Commercial litigation: mid-market

Farrer & Co

Farrer & Co has ‘very well-recognised ability to deal with extremely high-profile cases’. The corporate and commercial litigation practice consistently handles large-value disputes, and it is particularly focused on cases involving complex company structures and asset holdings, shareholder conflicts and cross-border commercial contracts. Much of the team’s caseload encompasses international aspects, including both coordinating proceedings in multiple jurisdictions and cases with significant jurisdictional issues. Recent international disputes for the group cover the Middle East, South Africa and India, as well as the Channel Islands and South America. Kate Allass has notable expertise in corporate and shareholder disputes; the ’very strategic’ Jolyon Connell represents individuals, financial institutions, private banks and investment funds in major disputes; and Ben Longworth focuses on contractual claims, shareholder disputes and commercial litigation featuring allegations of breaches of directors’ duties. The second line of experienced practitioners includes ‘very good litigator’ Gerard Heyes and John Wilkinson, whose recent workload includes defending multiple sets of high-value proceedings. Other experienced practitioners are commercial disputes expert Charles Fursdon; the ’seriously-talented’ Blue Elliott; commercial litigation specialist Victoria Atkins; and Sally Mantell, who acts in cross-jurisdictional commercial disputes. ‘Excellent at art disputes’, William Charrington was raised to partner in May 2024.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘The team has exceptional knowledge and experience in litigation, and they are able to assemble external teams of subject matter specialists rapidly to strengthen defences.’
‘The whole team has an excellent bedside manner, and is able to navigate through extremely-painful processes while keeping clients calm and positive. They make the experience as pleasant as it is possible to be. Huge depth of knowledge and experience.’
‘Farrers has very well-recognised ability to deal with extremely high-profile cases. Extremely commercial and pragmatic.’
‘The disputes team at Farrer & Co is fantastic, and can go head to head with the absolutely top firms in very heavy disputes that are worth billions. The disputes team is small, which gives it a similar feel to working with an elite boutique rather than a part of a larger firm.’
‘The partners are absolutely top notch, as are the associates. They are also genuinely the nicest people to work with. They are very good at building a team with complementary skills and distributing responsibility within the team.’
‘Gerard Heyes - outstanding at investigating fraud and working out the relationships, the money movements, and the motivations - very good litigator too. Ben Longworth - excellent at case strategy, good decision maker and fantastic manager.’
‘Jolyon Connell - very good technically and very strategic; John Wilkinson is fantastic at running a team and has great judgement; William Charrington is a very good up and comer, and excellent at art disputes; Sally Mantell is way ahead of her seniority, hard-working and very bright; and Victoria Atkins is very thorough and really on top of her brief.’
‘Blue Elliott is a seriously-talented and tough diplomat.’

Key clients

BOXT

Work highlights

Defending Dr B R Shetty against $6bn High Court claims, arising out of the collapse of NMC.
Acting for the liquidators of a collapsed $1bn South African cryptocurrency exchange, in its attempts to trace and recover assets that are missing from the company.

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