Yasseen Gailani

Yasseen is a partner in the London office who focuses on complex, high value commercial disputes in the banking, finance, financial services, restructuring and insolvency, white collar, civil fraud and sanctions spaces. His experience spans an array of sectors, including fund management, property, telecoms, aviation, oil and gas, insurance, construction, utilities and metals. For the last five years, Yasseen has been named as a “Next Generation Partner” in The Legal 500, and is praised by his clients as “a truly outstanding lawyer” with a “natural, fierce intellect” whose work is “always first class”.

Yasseen’s practice routinely involves representing clients in bet the company cases with hundreds of millions, or billions, of dollars at stake. He has deep expertise in disputes relating to derivatives and structured financial products, benchmark manipulation, margin calls, valuation issues, private equity, M&A, and joint ventures. His practice is heavily international, with a focus in recent years on advising UK and US clients on complex transatlantic disputes; European (and especially Italian) clients involved in disputes in the UK; complex cross-border restructuring, insolvency and enforcement mandates; and, drawing on his Iraqi heritage, Middle Eastern clients in cases before the English courts and international arbitration tribunals.

Recent significant matters have included:

• Acting for an ad-hoc group of bondholders challenging Thames Water’s £3 billion interim restructuring plan.
• Acting for a family office in an ongoing, $100 million claim against Credit Suisse arising out of an allegedly wrongful margin call, and the related disposal of collateral at an undervalue.
• Acting for Aircastle in ongoing proceedings before the UK Supreme Court as to the scope and effect of Regulation 28 of the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations and section 44 of the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act 2018 (reported at first instance and on appeal at [2023] EWHC 663 (Comm), [2023] EWHC 1071 (Comm), and [2025] 1 WLR 196).
• Acting for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in ongoing proceedings against Barclays, Lloyds, Rabobank, UBS, RBS and the British Bankers Association arising out of the alleged collusive and fraudulent suppression of USD LIBOR during the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
• Acting for the selling shareholders of an emerging markets telecommunications business in a $500 million SIAC arbitration, following the purchaser’s failure to close the transaction.
• Together with colleagues in our Los Angeles office, acting for the Joint Administrators of an insolvent UK company in bringing complex fraud claims against a high net worth defendant before the California Superior Court.