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PCB Byrne was formed in April through the merger of PCB Litigation, a disputes specialist part-owned by the litigation funder Burford Capital, and the fraud expert Byrne and Partners.
The new firm plans to handle all forms of dispute resolution and specialises in areas such as banking and financial services, asset recovery, fraud defence and white collar crime and investigations.
PCB Byrne’s clients include extremely wealthy individuals, multinationals, financial institutions and governments. PCB Byrne has extensive experience in foreign courts and works with a network of international law firms. It intends to attract instructions from Asia, the Middle East and Russia.
Leading figures at the firm, based in Fleet Street in London, include the former PCB senior partners Anthony Riem and Trevor Mascarenhas, as well as Byrne & Partners’ one-time senior partner Michael Potts and managing partner Sara Teasdale.
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Speaking in March, Riem said: “We are in discussions with several financial institutions about running portfolios of cases. The strength in depth and financing options that the merged firm brings will enable us to roll this out more.”
High-profile former cases include representing a businessman against allegations of bribery involving hundreds of millions of pounds brought by the Libyan Investment Authority; advising on a $200 million dispute between two of Russia’s largest banks; acting for a global pharmaceutical company in a fraud action; and working with a leading insurance company in fraudulent misrepresentation claims against rogue traders.
The firm has been focusing on the enforcement of the £450 million Akhmedov divorce case of 2016 across courts in multiple jurisdictions. In April Tatiana Akhmedova, the former wife of the Russian billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov, won her High Court battle with her eldest son, the City trader Temur Akhmedov. Handing down her judgment, Mrs Justice Knowles stated that Akhmedova had been the “victim of a series of schemes designed to put every penny of the husband’s wealth beyond her reach”. Rejecting Temur Akhmedov’s case, she said he had “done and said all he could to prevent his mother receiving a penny of the matrimonial assets”.
Paraphrasing the 19th-century Russian writer Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina, the judge said: “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way . . . the Akhmedov family is one of the unhappiest ever to have appeared in my courtroom.”
Burford Capital, which had funded Akhmedova’s case, received $103 million in the wake of the High Court judgment.
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★ Commended for commercial dispute resolution; financial crime & fraud & regulatory
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