Dentons‘ team of ’hugely experienced and trusted’ specialist banking litigators provides clients with both litigation and regulatory support. The group’s broad expertise spans derivatives and ISDA interpretation disputes, agency and trustee issues, and securities litigation. Felicity Ewing is head of the financial markets litigation team and enjoys a growing reputation in the group litigation space. Thomas Leyland is a key contact, specialising in financial services disputes. Active in fintech disputes, Craig Neilson is adept at handling disputes involving payments and cryptocurrencies. Tom Hanson represents a range of financial institutions and acts for defendants in group litigation.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The Dentons banking litigation team is hugely experienced and trusted, with wide-ranging experiences and expertise across the whole banking spectrum. Teams tend to be small and close knit and well managed, with a very strong sense of collaboration and integration with the counsel team.'

  • 'Dentons have for a number of years been at the forefront of key disputes in the banking sector, with key roles in interest rate mis-selling, GRG and LIBOR manipulation. The quality is excellent.’

  • ‘The Dentons banking litigation team is aways a joy to work with; they are always calm and good humoured and provide real reassurance to the clients. In the latest case I worked with them the team was led by Felicity Ewing with stand-out associate Tom Hanson as the lead associate. I saw first-hand how well Felicity and Tom understood the client and what it needed and wanted very effectively and could get themselves into the mindset of the client.'

  • 'A stand-out partner here is Thomas Leyland, with whom I have worked for many years. He is unflappable, very thoughtful and strategic, and focuses on what matters. His experience is wide-ranging, from IT disputes for African banks to complex derivatives products sold by UK banks. He is someone I would often (and have!) recommend as a very safe pair of hands.’

  • ‘The team has an exceptional work ethic and a very strong grasp of the commercial realities of a situation (not just the legal position).’

  • ‘I rate both Felicity Ewing and Tom Hanson very strongly. They are easy to work with but know how to get the job done. Dentons also provides excellent support, and all of its lawyers are first class.’

  • ‘Dentons are strong on banking litigation, focused on retail claims rather than institutional claims.’

  • ‘Tom Hanson is a very good senior associate with excellent client skills and a pleasure to work with.’

Key clients

  • Capita
  • Currency Index Limited
  • DEPFA Bank
  • Dye & Durham Corporation
  • Financial Conduct Authority
  • Financial Services Compensation Scheme
  • HSBC
  • JSC TBC Bank
  • Lek Securities UK Limited
  • Liontrust Asset Management
  • Morgan Stanley
  • NatWest
  • UBS

Work highlights

  • Representing the Financial Conduct Authority in a judicial review brought by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking a cross-party collection of 117 MPs.
  • Acting for a major retail bank and a number of its subsidiaries in its defence of a claim by approximately 200 mortgage customers who are challenging the fairness of a mortgage product under the unfair relationships provisions of the Consumer Credit Act.

Lawyers

Leading associates
Leading associates with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Felicity Ewing, Louisa Caswell

Other key lawyers

Thomas Leyland, Craig Neilson, Tom Hanson