Partners Adam Rose and Shaistah Akhtar have been selected for this year’s The Lawyer Hot 100.
The annual list recognises the successes of lawyers from in-house, private practice and the Bar, as well as those who are shaping the legal profession. Mishcon de Reya is one of the few firms to regularly feature lawyers in the annual review.
Adam’s entry states: “In 2023 Mishcon de Reya partner Adam Rose was conspicuous for his work for the Jewish community, advising the British Board of Deputies on its challenge to the BBC to stop calling Hamas ‘militants’ and also working with four British families whose relatives were being held hostage by Hamas. None of this distracted him from his demanding day job as commercial and data protection partner at Mishcon. The scope of Rose’s work is noticeably broad. It encompasses advisory, transactional, regulatory and contentious, with clients ranging from corporates to individuals. Over the last few years his practice has burgeoned – particularly after Mishcon’s acquisition of Taylor Vinters, which has brought him new colleagues in Cambridge and Oxford.
Rose’s ability to see the bigger picture – be it in the political or commercial arenas – translates well into his role as international development partner. He is central to Mishcon’s strategy of developing close relationships with independent firms. Most of that activity is European-facing, but Rose also has a keen interest in Latin America, having spent much of his youth in Brazil – a stint that left him with colloquial Portuguese and a devotion to Palmeiras football club alongside the more homely charms of Southend United.”
Of Shaistah, The Lawyer writes: “Any litigator will tell you that overturning an arbitration award is an uphill battle. Trying to do so nearly three years out of time in a case worth around $11bn to an impoverished nation is something else.
But that’s what Mishcon de Reya partner Shaistah Akhtar and her team achieved last year when the Commercial Court ruled in favour of her client, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the jaw dropping case of Nigeria v Process & Industrial Developments. After an arbitration tribunal ruled in favour of Process & Industrial Developments, Akhtar was instructed by Nigeria and won an unprecedented extension of time to challenge the award. The country was potentially on the hook to pay what amounted to a third of its foreign currency reserves for a contract that was never actually fulfilled. After four years of litigation, including many efforts to uncover evidence of fraud in multiple jurisdictions, Justice Knowles found in October that the original award against Nigeria had been achieved through fraud.
As much as Akhtar, who also leads Mishcon’s sanctions team, tried to run the team just like any other case, it was hard to avoid the real world consequences of what was at stake. With the case receiving daily news coverage in Nigeria, a loss would have meant nurses not trained and roads not built. She hopes the case will now open paths in similar cases where fraud has been buried.
Akhtarhas found a niche in digging clients out of particularly deep holes. This year she is acting on a similar arbitration challenge, this time against the Czech Republic involving allegations of corruption by former state officials.”
View the full list (subscription required).