Simon is a partner in our Global Commercial Disputes Group in London, having trained and qualified at Reed Smith. He is experienced at handling complex international and domestic commercial litigation and international arbitration matters, from the pre-action phase through to trial and final merits hearings. He also has extensive experience of ADR and mediation and has achieved many favourable settlements for clients in their disputes. Simon also has a busy advisory practice, assisting clients in understanding risks to their businesses and commercial relationships.
His core areas of practice are international arbitration, commercial litigation, banking and financial services litigation, professional negligence disputes (particularly in the fields of construction and engineering, and financial services) and IP, media and technology litigation.
Simon is a recommended individual for international arbitration (Legal 500 2022 and 2020). He is also recommended for commercial litigation (Legal 500 2021 and 2020) and was noted as “top quality” in relation to commercial litigation in Legal 500 2021. He was also recommended for professional negligence disputes in Legal 500 2017, 2018 and 2019. He is the author of a chapter, “Delivering justice or resolving the dispute?”, in Carlos González-Bueno’s book 40 Under 40 in International Arbitration 2018. Simon is also currently serving a two year term as a member of the Young Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration’s Steering Committee.
His experience in arbitration and litigation spans a number of industry areas, including banking and financial services; investment and hedge funds; construction and engineering; life sciences; aviation, aerospace and defence; telecommunications, media and technology; commodities; and real estate.
In addition to England and Wales, geographically, Simon’s experience has included working with clients in and/or on matters involving a number of jurisdictions, including: New York, California and Texas in the United States, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, the Cayman Islands, the BVI, the Bahamas, Guernsey, Brazil, Peru, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Moldova, Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Liberia, Mauritius, Nigeria and Tanzania,
Simon has significant experience of acting in LCIA, ICC, SIAC, UNCITRAL, Swiss Rules, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, AAA and LMAA arbitrations and acting in proceedings in the UK Supreme Court, English Court of Appeal and English High Court (particularly the Commercial Court, Queen’s Bench Division, Chancery Division, Technology and Construction Court, Companies Court and SCCO).
During his training with Reed Smith, Simon worked in the Financial Industry Group, Transportation Industry Group, Global Commercial Disputes Group and Energy and Natural Resources.
After qualifying, Simon also spent time on secondment to the litigation department at Barclays Capital, where he worked on a variety of international arbitration, High Court and regulatory matters and to Reed Smith’s New York office, working on international arbitration and banking litigation matters.