Dispute Resolution

Corporate and commercial disputes go to the heart of your business and reputation.

Overview

No matter how hard you try, business doesn’t always remain amicable. When you’re facing a complex, high value dispute, we can bring you the solutions that allow you to take control of the narrative.

We will act fast and fight hard, and we will deploy deep commercial and contentious expertise to help you achieve your strategic goals. Robust, ambitious and commercially shrewd,  we will outmanoeuvre the opposition every time – we are the sophisticated, strategic choice.

Dispute Resolution Yearbook '26

Explore the latest trends shaping the disputes market, discover our practice highlights, and meet the team behind our work. Dive into our 2026 Yearbook now.

READ THE YEARBOOK

Our practice

  • An award-winning, premium practice, with deep expertise in investment disputes, which acts on both sides of the courtroom - giving you the rare strategic advantage of knowing exactly how your opponent thinks – backed by the full technical and commercial firepower of a full-service firm.

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  • When the stakes are high - from cartel damages to BigTech abuse - our market-leading team brings the experience, seniority, and track record to help you navigate your most challenging competition disputes.

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  • When a sensitive investigation lands or a crisis hits, the boardroom needs counsel it can trust completely - free of conflicts, battle-tested at the highest level, and able to move fast.  We are that firm.

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  • The experienced arbitration team at Travers Smith advises on high-value and complex disputes across a broad range of sectors, spanning energy, financial services, sports, construction, healthcare and life sciences, consumer goods, aviation, diversified industrials and telecommunications. 


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  • When you have been let down by professional advisors, you need conflict free, exceptional advice and representation. Critically and unusually, we are conflict free against the Big 4.

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  • ESG litigation is reshaping corporate liability, fast and across borders. The legal, commercial and reputational consequences can be severe. Our hands-on experience defending these claims can help you reduce your exposure before one arises and if a claim does arise, we have the strategy to handle it effectively, in court and in the boardroom.

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You contacts

Read Heather Gagen Profile
Heather Gagen
Meet the whole team
Read Caroline Edwards Profile
Caroline Edwards
Read Rob Fell Profile
Rob Fell
Read John Lee Profile
John Lee
Read Stephanie Lee Profile
Stephanie Lee
Read Andy Moody Profile
Andy Moody
Read Joseph Moore Profile
Joseph Moore

Selected highlights

  • Acting for various Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) companies in respect of their fraud claims arising from the US$11 billion acquisition of Autonomy Corporation plc in late 2011. The trial was one of the longest (ten months) and most complex ever heard by the English courts and has variously been described as the "tech trial of the century" and the "UK's largest ever fraud trial". In January 2022 it was announced that HPE had “substantially succeeded” in its claims and in 2025 the Court awarded HP damages in excess of US$1 billion.

  • Acted for Tony Hayward, former Chairman of Glencore plc, in the defence of approximately £300 million in claims under s.90 FSMA brought by institutional investors arising from allegedly misleading statements in the company's IPO prospectus, a case that generated significant legal and public attention, including a landmark Supreme Court judgment that reversed the longstanding "Shareholder Principle" and reshaped English law on privilege. The claims against Mr Hayward were settled on confidential terms.

  • Acting for a US-owned European truck manufacturer defending multiple damages claims brought before the English courts (both as individual claims and as class action proceedings) arising from the European Commission's decision on anti-trust infringements in the Trucks market. As part of its defence of the class action proceedings our client had appealed to the Supreme Court in relation to the class representatives' funding arrangements (R (on the application of PACCAR Inc) v The Competition Appeal Tribunal), which raised fundamental issues for both the anti-trust class action regime and the broader litigation funding industry.

what others say

Travers occupies its own distinctive space at the premium end of commercial dispute resolution: a City firm that has remained one, yet has the talent and scale to take on the biggest cases in the English courts -- and a track record of winning them.
Legal 500 2027
There is nothing that the litigation team at Travers Smith cannot turn their hand to; it is packed with lawyers with razor-sharp legal skills and commercial nous in equal measure.
Legal 500 2027
Travers Smith sits at the premium end of commercial dispute resolution. A City firm with genuine scale and depth, it combines a strong, winning personality with an unusually collaborative culture.
Chambers 2026
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