Civil
of some kind,” he explains. “Often in a commercial case, proceedings will begin with a flurry of interim applications or an injunction – possibly a jurisdiction challenge. If a case doesn’t settle after that early skirmishing, the parties will dig in and prepare for trial. At any time, I will have a number of cases at different stages of the journey from advisory work to trial preparation.” Much commercial litigation is resolved out of court, but Andrew still gets plenty of opportunities to conduct trial advocacy in certain types of case. “Trials between sophisticated entities, provided they don’t involve fraud allegations, will typically settle because it is rarely in the interests of two businesses to incur the costs of a public trial,” he observes. “But when you are fighting cases between individuals, or where there are serious allegations of fraud, settlement is less common because the whole point of the litigation in many such cases is for one party to have their day in court and prove that they are right.” As Andrew has grown more senior, opportunities to be ‘on his feet’ in court have become more frequent. One particular case stands out as a milestone in this particular regard: “I successfully applied for a freezing order to restrain a share dividend worth some $95 million, which had been proposed by a Middle Eastern company that my client was litigating against. The litigation was particularly complicated and had several moving parts, and it was the first sizeable injunction that I obtained unled – that is, without the supervision of a more senior barrister. The injunction also turned out to be critical to the outcome of the case, which settled soon afterwards. It reflected the career stage that I have now reached, where I am doing more cases on my own and conducting my own advocacy.” The power of persuasion Advocacy, clearly, is the cornerstone of the job, as well as one of its most enjoyable aspects.
Civil law involves relations between persons and organisations. It encompasses a very broad range of legal issues, including those relating to contract, tort, probate and trusts. More specifically, civil law covers disputes that range fromemployment to professional negligence, and from education to property. It was not the Bar, but a career in academia that initially beckoned to Andrew Scott after finishing his law degree at the University of Oxford. He stayed on to teach law and research topics in multi-jurisdictional commercial litigation, but soon came to realise that “it is just much more fun arguing cases for real than reading about them.” Mind made up, he left Oxford for a similarly intellectual, but more hands-on vocation. Andrewwas called to the Bar in 2010 and is currently a tenant of Blackstone Chambers, a leading commercial set in Temple, the heart of the City of London’s legal district where the Inns of Court are based. He has developed a broad civil disputes practice that covers a range of different areas of law. “About 90% of my practice is commercial cases, typically with a cross-border or international element, which could either be foreign parties or legal issues, or foreign legal proceedings taking place alongside those in England andWales that require coordination,” he explains. “At the commercial Bar in London, it is very rare nowadays to encounter any sizeable commercial litigation that does not involve a foreign element.” Within that 90%, Andrew’s cases vary across banking, restructuring and fraud work. The remaining 10% changes from year to year: “At the moment, a large proportion is made up of competition cases.” Life as a litigator His workload can be split into two broad categories – litigation and advice. “Most of my practice is litigation work – it might start out as advisory, but usually it turns into proceedings
For more chambers that work in this practice area, please use the ‘Pupillage index’.
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