in connection with investor state disputes.

Josh Wong

Josh is a highly experienced commercial and corporate litigation and international arbitration lawyer, with a particular focus in shareholder disputes, security, asset tracing and enforcement actions which involve multiple jurisdictions. He also has a strong State Aid, Public Procurement and Judicial Review practice. Josh acts for a broad range of clients including in the financial services, insurance, manufacturing and retail sectors and regularly acts for and against Chinese-based organisations, utilising his in-depth knowledge and experience of practicing in both China and Hong Kong. He has extensive expertise representing clients in ad hoc arbitrations under the ICC, LCIA, SCC and UNCITRAL rules. Josh is native Chinese, speaks fluent Cantonese and professional Mandarin, and is a regular speaker on issues relating to China at events organised by the China Britain Business Council, UK Trade and Investment and China Britain Law Institute. Josh is Chair of the Northern Chapter of the Hong Kong UK Business reform.

Julian Connerty

Julian has over 25 years of experience in handling the litigation, arbitration and mediation of international large scale commercial disputes, with particular expertise in international fraud, insurance industry disputes and regulatory investigations. In the area of commercial disputes Julian specialises in fraud and asset recovery actions. He has acted for and against governments, banks, insurers and individuals, and against the police and the Serious Fraud Office in matters arising out of bribery and corruption, theft, fraud, dishonesty, money laundering, and insider dealing. He has obtained and resisted freezing and restraint orders, and acted in extradition cases and requests for mutual judicial assistance. In the area of financial regulation, he has acted for regulated firms and individuals, and for and against the regulators, including the FCA and the PRA. Cases handled include breaches of the FCA principles, market abuse, perimeter breaches, fit and proper persons investigations, and disciplinary and authorisation cases, both before the High Court and the FCA’s Regulatory Decisions Committee.

Kate Gee

Associate

Kathleen Leslie

Kathleen is a Counsel at Signature Litigation who specialises in complex multi-jurisdictional commercial litigation and international insurance and reinsurance coverage disputes. Kathleen’s experience covers day-to-day handling of High Court litigation and supervision of foreign proceedings. She acts in a wide range of commercial disputes, including contractual and partnership disputes and financial services disputes. She also advises on international property and casualty losses, fraudulent claims and professional negligence claims. Kathleen is co-editor and contributing author of the Insurance Institute of London Research Study Group 258 publication War Risks and Terrorism.

Lucy Keane

Lucy is a counsel in the Gibraltar office of Signature Litigation specialising in international arbitration and commercial litigation. Lucy’s commercial litigation experience includes shareholder disputes; commercial contracts; international trade and shipping; construction disputes; product liability; professional negligence and regulation; energy disputes and insolvency. Lucy is also experienced in fraud and asset tracing/proceeds of crime applications and is often called on to give sanctions advice. She has extensive advocacy experience and has appeared in courts at all levels in the UK. Lucy is qualified in five jurisdictions – Scotland (Advocate); New York (Attorney at Law); England & Wales (Barrister, Inner Temple); Ireland (Barrister ); and Gibraltar (Barrister). She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb). She was recently appointed by the European Commission to its List of Arbitrators in Bilateral Trade Disputes with Third Countries.

Natalia Chumak

Natalia has 20 years of litigation and arbitration experience in complex and high value international disputes often involving several jurisdictions and multiple parties. Her legal career has a strong historic foundation in acting for clients from former Soviet Republics (Ukraine, Russia, Central Asian states). Natalia has extensive experience in a variety of commercial disputes including contractual disputes arising out of SPAs and related contractual documentation, shareholders’ agreements, investment agreements, option agreements, debt finance agreements and related security documentation, personal guarantees, partnership disputes (in relation to offshore private equity structures). Natalia also has extensive experience in disputes concerning asset valuation, oral high level agreements between international high net worth individuals in relation to joint investments, fraud claims and related asset tracing actions, claims arising out of liquidation of investment funds. Natalia has significant experience in both applying for and opposing the grant of freezing orders and other interim relief, jurisdictional challenges, enforcement of arbitral awards in offshore jurisdictions and related insolvency proceedings. Natalia’s experience spans across many industry sectors including oil and gas, water, aluminium, metallurgical, banking, electricity/infrastructure, argotrading, construction, aviation, automobile, railway, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, plastic manufacturing and others. Natalia has been a regular contributor to a variety of UK and overseas legal publications.

