Sandy Phipps

Practice Areas

Sandy is a leading commercial barrister with a broad, multi-jurisdictional practice. His work covers the full range of commercial fields including, among others, banking and finance, civil fraud, professional misconduct, insolvency and company, sale of goods, and jurisdiction and conflict of laws. He acts or advises in relation to disputes in the English courts, in foreign courts, in arbitrations, or in internal, regulatory or Parliamentary investigations or inquiries.

Sandy is often instructed as the leading advocate on a case, either as sole Counsel or as Senior Junior leading a Junior Junior. In this regard he has been described in a leading legal directory as “operating at a KC level”. In other cases Sandy is instructed as part of broader Counsel teams, including in cases involving specialist Counsel from other fields (such as human rights law, public international law, and media law) or from other jurisdictions.

Examples of high-profile instructions in recent years include:

• Acting for a major Irish bank in Commercial Court proceedings alleging the deliberate underselling of a property portfolio acquired with lending of around GBP 700 million.

• Acting for a major international bank in Commercial Court proceedings alleging bribery and lack of capacity in relation to interest rate derivative transactions with a notional value of over EUR 350 million.

• Acting for an international law firm in multiple sets of King’s Bench Division proceedings concerning the alleged misconduct of a former partner of the firm.

Sandy has been ranked for many years in the leading legal directories in areas including banking and finance and commercial dispute resolution. He has also been nominated for several annual directory awards, including most recently for Banking & Finance Junior of the Year at the Chambers UK Bar Awards 2024.

Alongside his practice, Sandy maintains an active interest in academic law. He has published in areas including banking law, contract, jurisdiction and civil procedure. He is a regular contributor to and is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Banking & Financial Law and writes the chapter on guarantees in one of the leading banking law textbooks.

Career

Sandy was called to the Bar in 2008. Prior to that he practised as a commercial litigation solicitor in Sydney (Gilbert and Tobin) and in London (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer).

Professional Memberships

COMBAR; Chancery Bar Association; Anglo-Australian Lawyers Society; Lincoln’s Inn

Personal

Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours, 2001, Australian National University; Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours and the University Medal, 2003, Australian National University; Bachelor of Civil Law with Distinction, University of Oxford, 2006.