Tom Montagu-Smith KC

Practice Areas

Tom has a heavy commercial disputes practice in both arbitration and litigation. His work includes banking, joint ventures, fraud, insurance and reinsurance and disputes arising out of construction projects.

Tom has been involved in some of the highest value and most significant cases before the DIFC Courts. Significant instructions include Emirates NBD v KBBO (DIFC, 2020 – ongoing), a US$300m for a syndicate of 11 banks against 19 defendants arising out of debt restructuring arrangements, SKAT v Elysium (DIFC, 2019 – ongoing), a US$2bn claim for the Danish State to recover fraudulent tax rebates and Pearl Petroleum v Kurdistan (DIFC, 2018), a US$2bn arbitration enforcement claim involving issues of state immunity.

Tom appeared in many of the claims establishing the DIFC Court’s jurisdiction to enforce foreign judgments and awards, including DNB Bank v Gulf Eyadah (CA, 25 Feb 2016), which established the “conduit” jurisdiction of the DIFC Courts.

Tom also regularly appears in English Courts, where his cases include Watson v Watchfinder [2017] Bus LR 1309, a leading case on the application of the Braganza duty for the exercise of a contractual discretion, Kyrgyz Republic v Stans Energy [2018] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 66, acting for a state in a challenge to an arbitration award and MTC v HRH Prince Hussam Bin Saud [2019] EWHC 3109, a claim relating to a US$750m arbitration award.

Tom drafted the Rules of the DIFC Courts, Dubai World Tribunal and the Courts of the Astana International Financial Centre Courts, where he sits as a judge.