Neil Newing

Neil is an international arbitration lawyer and commercial litigator with particular experience in managing high value cross-border disputes, many of which involve multiple parties and multiple jurisdictions. His practice has a particular focus on the energy sector and oil and gas disputes. Neil has extensive experience in international commercial arbitration, including LCIA, ICC, CIETAC, SIAC, SCC, UNCITRAL, and ad hoc arbitration proceedings under the Arbitration Act 1996, as well as ancillary or enforcement proceedings before the English Courts, claims under investment treaties and cases concerning State entities and state immunity. Neil also has experience acting as advocate in arbitration hearings. Neil represents clients across all sectors but has particular expertise in the energy sector and oil and gas disputes and has acted in matters involving: exploration and production, joint ventures, oilfield services, pipeline transportation, investment treaty claims and disputes concerning carbon emissions. Neil also has considerable experience in corporate and finance disputes (particularly relating to M&A transactions and shareholders' agreements) and technology, media and telecoms disputes (including contractual disputes, royalty audits and disputes over rights).

Paul Brehony

Paul is a partner and has nearly 30 years’ experience in complex multi-jurisdictional commercial, banking, tax and insolvency related disputes and has acted in some of the largest and highest profile insolvencies of recent times. Paul’s practice focuses on both claimant and defendant mandates, and often has a heavy investigative bias. His clients include many of the leading accountancy firms and their officeholders, as well as individuals and corporates across a wide spectrum of specialist sectors, ranging from telecoms to insurance. Prior to joining Signature, Paul was a partner in the commercial litigation team at Stewarts for 10 years and before that he was at PwC Legal where he led the Commercial Litigation team. Previously Paul was at Simmons & Simmons and SJ Berwin.

Paul Grant

Paul is an associate at Signature Litigation and has a broad litigation experience, having advised clients in a wide range of contentious matters. Paul has experience in contentious trust matters and has appeared as a junior in the Chancery Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar and the Court of Appeal on matters relating to the administration of trusts and insolvency. Paul has been involved in construction, insurance, landlord and tenant and clinical negligence disputes. He has also advised banks on regulatory matters. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2017 and subsequently to the Gibraltar Bar in 2019.

Pietro Grassi

Pietro is a Senior Associate at Signature Litigation with experience in public international law, investor-State arbitration, and international commercial arbitration. He has advised and represented corporations, individuals, and States on matters of public international law before national and international courts and tribunals, as well as arbitral tribunals constituted under major arbitration rules (eg ICC, ICSID, LCIA, SCC, and UNCITRAL). He is also often engaged in pro bono litigation involving human rights issues. Pietro is admitted to practice in Brazil and Portugal, and is a Registered Foreign Lawyer with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in England and Wales.

Rory Spillman

Rory specialises in financial markets and complex multi-party international disputes, including allegations of breach of contract and contractual interpretation, breach of statutory obligations and fiduciary duties and fraud. His experience covers High Court litigation, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court proceedings and judicial review. Rory also advises on white-collar regulatory investigations. His experience covers FCA investigations and interviews, Upper Tribunal proceedings, and advising individuals with respect to FCA investigations into them and their employers. This includes advising and working with foreign legal teams in the wider context of multi-jurisdictional regulatory, criminal and civil investigations, including SEC and DOJ proceedings. Rory���s recent experience includes advising a lead claimant group made up of large corporations and individuals in the RBS Rights Issue Group Litigation and defending partners in a UK private equity firm, along with associated global entities, in a Commercial Court Claim alleging diversion of a business opportunity.

