Paul Lowenstein KC > Twenty Essex > London, England > Barrister 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 > Crypto and blockchain assets
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 2Twenty Essex have found a strong footing within cryptocurrency disputes, with Lawrence Akka KC having co-authored the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce’s legal statement on cryptoassets and smart contracts, alongside the recent Digital Dispute Resolution Rules, which set the new precedent for arbitration rules for blockchain and crypto assets. Paul Lowenstein KC has been involved in innovative work in developing court techniques and tools for tackling international cyber fraud cases involving the transfer of money, and cryptocurrency assets across the international banking system and the blockchain, while Josephine Davies KC is noted for specialist knowledge from other areas of law including IP and competition law being applied to her cryptocurrency work, often involving injunctive work and private international law issues.
London Bar > IT and telecoms (infrastructure and contracts)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3London Bar > Fraud: civil
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Paul Lowenstein KC –Twenty Essex ‘An excellent advocate and highly adept at building rapport with judges. He is one of the best barristers to instruct in fast-moving injunctive relief work for the recovery of stolen monies.’
Twenty Essex‘s civil fraud members are able to leverage the chambers’ complementary expertise in financial services and terminology. Paul Lowenstein KC is a go-to silk for injunction and jurisdiction work, both in England and offshore Caribbean jurisdictions. In the long-running PJSC National Bank Trust v Mints case, Philip Edey KC, leading Sarah Tresman and Richard Greenberg, is defending businessman Boris Mints against claims by two Russian banks for alleged fraudulent conspiracy involving loan restructuring. In the same matter, former chambers head Duncan Matthews KC and represents fourth defendant Igor Mints, his son. In a novel cryptocurrency case, unled Josephine Davies KC acted for Fetch.Ai in obtaining worldwide freezing orders against the hackers of its Binance.com trading account, along with information orders against Binance entities.
London Bar > Banking and finance (including consumer credit)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 2Paul Lowenstein KC –Twenty Essex ‘A very good strategist and a hugely experienced advocate, super at cross examination.’
Twenty Essex represents financial services providers and their clients in a range of fora across a full spectrum of banking, financial services, and asset management disputes. Members of the set are often instructed to obtain, or seek the discharge of, freezing injunctions and other interim relief in relation to banking and investment disputes, which include instructions both for and against major financial institutions. Andrew Fulton KC is noted as ‘intellectually very able, and extremely knowledgeable‘ on banking law, while Luke Pearce KC has appeared in a number of high-profile banking cases in recent years. Paul Lowenstein KC has an extensive practice encompassing fraud into the context of banking and finance cases involving major banks.
London Bar > Commercial litigation
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Paul Lowenstein KC –Twenty Essex
‘Paul has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the law, practice and procedure. He is an excellent strategist and instils confident in clients and the wider legal team. Clients absolutely want him on their side.‘