Zaiwalla & Co

Zaiwalla & Co was founded in the City of London in 1982 by Sarosh Zaiwalla. What began as a niche shipping law practice has steadily grown into a boutique firm advising governments and multinational businesses on a wide range of disputes under English law. The firm has been a pioneer from the start, guided by originality of thought, efficiency of approach and professional integrity. The firm has handled more than 125 cases that have defined English law, and it regularly acts against the City’s largest firms. In the last five years, the Zaiwalla team have featured in three separate cases featured in The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of the Year in the UK.

Its international reach has grown with the firm. Its earliest work included landmark shipping cases for the Indian High Commission in London, and today it acts for businesses and individuals from the world’s fastest-developing economies. Over 90% of clients are based outside Britain, primarily in Russia and the former Soviet Union, India, China, Latin America and Africa. The firm’s lawyers are qualified in England and in multiple jurisdictions worldwide.

The firm handles high-value, complex cross-border litigation and international arbitration for sovereign entities, financial institutions, state-owned enterprises and high-net-worth individuals. Its work spans international arbitration (ICC, LCIA, GAFTA, LMAA and DIAC), the challenge and enforcement of awards, commercial and banking litigation, sanctions, public international law, and shipping and commodities disputes.

The Firm serves clients across banking and finance, commodities and trade, energy, oil and gas, shipping and maritime, aviation, mining, construction, media, intellectual property, and government and state-owned entities.

Notable work

• Banco Central de Venezuela v Bank of England [2021] UKSC 57: Acting for the Central Bank of Venezuela in its claim against the Bank of England for control of more than US$4bn of gold reserves held in London. The dispute turns on the UK’s recognition of former President Maduro,  and has been heard at every level of the English courts, including a Court of Appeal ruling in the Bank’s favour in 2020 and a Supreme Court judgment in 2021 that settled how English courts treat the UK’s recognition of a foreign head of state. The proceedings continue.

• Sharp Corp Ltd v Viterra BV [2024] UKSC 14: Acted for Indian commodities trader Sharp in a GAFTA dispute over high value grain shipments that reached the Supreme Court. The Court ruled in Sharp’s favour on damages, holding that the loss must be measured by the compensatory and mitigation principles, by reference to the market in which the goods could reasonably be sold. The judgment is now the leading guidance on the GAFTA default clause and on the limits of appeals from arbitral awards.

• Bank Mellat v HM Treasury: Acted for Iran’s largest private bank in a sanctions challenge that ran through the UK Supreme Court and the EU courts and set various legal precedents. The Supreme Court quashed the Treasury’s 2009 financial restrictions in a ruling now regarded as a leading authority on proportionality and fair procedure, and the EU General Court annulled the bank’s EU listing. The bank’s resulting damages claim against HM Treasury, at around US$4bn the largest ever brought against the department, settled in 2019 on confidential terms shortly before trial.