A straight answer before you instruct us
Commercial disputes and arbitration, with an estimate of cost and duration given in the first meeting rather than after it.
What it costs and how long it takes, first
Most people arrive at a disputes practice wanting two things answered before anything else: what this will cost, and how long it will take. We give both at the first meeting, in writing, with the assumptions they depend on set out beside them — and we say plainly which of those assumptions the other side controls. A matter that should settle is one we will tell you to settle, even where running it would earn us more, because a client who spends two years winning something they could have had in three months does not come back.
The practice, in numbers
Four things we are actually good at
A short list, because a practice that claims everything is telling you nothing.
Commercial disputes
Contract, shareholder and supply disputes, from the first letter through to trial. Most of what we do here is deciding early which of the three or four available arguments is worth running, and dropping the rest.
Arbitration
Institutional and ad hoc, domestic and cross-border. We act as counsel rather than sitting as arbitrators, which keeps the conflict position simple and means we are never declining your matter because of a panel appointment.
Employment
Senior exits, restrictive covenants and workplace investigations, acting for the employer. These are decided on documents created long before the dispute, so the first thing we ask for is the paperwork rather than the account.
Regulatory
Responding to regulators, show-cause notices and internal investigations. The work is mostly about what is said in the first written response, which is why we would rather be called before it is sent than after.
What instructing clients say
They told us in the first meeting that two of our four arguments were not worth running. Every other firm we spoke to was happy to run all four and bill for it. We settled in five months on terms we would have taken on day one.
The scope letter is genuinely a scope letter. When the other side added a counterclaim we had a revised estimate before anyone did the work, which is not how this normally goes.
An arbitration we expected to lose badly ended in a result we could live with, and the reason was preparation we could actually see happening. Nothing was ever left to the week before.
Questions people ask before instructing anyone
The answers we would give on the phone.
What does a first consultation cost?
Nothing, for the first hour, and you leave it with our view of the matter whether or not you instruct us. If it will genuinely take longer than an hour to understand the papers we will say so and quote for reading them, rather than giving you a shallow answer inside the free hour.
How do you bill?
Hourly against a written scope for most matters, with a fixed fee where the work is genuinely predictable — a single arbitration application, a defined investigation. We do not take contingency fees. Every invoice narrates what was done and by whom.
Will you tell me if I should settle?
Yes, and in writing. It is the single most useful thing a disputes lawyer does and the one most obviously against our own short-term interest, which is exactly why we put it in the file rather than leaving it as a conversation.
How long does a commercial dispute take?
A negotiated settlement, three to six months. An arbitration to award, twelve to twenty months depending on the seat and the tribunal. Court litigation is genuinely unpredictable and anyone quoting you a confident number for it is guessing.
Do you act against former clients?
No. We run a conflict check before the first meeting and will decline at that point rather than partway through. If we have to decline we will say which practice we would go to instead.
Can you work with our existing lawyers?
Frequently. A lot of our work comes in as counsel alongside a company secretary or a general corporate firm that does not run disputes. We are explicit about who owns which part of the file so nothing falls between the two.
Who would run your matter
Nine of us. The person you meet is the person who does the work.
Aparna Raghunath
Twenty-one years on commercial disputes and arbitration. Sits on the drafting side of most matters and takes the first meeting personally.
Devdatt Karnik
Institutional and ad hoc arbitration, largely cross-border. Runs the seat analysis at the outset, which is where most arbitrations are actually won or lost.
Nusrat Sheikh
Senior exits, covenants and workplace investigations for employers. Reads the paperwork before the account, every time.
Yogesh Palkar
Show-cause responses and regulator correspondence. Drafts the first written response, which is usually the document the whole matter turns on.
Rhea Mascarenhas
Discovery, evidence and the unglamorous half of litigation that decides it. Builds the chronology every matter here runs from.
Tanmay Bhide
Research and submissions across the arbitration practice. Maintains the authorities bank the whole firm drafts against.
The first hour is free, and you leave with our view
Whether or not you instruct us. Bring the documents rather than the account of them — a dispute is decided on paperwork written long before anyone fell out.