iLaw > London, England > Firm Profile

iLaw
Temple Chambers
3-7 Temple Avenue
LONDON
EC4Y 0HP
England

Email firm Visit website +44 (0)203 987 0222 020 7117 4737

Dispute resolution > Commercial litigation: mid-market Tier 5

With 'strong commercial litigation expertise', boutique firm iLaw specialises in high-profile international and commercial disputes. Core areas for the practice are IT and IP, but it is increasingly active in matters involving the cryptocurrency, beverage and film sectors. Commercial litigation department head Mark Culbert is 'a superb lawyer and litigator'; and the cases of fellow-director and 'standout practitioner' Tom Clark are frequently internationally flavoured. Newly appointed litigation director and 'superb commercial practitioner' Jenny Lau heads the firm’s arbitration practice.

Practice head(s):

Mark Culbert; Tom Clark

Other key lawyers:

Jenny Lau

Testimonials

‘Works co-operatively as an integrated team – relaxed but effective to work with.’

‘Strong commercial litigation expertise and excellent adaptation to the ever-changing legal market.‘

‘iLaw is a niche practice with top-level lawyers providing pragmatic commercially-driven litigation expertise.’

‘Mark Culbert navigates the ship with a steady, reliable hand. Good at getting value for money for clients and easy to work with.

‘Mark Culbert is a superb lawyer and litigator – I have worked with Mark for 20 years and would not instruct any other litigator in London.’

‘Tom Clark is a standout practitioner, who has been on hand at every step offering sound, pragmatic advice, and with a view to creating efficiencies where possible – he under-promises and over-delivers.’

‘Jenny Lau is responsive to clients, and with a good eye for the commercial realities.’

‘Jenny Lau is a superb commercial practitioner. She has enormous experience, is a creative thinker, and really fights for her clients.’

Key clients

Warner’s Distillery

Noah Media Group

CleanCo Ventures

Kwik Fit

Goldsmith Jewellers

Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts

GLH Hotels

Watches of Switzerland Group

The White Company

T M Lewin

LK Bennett

Fenwick

Itsu

The Hut Group

Robert Dyas Holdings

Cheesies

Work highlights

Representing several High Street retailers (including Naked Wines) in a group litigation action against MasterCard and Visa, which concerns interchange fees.
Representing Kazakhstan’s football club FC Kairat in appealing (to the Court of Arbitration for Sports) a decision of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chambers, which concerns payments to clubs for professional footballers.
Acting for various investors in pursuing a High Court claim against ITI Capital for losses suffered by options- trading investors.

iLaw was established in 2006 as a boutique commercial law firm in the City of London. Its founders had identified a gap in the market for clients who wanted to use a top-quality City firm that wasn’t restricted by the conservatism of more traditional firms.

The firm: iLaw is committed to delivering excellent quality (both technical and service standards) and value. Its clients are typically entrepreneurial businesses and individuals, ranging from past and present stars of TV’s Dragons Den to fast-growing tech companies. iLaw is an innovative firm, with a particular focus on the technology and media sectors, although it serves a much broader client base too. One of the firm’s key areas of innovation is in relation to fees, ensuring that the most appropriate method of charging is tailored to meet the needs of the client and the matter in hand.

iLaw was a founder member of the International Commercial Law Alliance (ICLA), giving it international reach.

Types of work undertaken
Dispute resolution: the disputes team advises on a wide range of matters, from complex international fraud to simple debt claims. It has particular experience in dealing with disputes in the fields of intellectual property and technology, defamation, banking and insolvency. The team acted for nine defendants in one of the largest cases ever to hit the English courts: JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov. At the core of the team’s philosophy is the need to take a sensible approach to disputes, to fight hard when the situation requires, but also to keep its clients’ commercial considerations to the fore.

Corporate/commercial: iLaw advises on all kinds of corporate and commercial deals. On the corporate side this includes mergers and acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, exits and ongoing corporate advice. Commercial transactions include licensing, development, outsourcing, manufacturing, partnering, agency/distribution, terms of business and public procurement. The team’s ethos is to get the deal done as simply as possible, but without compromising the client’s position.

Employment: the firm’s employment team advises on a wide range of domestic and cross-border employment issues, including restructuring, outsourcing and other TUPE issues, redundancy, disputes and contracts, and has successfully acted for a number of former senior bank employees. The firm also specialises in advising employment agencies and businesses.

Commercial property: the firm is able to advise on commercial property transactions, so that it can offer the full range of every day legal requirements to its clients. The team advises on property acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant issues, secured lending and development.

Regulatory: iLaw advises on a range of regulatory issues that are likely to affect its clients such as data protection/freedom of information, advertising and marketing regulations, e-commerce rules, competition law and procurement regulations.

Department	Name	Email
Dispute Resolution	Tom Clark	tom.clark@ilaw.co.k
Dispute Resolution	Mark Culbert	mark.culbert@ilaw.co.uk
Arbitration	Jenny Lau	jenny.lau@ilaw.co.uk
Employment	Malcolm Mason	malcolm.mason@ilaw.co.uk
Commercial/Technology	Justin Ellis	justin.ellis@ilaw.co.uk
Corporate	Justin Ellis	justin.ellis@ilaw.co.uk
Intellectual Property	Mark Culbert	mark.culbert@ilaw.co.uk
Intellectual Property	Justin Ellis	justin.ellis@ilaw.co.uk
CIS desk	Dmitry Gololobov	dmitry.gololobov@ilaw.co.uk
Commercial property	Jeff White	jeff.white@ilaw.co.uk
Insolvency/regulatory	Tom Clark	tom.clark@ilaw.co.uk
Employment	Nick Hine	nick.hine@ilaw.co.uk
Marketing and Business Development	Gregory Carrasco	gregory.carrasco@ilaw.co.uk

Name	Position	Profile
Justin Ellis	Justin is one of the co-founders of iLaw (2006). His areas of…	View Profile
Jenny Lau	Head of Arbitration at iLaw	View Profile
Tony Roberts	Head of Corporate.	View Profile