Generally recognised as one of the leading silks at the Commercial Bar, Laurence Rabinowitz KC has a wide ranging commercial litigation and arbitration practice, which includes expertise in banking and finance, company law, energy, civil fraud, competition and professional liability cases.
He is recommended in both Chambers UK 2021 and The Legal 500 2020 as a leading silk in Banking & Finance, Commercial Dispute Resolution, Energy and Natural Resources, Civil Fraud, and International Arbitration (General Commercial & Insurance). He was awarded International Arbitration Silk of the Year at the Chambers UK Bar Awards 2018 and Commercial Litigation Silk of the Year at the Chambers UK Bar Awards 2019.
He is presently acting for Visa Europe Services LLC in relation to the long-running multilateral interchange fee litigation, both before the High Court and the Competition Appeal Tribunal; for International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) in its ongoing dispute with Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB; for Hewlett Packard in their £3.4 billion damages claim in relation to the acquisition of Autonomy; for Tesco PLC in defence of claims brought by shareholders under Section 90a FSMA 2000; and he is also acting for a major international petroleum group in an arbitration claim for c. US$5.5billlion.
Recent high-profile cases include: Travelport Ltd & Ors. v. WEX Inc. in proceedings brought into being by the SARS – Cov-2 pandemic, and which concerned a number of points relating to the proper construction of, and burden of proof in relation to, the definition of Material Adverse Effect contained in a Share Purchase Agreement; acting for the Russian Fedration in Hulley, Yukos & Ors. v. The Russian Federation in successfully resisting important applications by shareholders of Yukos in proceedings to enforce US$50 billion arbitration awards; IGE v HMRC which dealt with equitable and common law rescission, the operation of s.36 of the Limitation Act and the scope of the rule in Young v Bristol Aeroplane (which allows the Court of Appeal to decline to follow otherwise binding authority in certain circumstances); Banco Santander Totta v Carris, the first Financial List trial, in which he acted for the successful claimant in both the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal; The RBS Rights Issue litigation in which he acted for the institutional investors claiming over £1 billion in relation to the bank's emergency rights issue in 2008; in Sabbagh v. Khoury in the Court of Appeal where he successfully overturned the decision of Mrs Justice Carr to strike out substantial aspects of a major claim; for the successful claimants in Littlewoods Limited & Ors. v. HMRC, a claim for restitution in tax and compound interest from HMRC of more than £1.2 billion; and in Berezovsky v Abramovich, in which Laurence acted for Boris Berezovsky.
He is a Bencher of Middle Temple and a Deputy High Court Judge.
