James Sidwell > Gowling WLG > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Providing ‘a very able and experienced team for substantial commercial litigation‘, Gowling WLG is consistently sought out for large international and domestic commercial disputes, particularly Chancery and Commercial Court cases. ‘A super lawyer and a great team player,’ senior litigation partner James Sidwell also co-heads the firm’s financial services sector group; Catherine Naylor, ‘an exceptional litigator,’ is particularly focused on complex, multi-jurisdictional cases; and ‘star litigator‘ Andrew Smith‘s track record includes large amounts of work in the automotive, food and drink, Pharma, property development and telecoms industries. At legal director  level, Verity Barker acts in a variety of cross-border commercial litigation, while Susannah Fink is on hand for both general commercial litigation and insurance disputes. Within the principal associate pool, Tom Cox‘s experience includes three successful heavyweight High Court trials in a recent five-year period, while Alexander Wrixon combines his litigation expertise with insurance market experience.

Led by James Sidwell, Gowling WLG is geared to support on an extensive array of contentious financial services affairs including FRC, FCA and PRA authorisations, supervisory and enforcement proceedings, LIBOR matters, FX manipulations and SEC investigations; the team is also notably formidable within the fintech field, acting on contentious ICO, cryptocurrency and blockchain proceedings.

Gowling WLG is particularly specialised in acting for liquidators of financial services companies, handling disputes involving their assets as well as litigation against former directors for alleged fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. Catherine Naylor and Andrew Witts take the lead on this work. James Sidwell leads the overall practice and has a close relationship with JP Morgan, representing the investment bank in a range of disputes related to loans and forex transactions.