Hardwicke’s international presence given major boost

News
07 Sep 2016

Hardwicke’s exceptional year continues as experienced international commercial silk, Greg Laughton QC, joins as a consultant member. His arrival brings to 9 the number of established, well regarded barristers who have been recruited recently into Hardwicke’s key practice areas of commercial, construction, insurance (including professional indemnity and personal injury/clinical negligence) and property.

Greg commented: “I am excited to join Hardwicke. I see real opportunities for mutual benefit given the compatibility between our respective areas of practice and spheres of operation, particularly in international arbitration work. I have also been very impressed by their commercial and efficient approach.”

PJ Kirby QC, joint head of chambers with Paul Reed QC, is enthusiastic about the boost Greg’s arrival gives the commercial team at Hardwicke, noting “The synergy between Greg’s experience and that of Hardwicke’s members  provides an exciting opportunity to enhance our commercial offering. Our international reach is going from strength to strength and Greg will definitely assist us in developing this further.” 

Amanda Illing, Chief Executive is equally delighted: “We are a progressive, forward-thinking set as our recent Legal Week Innovation – Chambers of the Year award recognised. This new and innovative arrangement with Greg will enable us to be even more responsive to clients’ needs.

Greg is called to the Bar not only in England & Wales but also New South Wales. He operates from Sydney and London. He has 30 years’ experience acting for, and advising, in complex cross-border, maritime, commercial, building and construction, professional negligence and insurance-related disputes, both litigation and arbitration.

Greg is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a graded arbitrator with the Institute of Arbitrators & Mediators, Australia, a BarADR approved arbitrator by the NSW Bar Association and a Fellow of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA). He is also an accredited mediator under the Australian National Mediator Accreditation Standards and a court-appointed mediator by the Supreme and District Courts of New South Wales.

Greg was recently awarded the Australian Arbitration Barrister of the Year in the Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards.

Greg’s arrival comes hard on the heels of Frederico Singarajah (call 2009) who joined in July 2016. Fred is an experienced commercial barrister whose practice focuses on commercial litigation and international arbitration. His work covers a number of different sectors including construction, energy, finance and insurance. Within these sectors, he has experience of a wide variety of disputes ranging from international trade to shareholders’ and partnership disputes to economic torts and civil fraud. Frederico has niche expertise in Brazil and Latin American-related disputes. Before coming to the Bar, he worked as a solicitor and solicitor-advocate, which gives him experience well beyond his year of call. Frederico is the founder and secretary of the Lex Anglo-Brasil group, and is a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster in commercial litigation.

If you would like any further information, please contact Amanda Illing on 020 7242 2523 or amanda.illing@gatehouselaw.co.uk