Twenty Essex

Arbitration; Aviation; Banking and finance; Civil fraud; Commercial law; Cyber-security issues; Emergency and interim injunctions; Energy and natural resources; Insurance; Private international law; Shipping and shipbuilding; Sport

Andrew has extensive international commercial litigation and arbitration experience. His practice focuses on cybersecurity fraud, banking, shipbuilding, shipping, energy, insurance and sport. He is often instructed to appear both as junior counsel in complex, multi-jurisdictional, high-value cases and as sole counsel in the Commercial Court, Chancery Division and in arbitration.

Andrew is instructed in a number of high-value international fraud claims across a range of contexts including conspiracy, misappropriated funds by a director and transactions defrauding creditors within s. 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986.

He acted for the tenth defendant in a US$300m fraud concerning forged warehouse receipts in the context of commodities repurchasing agreements in Hong Kong and Singapore (led by David Lewis QC) which proceeded to a five-week trial in the autumn of 2021: E,D & F Man Capital Markets Limited v Come Harvest Limited & others [2022] EWHC 229 (Comm). They appeared in the Court of Appeal in this case on the application of the res inter alios acta principle: [2022] EWCA Civ 1704. During this case, they appeared in a jurisdiction challenge in the High Court, [2019] EWHC 1661 (Comm), [2019] I.L.Pr. 40, and the Court of Appeal, [2019] EWCA Civ 2073, concerning the role of multiplicity of proceedings in a Part 11 challenge. Further, Andrew acted as junior counsel to Philip Edey QC in Suppipat v Narongdej, which concerned a US$2 billion fraud relating to shares in a Thai wind farm and is cited in The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases of 2022.

Andrew also acts regularly as sole counsel. He recently appeared in a complex limitation case requiring a full day of cross-examination in the High Court, Giddens v Frost [2022] EWHC 1022 (Comm). Further, he appeared as sole counsel in Tonstate Group Limited v Wojakovski [2021] EWHC 1122 (Ch) in which he successfully argued that money held on account by solicitors were not ‘assets’ of the respondent to a freezing injunction and obtained indemnity costs, [2021] EWHC 1995 (Ch). Previously, Andrew appeared as sole counsel in Schenker Ltd v Negocios Europa Ltd [2018] 1 WLR 718; [2017] EWHC 2921 (QB) where he successfully extended the law so that the freight rule applies to airfreight. Andrew is also acting in a complex, nine-figure derivative action claim concerning the stripping of company assets by a director (led by Philip Riches KC) and an eight-figure international conspiracy claim concerning the Steinhoff Group (led by Andrew Ayres KC).

Andrew has experience of large-scale, complex arbitrations having acted in 11 inter-linked shipbuilding arbitrations (led by Duncan Matthews QC and Josephine Davies). Andrew was also part of a further Counsel team in the same dispute that successfully defended a s. 69 application in Jiangsu Guoxin Corporation Ltd (formerly known as Sainty Marine Corporation Ltd v Precious Shipping Public Co. Ltd [2021] 1 Lloyd’s Rep. 413, [2020] EWHC 1030 (Comm), in which Butcher J held that the prevention principle did not apply to the amended SAJ Form.

He regularly publishes articles for the New Law Journal (NLJ), the Journal of International Banking and Financial Law (JIBFL), the European Business Law Review and the Lloyd’s Maritime & Commercial Law Quarterly. He also sat on the Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR) Brexit Working Groups, which published papers on the impact of Brexit on private international law and on international arbitration.