Charles Kimmins KC > Twenty Essex > London, England > Barrister Profile
Twenty Essex Offices
20 ESSEX STREET
LONDON
WC2R 3AL
England
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Charles Kimmins KC
Work Department
- Banking and financial services
- Commercial dispute resolution
- Energy and infrastructure
- General commercial and insurance
- Insurance and reinsurance
- International arbitration
- Shipping and commodities
Position
Charles is co-Head of Chambers. Charles specialises in commercial law, and represents clients in both court and arbitration proceedings. His cases tend to be high value and complex, and often involve multiple sets of proceedings in several jurisdictions.
He is recommended in a wide array of disciplines in Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500, including international arbitration, commercial dispute resolution, banking and financial, energy, insurance and reinsurance, shipping and commodities.
Charles has represented clients in a wide variety of disputes before the Supreme Court, Privy Council, Court of Appeal and High Court.
He has also appeared in many arbitrations under many different rules, including ICC, LCIA, SIAC, HKIAC, ARIAS, LMAA, GAFTA, FOSFA, IPE, RSA, LME and the City Disputes Panel. He has particular experience of appeals from awards under s.67, 68 and 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (a subject on which he regularly lectures). He also accepts appointments as an arbitrator in commercial disputes. Recent cases relating to arbitration include Tenke Fungurume Mining v Katanga [2021] EWHC 3301 (successfully resisting a s.68 application), STA v OFY [2021] EWHC 1574 (successfully resisting an application for an extension to time to challenge an award). Charles acted for the LCIA in the Supreme Court case Halliburton v Chubb [2021] AC 1093, dealing with issues of arbitrator bias.
Charles was nominated for ‘International Arbitration Silk of the Year’ for both the Chambers UK Bar Awards 2019 and The Legal 500 UK Awards 2020.
He has been involved in numerous cases involving banking and investment disputes, company law and financial services. He has particular experience in derivatives. He also has significant experience in disputes arising in the private equity sector. Between 2018 – 2020, much of his time was spent on a very substantial multi-billion dollar multi-jurisdictional private equity dispute, in which he appeared in numerous hearings in London, Hong Kong, Cayman and Nevis.
He has appeared in numerous cases involving energy and natural resources, and has particular experience in the petroleum and natural gas industries. Likewise, he has acted in many insurance/reinsurance disputes, for both insured/reinsured and insurers/reinsurers, as well brokers. He has been involved in many leading cases in the fields of commodities and shipping, including shipbuilding disputes and disputes under MOAs.
Charles also has extensive experience in civil fraud cases, including cases involving fraud in the banking and shipping sectors. He is instructed in applications for urgent relief arising out of fraud claims.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Shipping
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex ‘A razor-sharp legal mind who cuts to the heart of the most complex of disputes.’
London Bar > Commodities
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 2Charles Kimmins KC – Twenty Essex ‘Charles is a strong leader and an excellent advocate and in planning and strategy, and there are very few counsel with his depth of knowledge.’
London Bar > Energy
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex ‘Charles is extremely user friendly, adaptable and hardworking. His advice and paperwork are of the highest standard and his oral advocacy is superb.’
London Bar > Insurance and reinsurance
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex ‘Charles has a really great way of distilling complex matters so that they are readily understandable. He is also very good with numbers so where one has technical matters that require, for instance, significant input from accounting experts, he is very capable in this regard and able to probe matters effectively.’
Twenty Essex covers a full spectrum of commercial insurance and reinsurance disputes, both in arbitration and in court. Members, including Charles Kimmins KC, have acted in large market disputes and have been instructed for policyholders, insurers and reinsurers, both domestically and internationally. Philip Edey KC acted for a major Middle Eastern retailer seeking to recover under its business interruption insurance policies for lockdown-related losses to its operations in the Middle East in Al Mana v Fidelity and Libano, whereas Susannah Jones has developed an impressive practice, with significant work in high-value reinsurance arbitrations. Luke Pearce KC was appointed silk in 2023.
London Bar > International arbitration: counsel
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Twenty Essex is a ‘top quality chambers of commercial arbitration’ housing ‘excellent talent at all levels with exceptional experience.’ The set has ‘some of the best and broadest expertise in international trade, shipping and insurance’ that aligns with significant strength in international commercial and public international law, translating into the ability to provide teams for global cases with instructing parties based across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the US, African and Middle East. Members are routinely instructed on cases relating to the impact of major global events, including Covid, Brexit and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Chambers is jointly led by renowned commercial silks Charles Kimmins KC and Philip Edey KC. Other notable members include Wendy Miles KC who is instructed in a set of globally significant cases spanning energy, environment, climate and finance, and Belinda McRae on the junior end with expertise spanning commercial arbitration, arbitration appeals and enforcement, and investment treaty arbitration.
London Bar > Banking and finance (including consumer credit)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex ‘Excellent attention to detail with an ability to make very difficult and complex issues seem quite straightforward. Tenacious and a good advocate.’
London Bar > Commercial litigation
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 4Charles Kimmins KC –Twenty Essex
‘Charles’ advocacy is persuasive, commanding, and brutally effective. He zeroes in on the core issues, has sharp attention to detail, and is exceptionally user friendly and personable.‘
Asia Pacific - The English Bar > Shipping and commodities
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Charles Kimmins KC–Twenty Essex ‘Charles knows the law relating to commodities trading very well – probably the most able commodities silk around.’