Stephenson Harwood

Sue is an experienced and well-respected litigator whose expertise is recognised in the leading directories. Her practice is  broad, encompassing finance litigation, sanctions, civil fraud and corporate and commercial disputes. Clients value her responsiveness and her commitment to finding solutions to complex problems. She leads the firm's sanctions practice and co-heads the firm's "technically strong" finance litigation team. Sue is recognised as a leading individual for commercial litigation and banking litigation in Legal 500 2023. Clients have described her as 'a very experienced litigation partner, with the magical combination of being a tough litigator while also being easy and fun to work with!’ and as 'a force of nature and a brilliant litigator. While she has excellent common sense and an instinctive grasp of the commercialities of a case, she is also a talented lawyer and team leader.’ (Legal 500 2023). Meanwhile, she is described as "excellent" in Chambers UK 2023. Sue also leads the firm's sanctions practice, having practised sanctions law for over 14 years. She advises on a range of contentious and non-contentious issues arising in relation to the Russian, Iranian, Libyan and Syrian sanctions regimes. There are very few firms in the City which can match Stephenson Harwood's experience in this area.

Genevieve acts for corporate and individual clients in a broad range of commercial disputes. She frequently represents companies in the banking and finance, private equity, hospitality and leisure, retail, media and telecoms sectors. Her expertise spans pre-action strategic advice to directors, shareholders and company founders through to high value, multi-jurisdictional High Court litigation. Genevieve has a leading banking and finance litigation practice as well as a specialism in competition private enforcement actions, and is currently representing over 1,000 companies in group claims against Visa and MasterCard. She is equally at ease acting for claimants and defendants, and frequently works with third party litigation funders. Recent work includes: strategic advice to founder of high profile media business involving breach of directors’ duties and unfair prejudice to minority shareholders; defending a £50m+ breach of warranty claim; breach of contract and rectification action acting for PE fund; advising US hedge fund in relation to material adverse effect clause; acting for a major global trust company in several multi-jurisdictional actions involving allegations of fraud; advising corporate director in relation to round tripping allegations; providing advice on potential liabilities arising from the Grenfell Tower Fire to global bank. Genevieve is co-chair of the Cambridge Forum on European Collective Redress, a member of the International Bar Association and a frequent conference speaker.

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