The Legal 500

London: Dispute resolution

Commercial litigation

Within: Leading individuals

Damian Honey - HFW

Within: Commercial litigation

HFW has a longstanding reputation for its disputes experience the energy, mining and transport sectors. The team is also noted for litigation involving the utilities, commodities, manufacturing, engineering and financial services industries as well as international trade disputes. The recommended advisers include Damian Honey  Simon Blows, Noel Campbell, Steven Paull, Costas Frangeskides and Alistair Feeney. Paul Wordley joined EC3 Legal LLP.

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International arbitration

Within: International arbitration

HFW is highly rated for 'the range, strength and depth of its international arbitration practice, which stretches across all of the firm's sector-based groups'. The firm is well known for it experience in disputes involving international trade, energy, commodities, shipping and aviation, as well as insurance and reinsurance, banking and financial services, and construction. Damian Honey is 'an excellent, commercially-minded lawyer with realistic perspectives on the arbitration market'; Katie Pritchard  'has a wealth of experience of commodities-related arbitrations'; Alistair Feeney is 'a bright, knowledgeable and pragmatic lawyer'; Costas Frangeskides is 'excellent at client care'; and Steven Paull and international construction head Max Wieliczko are also key members. Paul Wordley joined EC3 Legal.

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London: Finance

Commodities: derivatives

Within: Commodities: derivatives

HFW has a bench of lawyers whose expertise covers both physical commodities and derivatives trades. Litigator Brian Perrott has more than 30 years' experience in disputes including those arising from commodity derivatives transactions. Sarah Taylor is highly experienced in both physical and derivative commodity contracts, particularly those relating to energy and metals, as well as handling contentious matters. Damian Honey advises commodity traders, producers, financiers and insurers on all aspects of their business, including disputes arising from energy and metals  derivatives trades. Adam Topping and Judith Prior  also have experience in derivatives. The firm counts trading houses Vitol and Trafigura among its clients, as well as large corporates including BP and ENI, and banks such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.

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Commodities: physicals

Within: Leading individuals

Damian Honey - HFW

Within: Commodities: physicals

HFW is 'a very strong firm in physical commodities and it provides top-ranking expertise at a reasonable price'. Alistair Feeney is 'a solid lawyer who is not afraid to give an opinion and guidance rather than sitting on the fence'. He is a leading specialist in energy commodities, particularly crude oil, petroleum products, LNG and biomass. Last year, he acted for GarantiBank International in an $8m High Court claim against Drum Risk Management arising from a large-scale misappropriation of coal from storage facilities in Turkey. Brian Perrott is an experienced litigator with more than 30 years' experience. His highlights included acting for defendant Sinocore International in a $4.9m claim brought by RBRG in the High Court for the enforcement of an arbitral award relating to a contract for cold rolled steel coils. Damian Honey advises commodity traders, producers, financiers and insurers on all aspects of their business, including physical and financial sale and purchase agreements and disputes. He handled a $1.5m cargo contamination claim for Socar Trading. Sarah Taylor is also recommended for contentious matters, as is Judith Prior, who handled a $14m arbitration for the Sugar Association of London. Chris Swart is now based in Singapore.

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