One Essex Court is ‘a first-class pre-eminent set’ for energy disputes of all kinds. Among them is John McCaughran KC was recently instructed by Shell UK Limited in relation to a Court of Appeal dispute concerning a gas sale agreement with British Gas Trading Limited that raised key issues around the assessment of damages. He also represented Scottish Power UK in its claim for damages relating to the extended shutdown of the Andrew Field, which resulted in the complete cessation of supplies of gas. Another standout silk is Alexander Gunning KC, who acted for the defendant in Visalia v Seadrill, a claim for a £70m commission purportedly owed due to an introduction made to Sonangol, the Angolan state oil company. Sa’ad Hossain KC continues to rise in prominence with cases such as Drax Smart Generation Holdco Limited v Scottish Power Retail Holdings Limited, in which he defended a breach of warranty/indemnity claim relating to the construction of a potential new power station. New silk Niranjan Venkatesan KC is currently involved in high-profile proceedings concerning the Brae complex in the North Sea. Nehali Shah, who acted as sole for the Government of India in hearings concerning a £70m arbitral award, and Michael Watkins are among the set’s many market-leading juniors.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Profile
Position
Barrister practising in all areas of commercial dispute resolution (litigation and arbitration) with particular expertise in energy and natural resources; banking and financial services; shareholder disputes; civil fraud; freezing orders and jurisdictional disputes; and professional negligence. Recent matters include: MAC/MAE disputes in M&A acquisitions arising from COVID-19 travel disruption (Travelport v WEX); fraud and conspiracy claims in relation to sports licensing (SDIR v Rangers) and more generally (Hungry Panda); upstream production sharing disputes and downstream gas pricing disputes (North Sea and continental Europe); place of damage/branch agency jurisdictional disputes in international banking disputes (Kwok v UBS); and multiple pre-emption/tag-along/drag-along shareholder disputes.
Career
Called to the Bar in 1995; tenancy with One Essex Court 1996; Silk 2013.
Memberships
Bar of the Supreme Court of the Eastern Caribbean (BVI).
Education
Gonville & Caius College) Cambridge (1992 BA (Hons) Natural Sciences); City University London (1994 CPE Diploma in Law).
Content supplied by One Essex Court
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Excellent chambers in all respects. Quality across the board in relation to the barristers, the clerks room is head and shoulders above the rest, and they rightly have the reputation of being at the very top of their game.'
- 'Truly special. Top of the tree. Platinum-class.'
- 'The clerks are generally easy to deal with on fees etc and the barristers are real professionals.'
- 'Strong across the board and very well clerked.'
- 'Excellent chambers for complex disputes, one of the go-to sets in London.'