Commercial Dispute Resolution
UK Bar Guide 2025 : London (Bar)
Band 1
Email address
[email protected]Contact number
(020) 7813 8000Chambers Review
Essex Court Chambers is regularly involved in some of the most high-value domestic and international commercial disputes. Recent highlights include: The Czech Republic v Diag Human and Josef Stava; Gorbachev v Guriev;and BAT v PwC, amongst numerous other high-profile cases. The set has a deep pool of experts capable of handling commercial cases arising from many different legal areas, such as banking, civil fraud, energy and shipping, to name but a few. An interviewee notes: “The team at Essex Court is peopled with barristers who are quick thinking and able to cut through complicated issues in order to find solutions”.
Je Ferrigno is the senior clerk.
Strengths
Provided by Chambers
"Senior clerk Joe Ferrigno leads by example. He is utterly professional, very friendly and highly communicative."
"Team leader Jack Wood is brilliant. He is responsive, really sensible and someone who is always really commercial on fees."
"The clerks are very good at identifying good, appropriate people at short notice. Their response time is brilliant and they know who I am and what the case is when I ring them up."
"The clerks are friendly, competent and responsive. We deal with Team Leader Ollie Butcher a great deal. He gives up a lot of his time to us and clearly enjoys the full confidence of his boss, Joe."
"Their clerks are excellent. They are always available, proactive and willing to get stuck in at the deep end to resolve any issues with opposing clerks, opposing counsel or the court."
"Senior clerk Joe Ferrigno leads by example. He is utterly professional, very friendly and highly communicative."
"Team leader Jack Wood is brilliant. He is responsive, really sensible and someone who is always really commercial on fees."
"The clerks are very good at identifying good, appropriate people at short notice. Their response time is brilliant and they know who I am and what the case is when I ring them up."
"The clerks are friendly, competent and responsive. We deal with Team Leader Ollie Butcher a great deal. He gives up a lot of his time to us and clearly enjoys the full confidence of his boss, Joe."
"Their clerks are excellent. They are always available, proactive and willing to get stuck in at the deep end to resolve any issues with opposing clerks, opposing counsel or the court."
Notable Practitioners
"When I have the most difficult and largest commercial dispute, he is number one on my speed dial. He is a class apart at the top of the Commercial Bar."
"A real heavyweight barrister for big-ticket banking litigation and fraud. There's nothing he hasn't seen or done."
"Ciaran is one of the best. He is absolutely outstanding and a superb cross-examiner."
"Ciaran's ability to focus on the minutiae surrounding legal arguments whilst not losing sight of the big picture is impressive. He is a trusted adviser with a strong track record of results."
"One of the cleverest and easiest to work with barristers around."
"Tom is brilliant. He really gets into the detail of a case and has a real drive to deliver top-notch work."
"He’s truly exceptional and incredibly tactically astute. An outsider would assume that he is already a KC, and I’m sure he will be soon."
"Clever, incredibly diligent, good company and very good humoured."
"Tom is an excellent senior junior, who is very confident on his feet. I think he has a great future ahead of him as a potential leader."
"Graham is the best conflict of law silk at the Bar."
"He is very experienced and highly knowledgeable."
"A future superstar."
"James is particularly good at creative legal arguments."
"James is quite simply a genius in the field. Watching him in court is awe inspiring; he commands the respect of all in the courtroom."
"He can turn his hand to any big-ticket litigation, and is never behind the curve. He's technically brilliant, but also able to distil complicated concepts into punchy advice."
"Nathan is one of the nicest KCs I've ever worked with. Extremely bright and very good strategically, he is a real team player."
"Nathan is a sophisticated, client-friendly and highly effective senior counsel."
"Nathan is charm personified. He is very good with lay clients and good at delivering strategic advice."
"Completely on top of the detail, concise, charming and forceful, he is a pleasure to deal with."
"He is absolutely fantastic."
"A delightful human and someone with one of the sharpest minds at the bar. He has the ability to translate the case into one simple, compelling and understandable story for the court."
"He is a very skilful cross-examiner and an enticing advocate."
"He's very good at reading the courtroom."
"An excellent advocate, who is sharp-witted and highly professional"
"Paul is a brilliant cross-examiner, who has a measured advocacy style that affords him great credibility."
"Anton is bright, driven and able to distil complicated matters into a simple solution."
"He's very analytical, highly strategic and good on his feet."
"Anton is a highly impressive advocate, in both his written and oral advocacy, who is user-friendly and a great pleasure to work with."
"Accessible and approachable, with great judgement."
