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  1. Law
May 21, 2024

Best corporate, litigation and dispute lawyers 2024

The definitive Spear's ranking for high-net-worth individuals

By Spear's

Corporate law covers a wide range of matters and transactions. Practitioners in this field may help their clients to navigate large deals, such as mergers and acquisitions, or specialise in particular areas of business.

The Spear’s corporate, litigation and dispute lawyers index focuses particularly on those lawyers who take high-networth individuals as private clients, rather than purely working for large companies.

The best corporate lawyers will enable a client to achieve their strategic aims – even when the going gets tough.

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  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
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‘Corporate law can be inaccessible to private individuals, but business owners, board members and intellectual property rights holders have as much need of advice as the largest companies. The Spear’s list of advisers consists of the very finest legal minds, focused on the needs of high net worth people and their business interests.

Ian Douglas, Spear’s head of research


Jump to:

Best corporate, litigation and dispute lawyers: names to know

For the first time, Spear’s recognises the best lawyers in this field by introducing a Top Flight ranking. Leading advisers promoted from Top Recommended include Richard Clark of Richard Clark Mediation, James Fulforth of Kingsley Napley and Stuart Hatcher of Forsters. They join Rosalyn Breedy, of Breedy Henderson, whose professional work is spotlighted below alongside a number of Top Recommended advisers and new additions to the index.

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Rosalyn Breedy
Rosalyn Breedy, Breedy Henderson

Rosalyn Breedy – Top Flight

Firm: Breedy Henderson

Rosalyn Breedy is a top-tier corporate, fund and financial services lawyer recognised for her work with family offices, financial services entrepreneurs and wealth management clients in the UK and internationally. She has a keen interest in new technology products and business models and is widely regarded as an authoritative and forward-looking figure in finance. 

Additionally, she serves as a non-executive on company boards in the financial services sector and is highly respected for her expertise and proactive approach in safeguarding the interests of her clients.

Read Rosalyn Breedy’s full profile on Spears500.com

Richard Spector – New Addition

Firm: Spector, Constant & Williams 

Spector is a highly experienced commercial litigator with a broad range of expertise, including banking and insolvency litigation, professional negligence claims, contractual disputes, IP and competition law claims. His team was involved in high-profile cases, including the litigation arising from the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Read Richard Spector’s full profile on Spears500.com

Lawrence Kelly
Lawrence Kelly, Lawrence Stephens

Firm: Lawrence Stephens 

Lawrence Kelly founded Lawrence Stephens in 1997 with partners Steven Bernstein and Stephen Messias. He is a solicitor-advocate with expertise in commercial litigation, fraud cases, and dispute resolution. His areas of practice include contractual and negligence claims, director and shareholder disputes, civil fraud, asset tracing, and regulatory matters. He is also a proponent of Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Read Lawrence Kelly’s full profile on Spears500.com

Johannes Gasser
Johannes Gasser, Gasser Partners

Firm: Gasser Partners

Johannes Gasser specialises in private wealth law, cross-border disputes, arbitration, and litigation. He is highly experienced in complex trust issues and is known for his expertise, discretion, and professionalism. Clients regard him as a top-notch lawyer and a great strategist with technical expertise and in-depth knowledge of private wealth law.

Read Johannes Gasser’s full profile on Spears500.com

Anthony MacPherson  – New Addition

Firm: Kingsley Napley

MacPherson, head of the corporate team at Kingsley Napley, focuses on individual clients rather than large companies. His work often involves representing high-net-worth individuals and entrepreneurs in transactional matters, including traditional corporate work and financing transactions for clients like Lord Sugar and Middle Eastern royal families.

Read Anthony MacPherson’s full profile on Spears500.com 

Hannes Arnold
Hannes Arnold, Gasser Partners

Firm: Gasser Partners

Based in Liechtenstein, Hannes Arnold’s areas of practice at Gasser Partners include corporate law, civil law, bank and finance law, and real estate law. Arnold has advised on major M&A transactions, restructuring projects, and regulatory matters. He also provides counsel to HNW individuals, international banks, investment firms, and institutional investors in corporate law matters. Additionally, he has expertise in financial markets law and private wealth management.

Read Hannes Arnold’s full profile on Spears500.com

Razi Mireskandari – New Addition 

Firm: Simons Muirhead Burton 

Mireskandari, managing partner and head of dispute resolution at Simons Muirhead & Burton, has a reputation for advising clients on general commercial disputes, as well as high-profile media, music, and publishing litigation cases. He heads a team of litigators who handle claimant and defendant work for individuals, companies, and international organisations. 

Read Razi Mireskandari’s full profile on Spears500.com

Thomas Nigg
Thomas Nigg, Gasser Partners

Firm: Gasser Partners 

Senior partner at Gasser Partners, Nigg is a Liechtenstein-based litigator with expertise in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, financial markets law, and more. Nigg has extensive knowledge in banking and finance, specialising in commercial, corporate, and banking issues at national and international levels.

He also has substantial experience in corporate law and M&A, particularly in advising international and local clients on Liechtenstein corporations, foundations, and trusts.

Read Thomas Nigg’s full profile on Spears500.com

Methodology

In selecting and ranking corporate, litigation and dispute lawyers, the Spear’s Research Unit conducts extensive research of the market, including interviews with well-informed observers, industry insiders and of course the advisers themselves. These take place both face-to-face, and on video and telephone calls. Candidates for inclusion are asked to fill in a form to provide data and a description of their work and client base. In finalising its selections and rankings, the Spear’s Research Unit employs a proprietary methodology that includes a weighted scoring system. This takes into account factors including an adviser’s standing, reputation, client base, recommendations and testimonials, the firm they represent, their level of engagement with the process and certain industry-specific criteria.

Best corporate, litigation and dispute lawyers: the complete list

Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.

Find out more

To explore all the Spear’s indices, and to use our find-an-adviser tool to identify the private client adviser who is right for your specific requirements, go to the Spear’s 500 website.

To receive relevant research updates from Spear’s – and thereby give you and your firm the best chance of being included in future Spear’s indices – please register here. If you are an adviser featured in an index and would like to update your profile or provide additional information, please email research@spearswms.com. If you are not featured but would like to be, please fill out our form.

Select and enter your email address The short, sharp email newsletter from Spear’s
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy policy for more information about our services, how Progressive Media Investments may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
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