Practice area: Arbitration

Sam Heitlinger

  • 14 August 2025
Sam Heitlinger

Sam is a Senior Associate and Solicitor Advocate in the Commercial Disputes team, with broad experience advising clients in relation to litigation, international arbitration and investigations involving a diverse range of sectors. Sam has worked at two major international law firms in London and Paris, and is proficient in French and German.

Sam has advised on investment treaty arbitrations, group actions, professional negligence claims, commercial arbitrations, joint venture disputes, banking investigations, public inquiries, House of Commons Select Committee inquiries, partnership disputes, defamation claims, crisis management and in relation to anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance. Sam has notable experience in the professional services, energy, infrastructure, financial services and telecommunications sectors.

Sam has Higher Rights of Audience and has performed advocacy at various trials. 

Lucinda Smart

  • 18 October 2024
Lucinda Smart

Lucinda is a Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution team. She has experience advising clients on commercial disputes in a wide variety of sectors, including natural resources, banking and financial services, technology, and media.

She has worked on complex and high value commercial disputes across multiple jurisdictions and in a broad range of sectors. Lucinda has particular experience in cases linked to commercial fraud and has acted in proceedings at High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court level. Lucinda is also a member of Forsters’ Art Group. Her clients include corporates, financial institutions and high net worth individuals.

Frances Snowball

  • 21 September 2024
Frances Snowball

Frances is a Senior Associate in our Dispute Resolution team. She has a broad practice in complex cross-border commercial litigation and international arbitration.

She has experience advising clients on high value commercial disputes in a wide range of sectors including banking and financial services, technology and real estate. Frances has particular experience of insolvency proceedings, shareholder disputes, cases involving civil fraud, asset tracing and general contractual disputes. She has acted in proceedings in the High Court and Court of Appeal both in England and the British Virgin Islands.

Arbitration

Where privacy and confidentiality are at stake, enforcement is likely to take place in an emerging market, or a neutral forum is desirable, arbitration can be an attractive alternative to traditional litigation.

When parties choose to arbitrate, they are choosing to have their dispute determined in private by a tribunal appointed by them rather than in public by the national court of a particular state. Unlike the judgments of some state courts, arbitration awards are widely enforceable via the New York Convention, to which the significant majority of the world’s countries are signatories.

It is common for commercial contracts to contain arbitration clauses agreeing that any disputes between them will be resolved by arbitration. However, parties can also agree to arbitrate disputes on an ad hoc basis. In either case, our dispute resolution team is expertly placed to advise on whether arbitration is likely to be the best option when resolving your dispute.

If an arbitrable dispute should arise, our extensive experience of successfully managing all types of arbitrations – from small, single-issue disputes to complex, high-value, cross-border claims – will allow you to move forward with confidence. We have acted on arbitrations in a range of industry sectors (including construction, banking, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and investment funds), under all the major institutional rules (including the LCIA and ICC Rules) and across a variety of seats, with and against leading barristers and firms, both in the UK and internationally.

Thérèse Marie Rodgers

  • 29 August 2024
Thérèse Marie Rodgers

Thérèse Marie is a Partner in the Construction Disputes team and has extensive experience providing pre-dispute advice to help resolve project issues, as well as advising on every stage of a dispute from inception to conclusion, including mediation, adjudication, arbitration and litigation.

She acts for developers, building owners, main contractors, subcontractors and consultants on a broad range of construction disputes, including delay, disruption, variations, defective workmanship, negligent design, termination, final account disputes, professional negligence claims and building safety matters. She is known for her strategic approach to dispute resolution and for helping clients progress matters efficiently and effectively.

Her clients predominantly operate in the commercial real estate sector, particularly in the development of high-end residential, mixed-use and purpose-built student accommodation schemes. She regularly advises clients on building safety issues and potential claims arising under the Building Safety Act 2022.

Thérèse Marie also has considerable experience advising clients in the oil and gas, hydropower, renewable energy and infrastructure sectors.

Bryan Shacklady

  • 29 August 2024
Bryan Shacklady

Bryan is Counsel in the firm’s Dispute Resolution team and acts for ultra high net worth individuals and others in relation to a range of disputes. He has particular expertise in complex multi-jurisdictional litigation, having been involved in disputes with live proceedings in England, the Virgin Islands, Luxembourg, Iceland, the Cayman Islands, Jersey, Russia, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.

He is known for advising on shareholder disputes where relations between shareholders have irretrievably broken down, whether that is to achieve a settlement if possible, or to succeed in court proceedings if not.

Bryan is experienced in arbitration, having represented clients in arbitrations under the arbitration rules of the International Chamber of Commerce, the London Court of International Arbitration, the Japan Commercial Arbitration Association and the Tribunal Arbitral du Sport/Court of Arbitration for Sport.

He is heavily involved in our Graduate Recruitment programme and takes a great pride in mentoring our more newly qualified lawyers.

David Young

  • 29 August 2024
David Young

David is a Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution team.

