Charles Kimmins KC

Banking and financial servicescommercial dispute resolutionenergy and infrastructuregeneral commercial and insuranceinsurance and reinsuranceinternational arbitrationshipping and commodities, Twenty Essex

Work Department

Banking and financial services Commercial dispute resolution Energy and infrastructure General commercial and insurance Insurance and reinsurance International arbitration Shipping and commodities

Position

Charles is co-Head of Chambers. Charles specialises in commercial law, and represents clients in both court and arbitration proceedings. His cases tend to be high value and complex, and often involve multiple sets of proceedings in several jurisdictions.

He is recommended in a wide array of disciplines in Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500, including international arbitration, commercial dispute resolution, banking and financial, energy, insurance and reinsurance, shipping and commodities.

Charles has represented clients in a wide variety of disputes before the Supreme Court, Privy Council, Court of Appeal and High Court.

He has also appeared in many arbitrations under many different rules, including ICC, LCIA, SIAC, HKIAC, ARIAS, LMAA, GAFTA, FOSFA, IPE, RSA, LME and the City Disputes Panel. He has particular experience of appeals from awards under s.67, 68 and 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (a subject on which he regularly lectures). He also accepts appointments as an arbitrator in commercial disputes. Recent cases relating to arbitration include Tenke Fungurume Mining v Katanga [2021] EWHC 3301 (successfully resisting a s.68 application), STA v OFY [2021] EWHC 1574 (successfully resisting an application for an extension to time to challenge an award).  Charles acted for the LCIA in the Supreme Court case Halliburton v Chubb [2021] AC 1093, dealing with issues of arbitrator bias.

Charles was nominated for ‘International Arbitration Silk of the Year’ for both the Chambers UK Bar Awards 2019 and The Legal 500 UK Awards 2020.

He has been involved in numerous cases involving banking and investment disputes, company law and financial services. He has particular experience in derivatives. He also has significant experience in disputes arising in the private equity sector. Between 2018 – 2020, much of his time was spent on a very substantial multi-billion dollar multi-jurisdictional private equity dispute, in which he appeared in numerous hearings in London, Hong Kong, Cayman and Nevis.

He has appeared in numerous cases involving energy and natural resources, and has particular experience in the petroleum and natural gas industries. Likewise, he has acted in many insurance/reinsurance disputes, for both insured/reinsured and insurers/reinsurers, as well brokers. He has been involved in many leading cases in the fields of commodities and shipping, including shipbuilding disputes and disputes under MOAs.

Charles also has extensive experience in civil fraud cases, including cases involving fraud in the banking and shipping sectors. He is instructed in applications for urgent relief arising out of fraud claims.

https://www.twentyessex.com/people/charles-kimmins/

Mentions

London Bar

Banking and finance (including consumer credit)

HALL OF FAME3

Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex ‘Excellent attention to detail with an ability to make very difficult and complex issues seem quite straightforward.  Tenacious and a good advocate.'

London Bar

Commercial litigation

HALL OF FAME4

Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex 'Charles' advocacy is persuasive, commanding, and brutally effective. He zeroes in on the core issues, has sharp attention to detail, and is exceptionally user friendly and personable.'

London Bar

Commodities

HALL OF FAME2

Charles Kimmins KC – Twenty Essex ‘Charles is a strong leader and an excellent advocate and in planning and strategy, and there are very few counsel with his depth of knowledge.’

London Bar

Energy

HALL OF FAME3

Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex ‘Charles is extremely user friendly, adaptable and hardworking. His advice and paperwork are of the highest standard and his oral advocacy is superb.’

London Bar

Insurance and reinsurance

HALL OF FAME3

Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex ‘Charles has a really great way of distilling complex matters so that they are readily understandable. He is also very good with numbers so where one has technical matters that require, for instance, significant input from accounting experts, he is very capable in this regard and able to probe matters effectively.’

London Bar

Shipping

HALL OF FAME3

Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex ‘A razor-sharp legal mind who cuts to the heart of the most complex of disputes.’

Asia Pacific: The English Bar

Shipping and commodities

HALL OF FAME1

Charles Kimmins KC–Twenty Essex 'Charles knows the law relating to commodities trading very well - probably the most able commodities silk around.'