Mr Andrew Lidbetter > Herbert Smith Freehills LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

The ‘extremely strong public law practice’ at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP is headed by Andrew Lidbetter and Nusrat Zar. Praised for his ‘excellent strategic judgement in litigation’, Lidbetter has extensive experience handling contentious public law matters, such as judicial reviews, regulatory disputes, and statutory appeals. Zar regularly advises claimants, defendants, and interveners across a variety of sectors, including telecoms, energy, competition, and financial services; she is also recommended for her expertise with public procurement matters. James Wood has broad capabilities that encompass judicial review, public inquiries, and policy work. Hannah Lau and Christine Iacono are also key lawyers in the team. Lau is noted for her skill with freedom of information matters, while Iacono has experience advising on matters within the planning and environment sectors.

With ‘talent in every aspect of professional regulation and discipline’, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP acts for leading professional bodies, as well as firms and individuals, in relation to disciplinary investigations and proceedings. Recent work for the team predominantly involved large-scale financial, accountancy and legal sector-related disciplinary cases. Clients also notably benefit from the team’s leveraging of the firm’s public law expertise. The department is co-led by William Glassey, a ‘top name in the market’, who acts for professional firms and individual professionals in regulatory investigations and disciplinary actions; and ‘superb lawyer’ Andrew Lidbetter, whose experience covers prosecuting, defending and advising adjudication committees on disciplinary cases, in addition to revising disciplinary schemes. Also key to the group, Nusrat Zar represents accountancy regulators, such as the Financial Reporting Council, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants; Antonia Pegden‘s wide-ranging practice encompasses professional discipline work; and Henry Saunders is a ‘star of the future’.