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Memery Crystal Wins "Litigation Team of the Year" at The Lawyer Awards

26/06/2014

At a glance

Memery Crystal LLP has been named “Litigation Team of the Year” at The Lawyer Awards 2014 for its resounding litigation success on behalf of Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited (“Gulf”).

The awards were presented on 25 June at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

This is the 2nd major award this year for the team’s resounding success in the Gulf Keystone litigation.

The team has already been named “Dispute Resolution Team of the Year” at the Legal Business Awards 2014, which were presented on 13 February.  This marks the first time a firm has won both awards in the same year.

The team successfully defended Gulf against a $1.65 billion claim brought by Excalibur Ventures LLC for an interest in Gulf’s four oil fields in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.  The strategy set by Memery Crystal and tactics developed and executed achieved an overwhelming victory dismissing all of Excalibur’s claims and recovery of very substantial costs. The 57-day trial was the longest in the Commercial Court’s judicial year (2012-2013).

In addition to achieving complete success at trial, the team won a series of strategic victories which put Excalibur on the back foot from the start.  On 13 December 2013, the Court awarded indemnity costs of £17.5 million, a payment on account of the Defendants’ costs, and gave permission for Gulf to pursue Excalibur’s funders.

The Memery Crystal team was led by partner Harvey Rands and included partner Nicholas Scott and solicitors Peter Reynolds and Anne McMahon.

Harvey Rands commented: “I am very proud of the team’s hard word, ingenuity and determination in delivering this resounding victory for the client.  I am grateful for the client’s unswerving trust and confidence over more than 3 years of unrelenting litigation.”

Memery Crystal is recognised as a leading firm for dispute resolution by Chambers UK and The Legal 500 UK.  It has a wealth of experience in handling complex High Court litigation, and also appears regularly before English and foreign arbitral bodies including LCIA, ICC, ICSID, AAA, LMAA and WIPO.  Memery Crystal has specialist groups handling financial services and regulatory issues in the public and private markets (including FCA) for institutions and individuals, as well as disputes in the natural resources sector.

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