Peter Wood > Withers LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

With ‘real civil fraud expertise’, Withers LLP‘s London team is experienced in large-scale international fraud cases that involve private capital. Its expertise covers art and cultural asset frauds, matters concerning financial services and trust structures, and asset tracing across the world. Heading the global civil fraud practice, Stephen Ross specialises in international asset freezing and recovery cases, heavyweight commercial litigation, and regulatory disputes; Peter Wood is ‘a brilliant tactician’; and Tatiana Menshenina is experienced in cross-border fraud disputes.

A ‘fantastic firm with quality from top to bottom’, Withers LLP is ‘very well placed to deal with commercial disputes’. The sizeable practice represents family offices, HNW individuals and large corporate entities in multi-jurisdictional disputes, including asset recovery and enforcement matters, and contract, company and financial services disputes. The team is also highly experienced in disputes involving fraud, white-collar crime, professional negligence, insurance, and insolvency. It is additionally experienced in challenging decisions through judicial review claims. Company disputes specialist Peter Wood is global dispute resolution CEO and the ‘excellent’ Stephen Ross is civil fraud head. Roberto Moruzzi is an expert in domestic and international contractual disputes, mis-selling claims, fraud and asset tracing and Andrew Wass is also experienced in financial mis-selling work. The practice further showcases Eleni Polycarpou, who acts in commercial litigation claims alongside her commercial arbitration work, commercial disputes practitioner Sinead Harris, and financial services, banking and corporate litigation expert Henry Farris. Lesley Timms is experienced in contractual and shareholder disputes, and fraud and asset recovery matters. ‘Great strategist’ Tatiana Menshenina is a specialist in disputes involving Russia, Ukraine and the wider CIS region. Daniel Gore, Joshua Swift and Ruzin Dagli are also experienced litigators.

Withers LLP‘s London team is particularly well known for international arbitration work involving Africa, Asia and the Middle East, along with Russia and CIS countries. The practice is co-led by Hussein Haeri KC, who is ‘a leading figure in international arbitration’, and Eleni Polycarpou, who regularly takes arbitrator appointments. The group further comprises Russia, Ukraine and CIS disputes expert Tatiana Menshenina, disputes head Peter Wood, and commercial arbitration specialist Roberto Moruzzi. Lesley Timms ‘ caseload frequently contains Italian elements, and public international law expert Geoffrey Cox KC and recently-promoted partner Robert Kovacs are other names to note. Camilla Gambarini and Ruzin Dagli are also key figures.