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Tuesday 28 January 2020

Alan Gourgey QC and Joanne Wicks QC recognised in The Lawyer Hot 100 2020

We are delighted to announce that both Alan Gourgey QC and Joanne Wicks QC have been listed in this year’s “The Lawyer Hot 100”!

The Lawyer’s annual list “recognises the most daring, innovative and creative lawyers from in-house, private practice and the Bar. Whatever the year, everyone who is named in the Hot 100 has one thing in common: they are the lawyers of the moment. All those on the current list are shaping the legal profession right now“.

The Lawyer’s write-up on Alan Gourgey QC reads as follows:

“During summer 2019, silk Alan Gourgey QC helped ensure that the Libyan Investment Authority’s $200m fraud claim against JPMorgan was knocked out (Libyan Investment Authority v JP Morgan). Oil wealth fund LIA had brought a series of claims against Goldman Sachs, Société Générale and JP Morgan in relation to a $200m investment sold to it in 2007. Gourgey was part of the counsel team acting for defendant and close friend of the Gaddafi regime, Walid Mohamed Ali Al-Giahmi.

The set aside was granted on the grounds of failure to give full and frank disclosure on the without-notice application and on limitation grounds. Gaddafi’s fate and the collapse of the Libyan regime was also key to Gourgey’s limitation argument.

During 2020, Gourgey (who has acted for Gazprom in two SCC arbitrations relating to gas pricing and transit disputes) will continue to handle multibillion-dollar disputes, particularly those relating to gas and energy.

He is also taking on an asset-tracing case for Tatiana Akhmedova, ex-wife of Russian billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov, who is fighting to ensure the oligarch does not move his superyacht, Luna, from its moorings.”

The Lawyer’s write-up on Joanne Wicks QC reads as follows:

“Real estate silk Joanne Wicks QC, a champion for both tenants and landlords, appeared in one of The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases of 2019, Canary Wharf v European Medicines Agency. Closely followed by the media and expedited because of its importance, it settled before going to the Court of Appeal, after Wicks won the case in the High Court defending Canary Wharf. In a landmark judgment, the Court ruled that a commercial lease cannot be frustrated by Brexit.

Right at the end of 2018, the Supreme Court had handed down judgment in S Franses v The Cavendish Hotel, in which Wicks successfully acted for the tenant S Frances, a textiles and tapestries gallery which operates at the bottom of the hotel, setting a precedent that will enhance business tenants’ rights in the future.

The other Supreme Court case Wicks was involved with, Julia Duval v 11-13 Randolph Crescent Ltd, concerns long-term residential flat leases and could change the authorisation process for tenants to make alterations to their properties, and is awaiting judgment. A force to be reckoned with in real estate litigation, Wicks is also currently engaged in an arbitration regarding commercial leases and their rent review.”

You can view the full ‘Hot 100’ list here.

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