Watson Farley & Williams has expertise across a range of cases. Transport and energy disputes form the cornerstone of the practice, while the team has also seen an uptick in tech-related cases that include data and cybercrime issues. Charlotte Bijlani is 'a lawyer who gets work done on time but with high quality' and is particularly renowned for her international arbitration work. Soraya Corm-Bakhos has been kept busy handling energy and transport disputes and Thomas Whitfield has been highly active in aviation cases.
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Charlotte Biljani & Thomas Whitfield provide excellent advice and responsive service’
‘This law firm provides decent quality of legal services in a timely manner reflecting their profound knowledge and experiences. Further, they are trying to be more flexible to meet client`s needs. ’
‘Charlotte Bijlani is a lawyer who gets work done on time but with high quality. In addition, she's flexible as to meet client`s needs. ’
- 'Watson Farley Williams boasts a highly exceptional dispute resolution team that is clearly very well versed in its expertise. The firm clearly invests heavily in its talent at the senior leadership level, which shines through their legal capabilities in the services they provide.'
‘ The team has extensive legal knowledge and are very well experienced and demonstrated that expertise throughout the case. Our case was handled very professionally by all means. Each step was thoroughly planned and explained to us at each stage. The teams tactical skills were very well demonstrated, they were able to draw reasonable, logical plans and conclusions and legal strategies that support our position.'
‘The team has a great deal of experience and were very dedicated, committed and responsive at all stages. One of their strengths is strategic thinking, building the case and planning ahead to resolve the case in our best interest.'
‘The WFW team have worked well with our team to understand the commercial issues around the cases they handled for us. They brought fresh insights for us, and of course, detailed technical input as it related to the jurisdictions we were enforcing in. Overall, very professional, approachable, and clear advice we could action.’
‘Charlotte Bijlani has provided excellent support to us during our case. Charlotte is supported by an excellent team, and has given excellent guidance supporting me. I take the technical excellence as read, I really value the clear way that technical advice is made actionable for the business.’
Key clients
- Chinese State Construction
- GASL Leasing Ireland No. 2 Limited (Genesis)
- Gulf Wings
- Limitless
- Sahara International Petrochemical Company (SIPCHEM)
- Siraj Power Holding Limited
- Société Générale
- Yanbu Cement Company
- Fortescue Future Industries Middle East Management Limited
- National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri)
Work highlights
- Acted for Gulf Wings FZE in its claim against A&K Trading Limited before the DIFC Court of Appeal, securing a favourable judgement for the client.
- Advised Yanbu Cement Company in a successful arbitration in relation to a challenge made to an LCIA Award in Yanbu’s favour.
- Advised the lessor of an Airbus 319-100 commercial aircraft operated by a Russian airline/lessee in DIFC Court, English High Court and LCIA proceedings and successfully repossessed the aircraft following the imposition of Russian sanctions.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Charlotte Bijlani