Simon Fawell

Simon has more than 20 years’ experience across a wide range of commercial and financial litigation and arbitration, with a particular focus on complex banking and structured finance matters. He also specialises in advising on issues related to cyber-breach recovery and related litigation as well as insurance/reinsurance disputes. His expertise encompasses broad spectrum of industries and subject areas including banking, structured finance, derivatives (in particular under the ISDA form), commercial mortgage-backed securities, asset financing, leasing, insurance and reinsurance, infrastructure, energy, private equity and funds. Simon has litigated before the English High Court, English Court of Appeal, UK Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, as well as in international arbitration matters under the rules of the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Chamber of Commerce and the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the Insurance and Reinsurance Arbitration Society, and ad hoc arbitration under the English Arbitration Act.

Tom Snelling

Tom has over 20 years’ experience in complex and high value commercial litigation and arbitration, spanning many business sectors and often involving multiple jurisdictions. He has a wide-ranging practice based on managing high value, commercial disputes in sectors such as consumer products and retail. Tom acts on some of the most high-value and complex mandates being brought before the English High Court, including acting for Privinvest in the US$2bn claim brought against Credit Suisse and Privinvest by the Republic of Mozambique, also known as the “Tuna Bonds” litigation. The claim relates to supply agreements and supporting financial instruments and guarantees entered into by state-owned enterprises dedicated to the development of Mozambique’s offshore Exclusive Economic Zone and supporting international investment into its oil and gas reserves. The claim engages allegations of bribery of Mozambican government officials. Tom acted for Privinvest companies in their successful March 2021 appeal of the question of whether claims against them were in the scope of arbitration agreements. He is also one of the lead partners at Signature advising a worldwide automotive manufacturer on diesel emissions-related litigation proceedings in the UK. An expert at predicting when problems are likely to come to the boil, Tom uses innovative and legal tech solutions to solve them when they do. He is a market leader in applying e-disclosure to complex commercial litigation, having trained a group of High Court judges on this issue. Recently, he advised a client on content to allow third party users to create and manage comprehensive, legally binding smart contracts, and associated liability exposure. Tom also represents clients in relation to financial services litigation, including advising a UK client on a potential dispute with one of the largest banking and financial services institutions in the world and the related FCA and the FOS regulatory regimes, as well as representing a UK-based financial advisory investment firm on a potential contractual dispute and debt recovery steps as regards one of Africa’s leading agri-fintech companies. Tom is also acting for two UK companies on the entitlement to specific performance from the English Courts against two non-UK financial services bodies. Tom’s work is also often international in scope. For example, he has been advising on requests under the UK Freedom of Information Act regime and in the making of related requests under legislation of an EU Member State and of an international organisation that aims to promote global financial stability. He is also advising a client on a potential bilateral investment treaty claim in an extractives industry context. Tom is also well-known for his longstanding commitment to pro bono work, having represented Save the Children, someone seriously injured in the London 7/7 bombings and the family of one of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing victims. In 2016, Tom brought a successful intervention in the UK Supreme Court on behalf of both the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.

Tsegaye Laurendeau

With over 10 years’ experience of international arbitrations under the LCIA, ICC, ICSID, CRCICA, HKIAC and UNCITRAL arbitration rules, Tsegaye regularly represents international corporates, States and State-owned entities in disputes arising in various parts of the globe, including North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Tsegaye has a particular focus on M&A, investment funds, international financing and joint venture disputes in the oil and gas, energy, mining, construction and telecoms industries. Tsegaye also acts for sovereign states and corporations in multilateral and bilateral investment treaty disputes. Tsegaye is a member of the Court and Arbitration Committee of the Lagos Court of Arbitration and a founder of AfricArb, an organisation comprising those in the legal profession with a common interest in arbitration and Africa and who seek to participate in the development of arbitration in Africa. Tsegaye is admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and the Paris Bar. He is a fluent English speaker and a native speaker of Amharic and French. He is also conversant in Spanish.