England - Yorkshire And The Humber • Dispute resolution

Stewarts Law LLP

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Stewarts Law LLP has ‘fantastic strength and depth in heavy commercial litigation’, acting on high-profile and high-value claims, with expertise in corporate and commercial litigation, civil fraud, cartel damages, and IT disputes. Blue-chip clients including Marks & Spencer frequently instruct the team. ’Fantastic lawyer and great leader‘ Mo Bhaskaran is the head of the team, specialising in fraud cases. ’Super litigator’ Kate Pollock is a key practitioner within the team, acting on some of the highest-value competition damage claims nationally.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Fantastic strength and depth in heavy commercial litigation, running a massive civil fraud case with elements spanning multiple jurisdictions.’

  • ‘Mo Bhaskaran has excellent strategy, leadership and commercial judgment. Martin Walsh is a first-rate lawyer on top of the case and with excellent drafting. Nick Haworth and Pia Mithani are dedicated team players robustly promoting the client's interests. Ed Holmes is a very experienced and technically excellent associate. Kate Howard and Hannah Jones work tirelessly as junior associates with amazing organisational skills.’

  • ‘One of the strongest teams in the North - they have an excellent mix of partners and associates with in-depth expertise in both general commercial litigation and competition litigation, and can call for back-up from the London team where necessary. Very collegiate atmosphere among the team. They are brilliant at constructing a case - whether large-scale group litigation or acting for individual corporates/individuals.’

  • ‘Kate Pollock is a superb litigator -she has great commercial acumen and is an A1 communicator. She always has the client's confidence.'

  • 'Stuart Carson is a fairly new partner but always on top of the detail and builds a very good rapport with both clients and counsel.'
  • 'Matthew Tighe is very diligent and personable, and knows his way round all the minutiae of civil procedure.’
  • ‘Pia Mithani is excellent with great judgment and real attention to detail. Mo Bhaskaran is also very astute and commercially minded.’

  • ‘Mo Bhaskaran is the team leader - he is a fantastic lawyer and a great leader. Martin Walsh and Nick Haworth are also excellent.’

Key clients

  • Marks and Spencer
  • Asda Stores Limited
  • Argos (now owned by Sainsbury’s)
  • Wm Morrisons Supermarkets plc
  • Centrica plc, British Gas
  • QVC
  • LaFargeHolcim Limited
  • Gemalto NV and others
  • Public Institution for Social Security, Kuwait

Work highlights

  • Represented ASDA, Argos and Morrisons in the £500m high-profile and long-running interchange fee litigation against Mastercard.
  • Acting for Gemalto in €multi-hundred million claim following the European Commission’s €138m fine against Infineon, Philips, Samsung and Renesas.
  • Acting for Marks and Spencer in follow-on damages claim relying on European Commission’s imposition of €3.73bn fines on truck manufacturers for cartel operations.

Lawyers

Hall of Fame

The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.

Mo Bhaskaran

Mo Bhaskaran

Hall of fameStewarts Law LLP

Partner and Co-Head of Commercial Litigation Mo co-heads the commercial litigation department. Mo specialises in large scale fraud and corruption investigations and recovery action (including working with enforcement authorities in the UK and overseas), as well as high-value commercial disputes relating to a range of commercial matters including fraud, IT and PFI projects, product recall and corporate claims arising from acquisitions. He acts on emergency injunctions (search and freezing injunctions). His clients span sectors as diverse as government, manufacturing, financial services, technology, energy and health. Cases in which Mo has advised include defending a major public sector body from claims exceeding £100m in relation to the cancellation of a large PFI project. He also acted on a number of internal investigations into fraud and corruption including historic corruption/fraud by a senior director within a FTSE 250 listed group, defending an HMRC investigation arising as a result and pursuing claims against the director responsible, as well as a significant $1bn multi-jurisdictional investigation into systemic corruption by a foreign public official.

Next Generation Partners

Nick Haworth

Nick Haworth

Stewarts Law LLP

Partner Nick is a partner in the Commercial Litigation team with extensive experience of high-value and complex commercial disputes and investigations for large public and private sector organisations. Nick’s expertise includes advising on corporate and shareholder disputes, actions against directors, mainstream contractual and supply chain disputes, commercial fraud actions, restrictive covenant claims, pursuing and defending applications for injunctive relief, trade mark actions and media disputes. He also has experience of advising on live procurement projects that have run into difficulty, and managing and advising on associated risks. Cases in which Nick has advised include: Acting on ultra high value complex commercial (£1bn plus) cases including acting for a global IT systems supplier in arbitration proceedings against the UK government, which progressed to an 80-day hearing involving evidence from over 100 witnesses Pursuing a damages claim arising out of an alleged cartel arrangement, a case that was in court for over 30 days.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Mo Bhaskaran

Other key lawyers

Kate Pollock, Nick Haworth, Ed Holmes, Pia Mithani, Hannah Jones, Stuart Carson, Matthew Tighe, Martin Walsh