Katherine Ratcliffe > Essex Court Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Essex Court Chambers Offices
24 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS
LONDON
WC2A 3EG
England
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Katherine Ratcliffe
Career
Katherine’s practice covers a wide range of commercial disputes, both in litigation and arbitration, with a particular focus on civil fraud, professional negligence, banking and finance, and shipping. Since commencing practice, she has been instructed in several large-scale cases, the majority of which have had an international element, including Libyan Navigator Co Ltd v Libya Insurance Company, ID v LU [2021] EWHC 1851 (Comm) and E D & F Man Capital Markets Limited v Come Harvest Holdings Limited & Ors (which is listed for a five week trial in 2021).
Katherine also recently undertook an eight month secondment at RPC within their civil fraud and regulatory practice areas.
Alongside her commercial practice, Katherine is also developing a practice in art litigation.
Education
2020: BPTC, City University, Outstanding
2019: BCL, Merton College, Oxford (studied conflict of laws, restitution, commercial remedies and corporate insolvency)
2018: BA Law (Jurisprudence), Merton College, Oxford, First Class
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Commercial litigation
(Rising stars)Ranked: Tier 1Katherine Ratcliffe – Essex Court Chambers ‘Katherine is an excellent junior barrister – her skills are far beyond her years of call. Her case analysis and drafting skills are of the highest standard, and she is, quite rightly, very highly in demand.’
London Bar > Fraud: civil
(Rising stars)Ranked: Tier 1Katherine Ratcliffe – Essex Court Chambers ‘Katherine is very responsive and gives clear, thought-out advice. She grasps issues very quickly and is calm under pressure.‘
With ‘a deep roster of highly-skilled barristers‘, Essex Court Chambers ‘boasts remarkable strength-in-depth, allowing it to handle a wide range of complex cases with expertise and confidence‘. The set’s members consistently appear in the largest fraud cases before the Commercial and Chancery Courts, and at appellate level, both at home and abroad. In Suppipat v Narongdeg & Ors, reportedly the largest Commercial Court case of 2022, Anna Dilnot KC acted for Khunying Boonyachinda, Golden Music and Cornwallis in defence of contempt proceedings, against a backdrop of an alleged conspiracy to defraud the claimants of over a billion dollars of shares in a Thai wind farm company. In a $800m claim arising out of the alleged bribery of the former Kuwaiti social security fund head, David Davies KC is defending a former senior partner of Swiss private bank, Banque Mirabaud. In March 2023, Ruth Den Besten KC, who recently successfully defended Balda Foundation and Nysco Management Corporation, against a $1.2bn fraudulent misrepresentation and conspiracy claim concerning a mining venture in Guinea, took silk. Turning to the set’s juniors, Owen Lloyd and Katherine Ratcliffe also maintain active civil fraud practices.