Paul Lowenstein KC > Twenty Essex > London, England > Lawyer Profile
Twenty Essex Offices
20 ESSEX STREET
LONDON
WC2R 3AL
England
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Paul Lowenstein KC
Work Department
- Banking and finance
- Civil fraud and asset tracing
- Commercial dispute resolution
- Information technology and telecommunications
- Media and entertainment
- Professional negligence
Position
Paul is a leading commercial silk in domestic and international litigation and arbitration. A highly experienced courtroom advocate, he has expertise in high-profile, heavy, and sensitive commercial, financial, and international disputes of all kinds. He appears regularly in the Commercial Court, Chancery Division, other specialised courts, and the appellate jurisdictions in England and the Eastern Caribbean; as well as in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), where he is called to the Bar.
He is regularly instructed in complex and ground-breaking international and domestic fraud and asset-tracing cases, often involving pre-emptive injunctions, disclosure, and jurisdictional and choice of law issues. He has substantial experience of litigation involving digital assets, hacking and cyber-fraud; and obtained the first Worldwide Proprietary Injunctions and Freezing Orders against persons unknown in the English courts. Paul has strong and overlapping practices in the fields of banking and finance, information technology and telecommunications and art and antiquities. He firmly believes in maintaining a broad commercial practice and regularly leads teams of barristers both within his core fields of practice and in diverse and specialist areas.
Acknowledged as a formidable trial, interlocutory and appellate advocate and an accomplished cross-examiner, Paul is a team player and expert strategist with a highly commercial approach.
Paul has been listed for many years as a leading silk in several categories in all the principal directories, including commercial dispute resolution, civil fraud, banking and finance, information technology and telecoms.
Paul is regularly instructed in international and domestic arbitration and in English and BVI court proceedings in aid of arbitral proceedings and in connection with the enforcement of arbitration awards and foreign judgments. He also advises overseas lawyers on issues arising in domestic and international litigation and arbitration and gives expert evidence on issues of English law and procedure arising in foreign proceedings.
Paul is a member of the Service sub-committee of the Civil Procedure Rules Committee, and a co-author of its 2022 report on “Proposed Amendments to the PD6B ‘Gateways”, leading to the introduction on 1 October 2022 of the new Disclosure Gateway (PD 6B para 3.1(23)).
He is a qualified Centre for Dispute Resolution (CEDR) mediator and an experienced mediation advocate.
Paul is an active senior advocacy trainer at the Middle Temple and in Chambers and sits as a Chairman of Bar Disciplinary Tribunals. He is Chairman of Trustees of the International Law Book Facility (ILBF), a registered charity that provides used printed legal texts to the developing world. In 2015, Paul was nominated for the Sydney Elland Goldsmith Bar Pro Bono Award for his work with the ILBF.
In addition to his practice at the Bar, Paul is a member of the Investment Committee of Harbour Litigation Funding.
Paul was a nominee both for the ‘Barrister of the Year’ award at The Lawyer Awards (London, 2019) and for the ‘Commercial Advocate of the Year’ award at the Legal Week Awards (London, 2019).
Paul is registered with Rights of Audience in the Astana International Financial Court, Kazakhstan.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > IT and telecoms (infrastructure and contracts)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Paul Lowenstein KC –Twenty Essex ‘One of the leading IT barristers at the Bar. Paul understands all the underlying tech and is able to synthesis complexity on his feet for a judge.‘
London Bar > Banking and finance (including consumer credit)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Paul Lowenstein KC –Twenty Essex ‘Paul is a senior silk at the top of his game. He is always in demand (and rightly so), and is an excellent strategist in high-value, complex claims.’
London Bar > Commercial litigation
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Paul Lowenstein KC –Twenty Essex ‘Very responsive, commercial and user friendly. A robust well prepared advocate who leaves nothing to chance. Really gives it to the other side.’
London Bar > Fraud: civil
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 2Paul Lowenstein KC –Twenty Essex ‘A first rate advocate. Clear, concise, and well liked by the bench. Knows his papers well.’
Twenty Essex is going from ‘strength to strength with many quality advocates at all levels particularly in fraud and insolvency‘. The set’s offering also overlaps into key areas such as banking and commodities. Multiple members were represented defendants in PJSC National Bank Trust; PJSC Otkritie Bank Financial Corporation v Mints, a fraudulent conspiracy claim in relation to the restructuring of loans, with Philip Edey KC and Sarah Tresman representing Boris Mints and Duncan Matthews KC representing Igor, one of his three co-defendant sons. In The Libyan Investment Authority v Credit Suisse International; Man Asset Management (Ireland) Limited; Frontier Investment Management Partners Ltd & others, Paul Lowenstein KC and Sam Goodman successfully defended Frontier Investment Management Partners in the last of several high-profile investment disputes brought by the Libyan sovereign wealth fund.