If any trend is set to define the London disputes market in 2024, it is the continued rise of group litigation. A vast array of mass claims are winding their way through the courts, spurred on by an increased willingness to adapt to the challenges of case management, heightened awareness of environmental, social, and governance …
When Legal Business first launched its Disputes Yearbook back in 2014 Brexit was barely on the radar, most people had not heard of Wuhan and post-financial crisis disputes work and oligarchs were helping firms cast aside any doubts about how sustainable further disputes growth was at either the biggest players in the City or the …
Continue reading “Scaling up: a look back at the last ten years of disputes in London”
With the marked increase in group litigation and rapid development of the litigation funding industry, the Competition Appeal Tribunal is consistently seeing novel claims. New theories of dominance are appearing, with what actually constitutes a dominant position widening. And the type of claim presented to the tribunal is expanding, with an increasing number of ESG …
When I was nine years old, an elderly relative told me I should consider being a lawyer because I was an argumentative brat. On that flimsy basis I studied law with German law. For my first year, I hated the subject – everything had come easily to me at school but this new thing required …
I didn’t really decide to be a lawyer, the law chose me. I went to a wedding and sat next to a very nice man. He turned out to be a partner in a law firm and we talked career options all night. He gave me his business card and said to call him. I …
I am the third generation in my family to have taken up law, following in the footsteps of my grandfather and father. My father was a partner at one of the top law firms in Mumbai and some of my best memories are of sitting in his office during school summer holidays, listening to him …
Building contractor Shepherd Construction is bringing a claim valued at almost £70m against 12 defendants, including building materials company Kingspan in the first dispute to consider the new cause of action against cladding manufacturers introduced in the Building Safety Act 2022. The dispute concerns four cladding systems used on a mixed-use development in Colindale, London. …
Serco hits the High Court at the start of June in the first s90A securities group action to go to trial. Claimants allege that they were shareholders of Serco and acquired, held, or disposed of shares in Serco between 2006 and 2013, asserting that they suffered loss due to untrue or misleading statements published by …
Described by one London disputes head as ‘the biggest class action ever’, Municipio de Mariana & Ors v BHP Group sees a claimant class of more than 700,000 bringing claims for damages in excess of £36bn arising from the 2015 collapse of Brazil’s Fundão Dam. On 5 November 2015 the dam suffered a catastrophic failure. …
Complex claims are being brought against Mastercard and Visa in an ongoing decade-long saga involving over 1,800 corporate claimants across the hospitality, arts, financial services, and leisure sectors. With three different strands of cases – Merricks v Mastercard, collective cards, and umbrella proceedings – lawyers involved are finding themselves in court almost weekly. The first …
