Richard I. Lewis

Richard I. Lewis

Partner Litigation, Arbitration, and Employment

London

+44 20 7296 5038

[email protected]

Richard I. Lewis

Overview
Experience
Credentials
Insights and events

'recommended for CIS-related disputes'
Legal500

Widely recognised as a leader in his field, Richard is ranked as a tier one leading individual for commercial litigation by the Legal500. As a partner in our dispute resolution department, Richard focuses on high value and complex litigation, often originating in former CIS countries. He has extensive experience in cross-border litigation and fraud, including particular worldwide freezing injunctions and other powerful asset preservation relief.

Richard has acted on some of the most high profile disputes to come before the English courts in the past ten years, including acting for the Ukrainian bank, PrivatBank, in its $3 billion fraud claim against its former owners, Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov. Richard has a particular specialism in the area of post-judgment enforcement, and currently acts for Kazakhstan Kagazy in its attempts to enforce a $300 million judgment against Maksat Arip. Richard also acts the Kazakh bank, BTA, on the ground-breaking dispute against its former Chairman, Mukhtar Ablyazov, who was found to have misappropriated funds running to billions of dollars.

Whilst having acted on significant disputes in a wide-range of fields, Richard has particularly experience in the fields of banking and mining, having also acted for the Kazakh mining conglomerate, ENRC, in a dispute concerning a major iron ore project in Brazil. Richard is known for being hard-working, determined, tenacious and highly commercial and comes recommended by the Legal500 for CIS-related disputes in particular.

'recommended for CIS-related disputes'
Legal500

Representative experience

Acting for PJSC PrivatBank against Igor Kolomoisky, Gennady Bogolyubov and others in a fraud dispute in the Chancery Division. The Bank claims for $1.9bn in principal, together with interest running to well over $1bn, taking the total size of the claim over $3bn. The Bank obtained a landmark decision in the Court of Appeal in October 2019, confirming the English court’s jurisdiction to hear the claim.

Acting for Kazakhstan Kagazy in proceedings funded by Harbour Litigation Funding to enforce a $300m judgment against alleged trust assets. The disputed assets include multiple high value English properties and funds held in a Swiss bank account.

Acting for JSC BTA Bank in multi-jurisdictional fraud claims since 2009 against its former Chairman and his associates and family members. The Bank's claims ran to over US$6bn and involved proceedings in England, the BVI, Cyprus, Seychelles, Russia, Ukraine and many others. The proceedings are thought to be the largest fraud proceedings ever to come before the English Commercial Court. The proceedings have made new law in England in numerous fields, including freezing orders, receivership orders, search orders, non-party disclosure orders and committal proceedings.

Acting for prominent Ukrainian businessman, Victor Pinchuk, against two other Ukrainian businessmen in US$2bn dispute in English Commercial Court relating to iron ore mine in Ukraine.

Acting for mining conglomerate, ENRC, in US$335m claim regarding Brazilian iron ore mining project. The dispute included committal and breach of confidence proceedings, Brazilian civil/criminal law issues, and contractual interpretation.