"James has a lovely manner with the court and a nice conversational style that goes down well. He is also highly responsive and his bedside manner is impeccable."
"He really gets into a matter and is practical in everything he does."
"Richard is a standout litigator and an extremely strong advocate. He is a highly capable advocate and adviser, who is very responsive."
"He is very adept at client handling."
"Anna is solutions-focused, pragmatic and incredibly enjoyable to work with."
"Anna is brilliant on the law, incredibly creative when handling difficult matters and an absolute fighter. She's also unbelievably knowledgeable."
"Forthright and no-nonsense. She is excellent."
"She is very good on jurisdictional problems."
"Huw is an incredibly good team player. Sharp and humorous, he doesn't take himself too seriously and treats everyone with equal respect."
"He's got excellent judgement about how to position points with judges and tribunals."
"Huw is good with judges and hits the right tone. He reads the room very well."
"He is incredibly clever and quite brilliant strategically."
"He's a terrific advocate; succinct, clear and concise."
"He is the go-to man for anti-suit injunctions."
"Extremely experienced and a very safe pair of hands, he is extremely good on his feet."
"He can get details across in a succinct way and has a crisp and concise form of advocacy that conveys a lot of information logically and neatly."
"Tim is incredibly clever but also very commercial. He's really into the details and strategy of a case."
"He is a very polished and elegant advocate, but he can really go on the aggressive if needs must. If you've got a case involving difficult legal points, he's your man."
"He's utterly brilliant and fiercely committed to his client and the case."
"Really good with clients and extremely strong technically."
"He is worth his weight in gold for the contribution he makes to any covenant case."
"Daniel is particularly good at the important strategic client meetings."
"He is completely on top of the detail, incredibly sharp-witted and someone who understands how to get his point across to the judge."
"He is very good at selecting the best points and getting them across in a succinct way that gives the judges what they want to hear. What he says is really effective."
"Clear, concise and persuasive, he has a really good style of advocacy."
"She is great technically and really easy to work with."
"She is good at providing legal analysis that the client can understand."
"Emily is phenomenal. She is a brilliant advocate, who is great on the strategy."
"Felix is a very smart guy, who is easy to work with and has a good manner. His written work is very strong."
"A very clever and knowledgeable advocate, who is diligent and commercially aware."
"Incredibly bright, tactically astute and an excellent draftsman."
"Stuart is a meticulous junior. He's confident and precise in his advocacy."
"He is a very smooth and polished advocate."
"Responsive and collaborative, he can hold his own with silks."
"She writes beautifully, is good at seeing the wood for the trees and is very good at rolling her sleeves up."
"She is a very hard-working and reliable junior."
"Catherine is excellent on all fronts. She has unbelievable resilience and always puts in the extra yards. Her ability to analyse legislative provisions and court judgments is impressive."
"David is an absolute delight to work with. He is responsive, engaging and incredibly commercial in his outlook. He brings calm to all the chaos."
"Extremely energetic and engaged, he is a fantastic team member."
"His drafting and his ability to cut through a lot of the noise are excellent."
"Always very responsive and friendly. All round, he's a really great barrister."
"Jeremy is a delight to work with. Fantastic at dealing with clients, he becomes an integral part of the team."
"She is very user-friendly and also very strong on cross-border matters."
"Ruth is a fantastic lawyer, with an easy and reassuring manner. She tells it how it is and is at ease making big judgement calls. Her advice is exceptionally commercial."
"Benedict is a fiercely intelligent, highly strategic thinker, who is absolutely unafraid to put his shoulder to the wheel. He is dynamic, energetic, enthusiastic and keen always to lead by example."
"Freddie gets to the heart of a matter quickly, and is able to discern the true issues on which a case will turn with ease. His written advocacy is excellent."
"Freddie is simply fantastic and is a junior to watch. His knowledge of the law and commercial awareness is way beyond his year of call."
"He is strategic, thoughtful and diligent, and is not afraid of being robust with us."
"He responds to every email query with astonishing speed, which does not take away from the incredibly high level of thought-out advice you always receive from him."
"Wei Jian is a very talented junior who brings a forensic approach to the most complex of cases."
"David is masterful at written submissions."
"A formidable advocate, who is a pleasure to work with."
"James Sheehan has a nice manner with solicitors and clients. He is very smart and experienced."
"He is incredibly bright, very creative and great at difficult cases where you need to craft impressive and persuasive arguments."
"He has one of the biggest and best legal brains at the Bar, but is also incredibly user-friendly and good with clients. His drafting, particularly on complex points of law, is second to none."
"He is just super-bright and seems to know everything about everything. He always takes a commercial and sensible approach."