Anthony Riem
Partner

Named as one of the Hot 100 Lawyers for 2021 by The Lawyer, by The Times as one of Britain's most sought-after lawyers and recognised as a leading lawyer Anthony has deep expertise in representing corporates, banks and high net worth individuals in complex cross border disputes before English and overseas Courts at both first instance and appellate levels and before arbitral tribunals. Strategically-minded and a source of astute, commercially-focused advice, Anthony’s practice includes fraud investigation, asset recovery (including obtaining or challenging freezing orders in several jurisdictions), banking and commercial disputes, often involving allegations of serious wrongdoing.

The Directories Say

Chambers and Partners UK (2027)

• Anthony is double top ranked in Civil Fraud and Global Asset Tracing and Recovery and ranked in Restructuring/Insolvency Litigation. They say he:  'is a brilliant leader who is exceptional with clients’, ‘is sophisticated, personable and his judgement is impeccable’, ‘an absolutely outstanding lawyer [and] an outstanding tactician who is a joy to work with’, ‘knows the answers and the calls to make’, ‘is a fabulous operator with a wealth of experience’ and ‘a stand-out [who] is above the fray, with keen insights into the law and the practical impacts.'

Legal 500 (2027)

• Anthony is identified as a Leading Individual for civil fraud. It says he has an ‘absolute focus on getting the best result for the client’ and together with his partner Trevor Mascarenhas, they are described as: 'real titans in the field and widely respected'. Anthony is also recommended for banking litigation and premium commercial litigation where he is described as 'commercially very savvy, master tactician, [with] real gravitas.’ 

Lexology Index

• Anthony has been named as a Global Elite Thought Leader in Asset Recovery, and as a Thought Leader in Commercial Litigation and Investigations. He is described as 'a supreme strategist', 'a brilliant lawyer for offshore litigation', ‘a great tactician with an impressive client base’ and 'a real doyen of the investigations world' who has a 'very commercial attitude to litigation.' and is 'highly respected for his top-tier knowledge in complex multi-jurisdictional disputes'. He 'always finds solutions no matter how difficult the challenge.' 

Notable Experience

• Enforcing the UK's largest-ever divorce award of £453 million across nine jurisdictions. 
• Defeating a US$14 billion claim brought against a state-owned company on the basis that the Court did not have jurisdiction.
• Setting aside a US$700 million freezing order obtained against a global trading company..
• Representing a Chinese company in respect of its claims to 61,000 Bitcoin which are subject to the largest civil restraint order obtained by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
• Recovering valuable assets for administrators and receivers of companies from banks, directors and offshore companies used to disguise and hold those assets.
• Representing high net worth individuals involved in matrimonial disputes to include obtaining freezing and search orders.
• Defending directors of a company alleged to have transferred assets worth US$115 million from it to them in breach of their fiduciary duties and at an undervalue and in preference to other creditors.
• Successfully defeating claims brought against a businessman in a series of claims brought by the Libyan Investment Authority alleging hundreds of millions of dollars of investments were procured through bribery.
• Establishing the jurisdiction of the Cayman Court to grant freezing orders in support of foreign proceedings, so as to be able to freeze effectively substantial assets held through Cayman vehicles.

• Obtaining freezing orders in multiple jurisdictions for various banks, freezing many hundreds of millions of dollars and in one case obtaining a judgment in excess of US$180 million for deceit where the case against the defendant was almost entirely built on inference.
• Enforcing overseas judgments in England where the defendants challenged they could receive fair trials in their home countries.
• Obtaining password cracking orders to break passwords on encrypted electronic devices and a disclosure order against Google in respect of Gmail accounts to obtain evidence about assets.
• Acting for a claimant company in claims to recover dividends with a value of US$800 million.
• Acting on the leading case challenging the jurisdiction of the English Court to grant freezing orders where the defendants were not resident in England and had no assets here.
• Acting for a former senior employee of a state-owned aluminium company accused of corruption which is one of the leading cases of when legal privilege can be waived.

Background

Anthony is the English member of FraudNet, the International Chamber of Commerce's global network of asset recovery specialists, and a founding member and former Chairman of the Commercial Fraud Lawyers Association. Anthony was both the Managing Partner and Senior Partner at PCB Litigation and the Senior Partner at PCB Byrne. 

Contact Anthony