ONTIER LLP is delighted to announce the expansion of its London office with Aoife Keane joining today as a partner, and Felicity Potter being promoted from senior associate to partner.
Aoife joins ONTIER LLP from Seddons Solicitors where she was a partner since 2019. Earlier she was a disputes lawyer at Hausfeld and Fried Frank Harris Schriber & Jacobson, based in London.
At ONTIER, Aoife will represent companies and high-net-worth individuals in a range of high-value domestic and multi-jurisdictional disputes, predominantly in the financial services and technology sectors.
In addition to her litigation experience, Aoife has represented clients in international arbitrations under the rules of most of the major arbitral institutions, including the London Court of International Arbitration.
Aoife’s background in advising on international dispute resolution will augment ONTIER’s highly rated and expanding London team.
Felicity Potter joined ONTIER at the start of 2021 as a senior associate in the London Litigation Practice, specialising in commercial litigation and international arbitration working on high-value, complex and multijurisdictional disputes. She previously worked at Morrison & Foerster LLP, Kobre & Kim, and McGuire Woods LLP.
Felicity has vast experience representing clients in various arbitral forums under all the major arbitral rules and has represented clients in proceedings in the High Court, and Court of Appeal, for example. This experience covers a wide variety of matters including breach of contract and joint-venture disputes, financial disputes, and large value civil fraud claims.
Furthermore, Felicity is also a Solicitor-Advocate with Higher Rights of Audience in Civil Advocacy.
Derek Stinson, Managing Partner of ONTIER LLP’s London office, comments: “We are delighted to welcome Aoife and Felicity to the partnership. Their sound understanding of the London disputes market will help us expand our caseload while bringing valued experience to support our existing clients. We have a burgeoning reputation in the digital-currency space and ambitious growth plans across the range of our practice areas over the next three to five years, of which these appointments are only the start."
Aoife Keane, Partner of ONTIER LLP’s London office, comments: "I am excited to be joining ONTIER at this time of growth. I am very much looking forward to working with the London team and overseas building the ONTIER brand and its reputation as the ‘go-to’ firm for large and complex blockchain and digital-asset disputes. I am also keen to develop my energy and international commercial disputes practice. I look forward to working with the London Partners growing and develop a strong and cohesive team of specialist lawyers with an unparalleled reputation for complex commercial disputes."
This has also been featured in Legal Brief, City AM and Legal Business.
For further information, please contact:
Bell Yard Communications | +44 (0)20 7936 2021 | BellYard@bell-yard.com
Sarah Peters | +44 (0)7977 997927 | sarah@bell-yard.com
Declan Flahive | +44 (0)7944 629485 | declan@bell-yard.com
Notes to Editors
ONTIER is well known in London for its high-profile Bitcoin-related litigation, advising among others, the author of the White Paper protocol for the creation of Bitcoin (Dr Craig Wright). It has a highly regarded dispute resolution team and is recognised in the UK Legal 500 for commercial litigation, international arbitration and civil fraud. Its work is almost exclusively international and multi-jurisdictional in nature, focused on complex, high value international litigation, insolvency matters and arbitration in a wide range of financial and industry sectors.
The team has acted in the past in high-profile international disputes including Lucasfilm Ltd v Ainsworth, known as the Star Wars Stormtrooper litigation (upheld in the UK Supreme Court). It was also involved in the Masri litigation and a case against the Nigerian state, which resulted in a US$6.6bn arbitral award (Process and Industrial Developments v NNPC).
More recently it has established a growing practice and reputation for recovering lost, stolen, and hacked Bitcoin. The firm is instructed for example on behalf of Tulip Trading Ltd (TTL), a company beneficially owned by the Wright family, in TTL’s £3bn High Court claim to establish fiduciary and other duties owed by bitcoin developers to bitcoin owners looking to recover access to their coins in circumstances where their private keys have been stolen, hacked, or lost. Several other ONTIER-run bitcoin claims involve defamation, breach of copyright, and trademark enforcement against various third parties and are ongoing.
ONTIER has offices in 18 cities in 13 countries, and is particularly strong in Latin America.