Charles Fussell & Co LLP

Charles Fussell & Co LLP combines the expertise of a City firm with the more hands-on, partner-led and cost-effective approach of a boutique firm. As the firm focuses only on contentious matters it is much less constrained than competitors on the type of entity it can act against.

The firm: Charles Fussell & Co LLP was established in 2007 as a boutique litigation firm. The firm’s expertise is in commercial litigation, often involving multiple jurisdictions and high-value claims. It also undertakes all forms of alternative dispute resolution and advises clients on ways to avoid disputes. The firm is led by former barrister and Herbert Smith litigator Charles Fussell, with support from solicitors and staff with litigation experience gained from leading City firms. It believes in staffing cases with small and efficient teams and focusing efforts on problem solving and understanding the commercial context of the dispute. Commercial conflicts are an ever-increasing problem with many larger law firms, and Charles Fussell & Co LLP prides itself on being conflict-free. It regularly instructs counsel from the leading sets of chambers across the firm’s specialisms and has good links with leading litigation service providers, including forensic accountants, e-disclosure providers and crisis/litigation PR firms. It is particularly adept at working with retained advisers and as part of multiparty and multidisciplinary teams. It has significant experience of working alongside many of the leading UK and US firms in large and complex cases.

Types of work undertaken: The firm deals with all kinds of commercial litigation, arbitration and expert determination. Many of the firm’s matters involve at least one or more parties based overseas or where the case has a multi-jurisdictional element.

Its main emphasis is on disputes emerging from the financial services sector, especially disputes with banks and financial institutions (such as disputes over guarantees) where larger firms cannot act. It also deals regularly with cases of commercial fraud and of professional negligence, especially of solicitors in relation to corporate and property transactional work. It also acts regularly in cases emerging from disagreements between businesses over long-term service agreements and between shareholders and partners in businesses.

The firm also frequently works alongside other law firms in very large disputes, where it will be retained to act in relation to a discrete part of a case or for one of many parties. In this way the firm has been involved in at least one of the top 20 leading cases in London for the past five years, including Berezovsky v Abramovich, JSC JTA Bank v Ablyazov, Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development v Al Refai & Others, Peak Hotels v Tarek Investments, The Libyan Investment Authority v Goldman Sachs and The Libyan Investment Authority v Societe Generale.