Legal Business

Hiring a silk: Stone Chambers chief Steven Gee QC to depart for City disputes boutique Joseph Hage Arronson

High flying disputes boutique Joseph Hage Aaronson is set to enhance its City team with the hire of leading silk Steven Gee QC, who serves as the current head of Stone Chambers.

A heavyweight commercial litigator, Gee practices across various types of commercial work including commercial contracts, joint ventures, partnership, sale of goods, insurance, reinsurance, misrepresentation and civil fraud, shipping, shipbuilding, company law and banking.

The dual-qualified silk also sits as a commercial arbitrator and has acted in several commercial arbitrations across England, Bermuda, New York, Paris and Geneva. Experience in major cases includes the Alexandros T litigation last year, a Supreme Court jurisdictional battle over a vessel between English insurers and its Greek owners; and Global Process Systems v Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Berhad, the first marine insurance case to reach the new Supreme Court.

At the time of writing it was unknown when Gee was due to start at Central London-based Joseph Hage Arronson.

Hage Aaronson, which was set up last year by tax silk Graham Aaronson QC with former One Essex Court barrister Joe Hage, expanded its international reach by establishing a referral relationship with New York disputes firm Gregory Joseph, which was launched in 2001 by a group of former Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson partners. The relationship puts the firm on a par with boutique heavyweight Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in being able to service both sides of the Atlantic.

Other major recruits since opening include KPMG UK’s former head of direct tax litigation Michael Anderson, Blackstone Chambers’ former head Thomas Beazley QC, and high-profile litigator Simon Whitehead who quit US firm Dorsey & Whitey last year alongside fellow tax litigation partner Paul Farmer.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk