Twenty Essex

A leading commercial set of chambers, the barristers of Twenty Essex offer outstanding legal minds combined with a modern and commercial disputes experience.

Clients include major global companies, institutions, governments and their advisors from around the world and our barristers advise and appear as advocates in court or arbitration in relation to a broad range of company and commercial, EU, competition, and public international law disputes. Practices involve the preparation and conduct of litigation before a wide range of courts and tribunals, in the UK, in foreign jurisdictions as well as on the international stage.

The vast majority of the work is international in nature and we have well-established links to many overseas markets, including through our Asian hub in Singapore servicing clients throughout Asia Pacific and beyond.

The set is also home to a number of highly respected domestic and international arbitrators and mediators, some of whom were previously judges either in the UK or overseas.

Types of work undertaken:

Commercial dispute resolution: most members of Twenty Essex advise and act as advocates in relation to all types of commercial disputes, particularly in disputes with an international dimension. These may be resolved in the English courts, by institutional or ad hoc international arbitration, or by London maritime and commodity trade arbitrations. Members are experienced in representing overseas and large corporate clients and advising in complex, high-value and multi-forum litigation. The areas in which members accept instructions are: financial services (banking/compliance/regulation); international trade (including shipping, commodities and sale of goods); energy and natural resources; insurance and reinsurance; civil fraud; aviation; information technology, data protection; intellectual property; telecoms and media; ; shareholder, joint venture and partnership disputes; agency and sport.

Brexit, EU and competition: a number of members at Twenty Essex specialise in the substantive law of the EU (including Brexit) and in UK and EU competition law. Virtually all members deal with aspects of EU law regularly. A number have experience of working in the European Court of Justice, at the European Commission and for UK government regulatory authorities. Members appear before the: Competition Appeal Tribunal; Competition Commission; European Commission; European Court of First Instance; and European Court of Justice. In addition, members of the set appear regularly before domestic courts and tribunals to argue questions of EU and competition law. They also advise and represent Community institutions, member states, corporations and private individuals. Advice and the conduct of litigation both for and against the OFT and other regulatory bodies also forms a significant part of members work.

International arbitration: Twenty Essex has a strong reputation as a leading arbitration set. It has an exclusive team of 15 leading international arbitrators from around the globe. In addition, the set has 79 barrister members who act as advocates and arbitrators at all of the world’s major institutions. Its high-quality silks and juniors deal with all manner of international commercial disputes involving banking, shipping, international trade and energy, and investor trade disputes (among many others).

Insolvency and company: members of Twenty Essex are well known for their expertise in contentious and non-contentious restructurings (including schemes of arrangement), insolvency law and company law, spanning all business and industry sectors. In the context of restructurings and insolvency, members regularly advise and represent insolvency office-holders, companies, creditors, shareholders and company directors (both in the UK and abroad) and have been heavily involved in most of the major restructurings and insolvencies of recent years.

Public international law: Twenty Essex is pre-eminent in public international law. Two members of chambers have been principal legal advisers to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Others have been appointed judges ad hoc of the International Court of Justice, president and members of the North American Free Trade Association tribunals and members of tribunals under the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and have been engaged as legal adviser within the United Nations. Members provide legal and strategic advice to states and other parties and appear before English courts in cases in which issues of public international law arise, before international courts and tribunals including: The International Court of Justice; dispute settlement panels of the World Trade Organisation; the European Court of Human Rights; the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea; and international arbitral tribunals.