Dispute Resolution
James Ramsden KC leads our dispute resolution service and has been consistently ranked as a leading King’s Counsel (KC) in Commercial Dispute Resolution and Civil Fraud by Chambers UK and Chambers Global.
Astraea Group’s barristers and solicitors have worked with major multi-nationals (including FTSE 100, Dow Jones and SSE listed companies), governments, state owned entities, statutory authorities, banks, financial service providers, financial service regulators, and private and public sector companies. We litigate, arbitrate and mediate in the UK and across numerous international jurisdictions, and have been admitted as advocate or worked in countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, US, Russia, Ukraine, Iceland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand, BVI, Cayman, Jersey and Isle of Man.
Our barristers have appeared as lead advocates in several of the most publicised Commercial Court cases of recent years including; BTA v Ablayazov, TNK-BP v Lazerenko, Wilcox LLC v Balmore Invest & Others, Kolyada v Yurov, BNP Paribas SA v OJSC Russian Machines & JSAMC Ingosstrtakh-Investments, and Viegas v Cutrale.
Astraea Group is well known for leading cohesive and effective teams in complex and often time-constrained assignments.
Astraea Group has particular expertise in the obtaining and enforcement of interim asset freezing and search and disclosure orders, particularly across different jurisdictions. This has generated additional expertise in committal applications in enforcement of such orders. We have successfully prosecuted several committal applications, resulting in committals to prison for breach of freezing and search orders ranging from 3-18 months.
We have experience, acting both as counsel and as arbitrators, in commercial disputes under the rules of all of the major arbitral institutions, including the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), as well as ad hoc arbitrations.
We have conducted a number of investor-state arbitrations before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC).
We work on matters for parties all over the world and have led teams on matters centred across the USA, Central and South America, EMEA, Russia and the CIS, South East Asia, Australasia, and various offshore jurisdictions including BVI, Cayman, Jersey and Isle of Man. James Ramsden KC is admitted as an advocate in many of these jurisdictions.
Our lawyers are experienced in Court proceedings in support of arbitrations, including pre-action applications (for example freezing and discovery orders), and enforcement actions. We work closely with our contacts in the business intelligence community to design effective enforcement strategies at the outset of actions and have strong links to the regulatory and intelligence sectors in the UK, USA and Ukraine in particular.