Selborne Chambers

Romie is a specialist in commercial and property law. His experience covers a vast range of work in these fields, and the breadth and specialisation of his practice and career give him a commanding position. He is frequently instructed in cases involving complex issues and commercial sensitivity, often calling for original presentation and the identification of novel solutions. His practice includes considerable advisory work, and he has extensive experience of international commercial arbitration. Romie has been described as ‘a very big name’, and remains ‘very much in demand’. Complimentary quotes include: ‘a terrier of a litigator’ who is ‘quick to grasp the technical details and deploy them to devastating effect in cross-examination’; ‘good for unusual or difficult cases requiring a novel but hard-hat approach’; ‘gets his teeth stuck in and keeps shaking – he can blast holes in the other side’; ‘When a case depends on a forceful cross-examination technique, there is nobody better’; a highly forceful silk who fights doggedly for client interests’. Never far away from major cases, he has acted in a number of significant matters as can be seen from the selection of notable cases that follows: Barnsley v Noble [2016] EWCA Civ 799 (part of the long running dispute arising out of the demerger of the Noble Organisation); Marlbray Ltd v Laditi [2016] EWCA Civ 476 (Validity of contract for the sale of land); Tchenguiz v Grant Thornton UK LLP [2016] EWHC 865 (Comm) (Enforcement of settlement agreement by a third party); Coral Reef Ltd v Silverbond Enterprises Ltd [2016 EWHC 874 (Ch) (Judicial precedent: Are Masters bound to follow a decision of the High Court?); The Creative Foundation Ltd v Dreamland Leisure Ltd & Others [2015] EWHC 2556 (Ch) (The case involved a very valuable graffiti by a well-known artist painted on a flank wall. The issue was whether if the wall was removed as part of the tenant’s repairing obligations, the wall and the painting belong to the landlord or the tenant); Ramsay v Love [2015] EWHC 65 (Ch) (successfully defeated a claim brought by the well-known chef and television presenter, Gordon Ramsay, that he was not bound by a personal guarantee for the rent of his hotel and restaurant, (The York & Albany); Harb v HRH Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz [2015] EWHC 3155 (Ch) (Concerned sovereign immunity and an oral agreement to Pay £12m and provide transfer of two properties thought to be worth a similar amount); Group Seven Ltd v Allied Investment Corporation Ltd [2015] EWCA Civ 631,[2014] EWHC 2046 (Ch), [2014] 1 WLR 735 (A multimillion-euro fraud case concerning whether a freezing injunction does not extend to assets belonging to a company owned or controlled by defendant. Romie appeared with Isabel Petrie, also of Selborne Chambers, in the Court of Appeal which dealt with the Court of Appeal’s willingness to review a trial judge’s findings relating to foreign law and the evidence of foreign lawyers); Zarbafi v Zarbafi [2014] EWCA Civ 1267 (a family dispute concerning (inter alia) the beneficial ownership of three valuable properties; Serious Organised Crime Agency v Szepietowski [2013] UKSC 65 [2014] AC 338 (Remedy of marshalling not available to second mortgagee where the common property did not secure a debt owed by the mortgagor); Mellor v Partridge [2013] EWCA CIV 477 (Court of Appeal considered the constituents of fraudulent misrepresentation claim relating to the sale of a business, as well as the application of the reflective less doctrine to quantum); Cohen v Nekrich (A 2 week trial in Gibraltar involving allegations of fraud exceeding £50m in relation to oil trading with Russia)

Called 1970; QC 1995.

Chancery Bar Association; Professional Negligence Bar Association; Property Bar Association; London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association.