Marie Smale
Senior Associate

Marie Smale is an associate in our civil fraud and commercial disputes team. Her practice covers high value and cross-border commercial litigation and arbitrations. She has experience with shareholder and contractual disputes as well as with contentious trust and probate litigation.

Notable Experience

• Acting for a bank in defending a challenge to a $300 million arbitral award relating to an overseas mining project
• Represented a UK company in a £100m arbitration claim for breach of a shareholders' agreement in relation to a property investment company.
• Acted for an insured individual in the recovery under a D&O policy of £multi-million litigation costs relating to extradition proceedings to the US for wire fraud charges.
• Acted for an Austrian insolvency practitioner in recognition proceedings and ancillary proceedings under the Insolvency Act 1986.
• Acted in a spouse's constructive trust and Inheritance Act claim in respect of a £multi-million estate involving complex cross-border issues, including global assets and an executor based in South Africa.
• Successfully defended an executor client at trial against a claim by a beneficiary for misappropriation of assets and subsequently undertook enforcement proceedings.

Background

Marie studied law at the University of Bristol and completed the Legal Practice Course at BPP Law School. Prior to her career in law, Marie was a research consultant at a data analytics and brand consulting company in London. Marie joined the firm in 2023. She is a member of the Young Fraud Lawyers Association. Marie speaks French.

Contact Marie