Dispute resolution

Commercial litigators represent and advise commercial clients when disputes arise from joint venture projects, contracts, civil fraud, commercial and banking transactions, corporate governance, financial services regulation and professional negligence. Disputes can be decided through adversarial processes like litigation or arbitration, or parties may reach a negotiated settlement. 

There are many decisions to make as an aspiring lawyer including, and perhaps the first decision of them all, whether to pursue a career as a solicitor or barrister. In Harvey Briggs’ case, he was drawn to life as a solicitor because he finds that he works most successfully as part of a team. This proved the right decision during his time as a trainee as he began to gain experience working on a range of cases and found that teamwork was a key ingredient to his own success, as well as for the team, firm and its clients. In fact, Harvey discovered that a winning team is one where solicitors work together successfully, but also where there’s “real harmony between the solicitors and the barristers”. Now a qualified lawyer, Harvey works in dispute resolution at international law firm, RPC.

Heading to court and taking ownership

Despite still being “junior within RPC”, Harvey references the opportunity to take more ownership of your work and the chance to get involved more directly with client contacts as key differences between life as a qualified lawyer and that of a trainee. “We had autonomy as trainees as well,” Harvey says. “However, as a qualified lawyer you’re expected to really own your workstream and to deliver the product to the client in a timely fashion.”

When it comes to day-to-day involvement in cases, there’s a real range of work, “depending on the matter you’re part of or the stage at which the litigation is”. Alongside this variation, Harvey also finds: “Working in disputes is pretty structured. You have set procedural milestones and deadlines to hit and you’re always working off the back of a tight court-mandated structure.”

Harvey got a taste for contributing to important cases when he was a trainee. He recalls a US$500 million freezing injunction that he worked on during his commercial and banking litigation seat as a career highlight. He says: “I was fortunate enough to see the case from start to finish as it was condensed within a six-month timeline. We ended up winning, which was even better. The case had so many different facets, was incredibly political at the time and the legal issues at play were super interesting.”

This kind of work was excellent preparation for heading to court as a qualified disputes lawyer. However, with these exciting court dates comes the less “glamourous” side to the profession: “There can sometimes be long hours. I’ve often found that some of the key moments of a case have happened in the evening but it’s about sticking in there.”

Looking to the future

It’s not only the day-to-day work that’s fast paced, the sector itself is developing rapidly. “The most obvious development at the moment are the current economic pressures. Litigation is typically counter-cyclical so economic downturns can see increased litigation.” It’s also true that everyone has AI on their radar, especially after the recent summit at Bletchley Park – the challenges about “AI and machine learning are around how we integrate large language models into our daily processes”. Harvey explains that “there’s always going to be that pressure from clients who want more for less, which begs the question, how do we integrate tools to enable the product to be better for clients and for the product to be created more efficiently?”

More specifically within dispute resolution, Harvey says that there have been many important developments in this area. At the time of interview, Harvey stated that “the big news at the moment is around litigation funding and third-party litigation funding. The Supreme Court recently handed down an important judgment, which looks at the enforceability of litigation funding agreements”. Harvey explains that the UK Supreme Court’s decision is a significant one because it has the potential to “drive a hole through many litigation funding agreements in place between claimants and third-party litigation funders” – an area to watch!

"Back yourself"

With new developments and a busy working environment, it’s clear why many aspiring lawyers are attracted to this area of law. However, securing a role in disputes, or in any area of the legal profession, is competitive.

So, when it comes to making your applications, Harvey encourages students to back themselves and their strengths. A self-assured candidate can successfully outline their skills and strengths to an interviewer, as well as explaining how these skills will translate into a successful career as a solicitor. But what are the best skills to highlight in an interview? Harvey believes that “attention to detail, time management and the ability to digest a lot of information and synthesise it” are all important skills for a solicitor to have. When considering dispute resolution in particular, Harvey says: “You must have a certain steeliness and determination to win cases and the ability to look at issues holistically to figure out potential weaknesses in the other side’s case.”

But first, it’s about developing these skills. Harvey highlights that it’s not all about having legal experience but instead being able to back up your application or interview answers with evidence of when you’ve practised certain skills. “There are a lot of people from varied backgrounds, which is what makes the profession so great”, and with these varied backgrounds come varied skills. He closes by reaffirming the need to “back yourself” and adds that “a lot of the skills you pick up are transferable. So, think about how you can package your experiences and how these skills would lend themselves to a career in law”.