He works with a wide range of clients operating across multiple industry sectors including life sciences, technology, media and telecommunications, and insurance in order to resolve commercial disputes, whether at the pre-action stage, in litigation or arbitration.

David has particular experience in advising on complex contractual issues and in multi-jurisdictional claims involving fraud and asset tracing, as well as advising on all aspects of litigation funding and ATE insurance.

Edward Richards

  • 29 August 2024
Edward Richards

An experienced litigator, Ed has represented clients in numerous complex, high-value disputes, often with a cross-border element. He is equally at home in litigation or arbitration, with experience in High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court proceedings and in arbitrations under the LCIA and ICC Rules (among others) and across a number of seats.

While Ed enjoys being a generalist, recent experience has included proceedings relating to the alleged fraudulent circumvention of undertakings given to the Competition Commission in relation to the de-merger of the two biggest suppliers in the UK egg market (Stonegate Farmers Limited v Kent & Ors; Clarence Court Eggs Limited v Chapman & Anor) and a claim relating to the diversion of a billion-pound plus business relating to the acquisition of music copyrights (Hipgnosis Music Limited v Mercuriadis & Ors). The former proceedings were the subject of a successful appeal to the Court of Appeal and the latter proceedings were featured in the Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2026.

Ed takes his responsibilities outside chargeable work seriously. He is a member of the firm’s Gender Equality and Social Mobility Networks and has provided pro bono legal advice at the South Westminster Legal Advice Centre. While at his previous firm, he represented the families of service personnel pro bono at a series of inquests relating to their deaths while in service.

Ed joined Forsters in 2021, having trained at Hogan Lovells and spent his initial years post-qualification in their London international arbitration team.

Benedict Walton

  • 29 August 2024
Benedict Walton

Noted by clients as “hugely commercial and great at litigation psychology”, Ben is Partner and Head of the Dispute Resolution team. He advises domestic and international corporate and individual clients on a wide variety of complex disputes, resolved by litigation, arbitration and by other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods. Ben attracts praise for his “good tactical sense and well-considered advice” and his “strategic and innovative” approach to litigation.

His particular areas of expertise include breaches of warranty and other contractual terms, competition litigation, breaches of directors’ duty, shareholder disputes (including unfair prejudice petitions), negligence, fraud, contempt of Court, investment, regulatory, and financial services disputes and group actions.

Ben has extensive experience of funded litigation and maintains excellent relationships with many of the major third-party funders, ATE insurance providers and brokers. This ensures that he is well placed, when required, to help clients find the most appropriate funding structure for their cases. While the details of funded cases remain confidential, Ben and Forsters have secured litigation funding solutions for some of the highest profile litigation to pass through the High Court in recent years.

Ben joined Forsters in 2015. He trained and spent the first 11 years of his career at Jones Day (formerly Gouldens), where he qualified as a solicitor in 2004.

Caroline Harbord

  • 29 August 2024
Caroline Harbord

An experienced commercial litigator, Caroline has been described as a “stand-out individual” by The Legal 500 2026. She has been recognised as a ‘Next Generation Partner’ in each of the last four editions of The Legal 500, having previously been recognised as a ‘Rising Star’.

Caroline regularly leads complex international and offshore disputes, with particular expertise in joint venture and shareholder disputes, civil fraud and asset tracing, including applications for urgent injunctive relief, as well as contractual and supply chain disputes. She has acted as an expert witness in foreign legal proceedings and has led arbitrations under the LCIA, SCC, ICC and LMAA Rules. Caroline also has significant experience acting on cases, including group claims, funded by litigation funders and supported by after-the-event insurance.

Drawing on extensive cross-border and offshore experience, Caroline advises high net worth individuals, family offices, family-owned businesses, trustees and trust companies, banks, corporates, directors, private equity houses and insolvency practitioners. Her practice has a significant international and offshore focus, complemented by her experience practising in Jersey and her previous role as Global General Counsel to an international trust and company service provider. This enables her to provide commercially focused advice in high-stakes and complex disputes.

Caroline is known for her strategic approach to disputes, helping clients identify and pursue the most effective route to achieving their objectives. She combines commercial awareness with responsiveness and a strong focus on client service.

Andrew Head

  • 29 August 2024
Andrew Head

Ranked in The Legal 500 2024, Andrew is noted for his ‘track record of work on international disputes, finance cases, class action claims and professional negligence’.

As a Partner in the Dispute Resolution team, Andrew has a broad and diverse practice, focusing on professional indemnity matters, complex land disputes, civil fraud, tax investigations and large-scale group actions arising from financial mis-selling.

Andrew is skilled at analysing large volumes of documentation efficiently and cost-effectively, enabling him to develop a thorough understanding of his clients’ commercial objectives and the issues at the heart of a dispute. He has considerable experience in High Court litigation, as well as domestic and international arbitrations. His clients include international banks, major property developers, retailers, high net worth individuals and charitable institutions.