Peter Wickham > Slaughter and May > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Experts on the interplay between civil and criminal fraud, Slaughter and May works in close tandem with its global investigations group to represent major corporates, financial institutions and governments. Leading the practice is Richard Swallow who is joined by Jonathan Cotton, a specialist in disputes involving wrongdoing who regularly advises on extractive frauds, information theft and accounting frauds misrepresentations. Efstathios Michael leverages his knowledge and expertise in commercial litigation and insurance to advise high-profile clients, while Damian Taylor is another practitioner of note, advising leading banks in international arbitration matters. In addition, Peter Wickham provides considerable knowledge in the area of energy and natural resources disputes, and Megan Sandler specialises in commercial dispute resolution.

Slaughter and May has ‘one of the most experienced and intelligent arbitration teams in London‘. The practice has extensive experience in large-scale arbitrations under all the major institutional rules. It also acts in arbitration-related court proceedings in the English and overseas courts. James Stacey focuses on international commercial arbitrations; Damian Taylor ‘fights an incredible fight‘; Efstathios Michael acts in energy sector disputes; and Jonathan Clark routinely acts in substantial arbitrations. The next line of key practitioners features Peter Wickham, who is ‘making a huge name for himself‘; and recently-promoted commercial dispute resolution partner Megan Sandler.

Complex, cross-jurisdictional corporate litigation and group actions are mainstays of the ‘impressive and hard-working’ team at Slaughter and May that routinely acts for FTSE 100 clients. Recent successes of the team include its representation of Shell in the highly publicised ClientEarth matter, and acting for Credit Suisse in the ‘tuna bond scandal’. Richard Swallow leads the ‘first class’ team that is a ‘pleasure to deal with’. Peter Wickham is a key name in the team, advising across commercial litigation, investigations and regulatory matters, and commercial arbitration, with expertise in energy and natural resources, as well as group litigation. Smriti Sriram is noted as an ‘excellent lawyer and very good to work with’. 

Slaughter and May’s practice is, for one client, ‘responsive, creative, and collaborates well with other counsel to deliver extraordinary results’, and acts on many of the complex high-value inquiries, and major regulatory investigations. The team notably represents Credit Suisse in multi-billion-dollar claims and JP Morgan Chase Bank in high court litigation linked to global forex investigations. Richard Swallow is ‘preeminent with good reason’, and leads the team. ‘Very experienced, calm, measured, and strategic advisor’ Ewan Brown has a broad-based banking litigation and investigations practice, and is key to the team alongside ‘exceptional advisor’ Gayathri Kamalanathan. Also at partner level, Camilla Sanger and Richard Jeens both have expansive banking and financial services litigation practices, along with Jonathan Clark and Peter Wickham. At associate level, Edward Coles is singled out for his ‘ mastery of complex matters and attention to strategy‘.