Leo Kitchen

Leo Kitchen is a Partner and solicitor advocate in Quinn Emanuel’s London office. His practice centres on complex commercial and financial litigation, with particular focus on competition-related collective proceedings and follow-on damages claims. Leo also has notable experience dealing with contentious restructuring issues, as well as public law and regulatory disputes, most usually adverse to government departments and other emanations of the state.

Leo’s experience encompasses acting for both claimants and defendants in a wide variety of different courts and tribunals, including numerous appearances before the English High Court (most frequently the Commercial Court) and appellate courts up to the Supreme Court, as well as the Competition Appeals Tribunal, the Administrative Court and the first-tier and upper tax tribunals. In recent years, Leo’s representations have included some of the largest competition-related disputes currently before the English Courts, such as the FX litigation where he represented a group of (mostly) asset managers and pension funds against a number of large investment banks, and the Merricks litigation, which is now the leading English authority in relation to the certification of collective proceedings. His restructuring and distressed debt practice encompasses bondholder disputes (most notably litigation arising out of the collapse of Banco Popular in 2017, and Credit Suisse in 2023) and contentious restructuring matters on both creditor and debtor side, spanning various kinds of insolvency processes in the UK and abroad. In the public law space, Leo recently advised Jane Street regarding its judicial review claim against the London Metal Exchange in relation to its cancellation of various nickel trades in March 2022 and presently represents Motorola in a significant dispute adverse to the UK government.

In terms of industry sectors, Leo advises clients in a diverse range of such sectors, including most prominently those in the financial and payment services, transport and aerospace sector, luxury goods and energy sectors. He is also, owing to his experience in collective actions, well-used to litigation involving the assistance of litigation funding. Leo has also advised clients in relation to a variety of insurance-related matters, both from a regulatory and contentious perspective.

Alongside his experience before the English Courts, Leo also has experience of foreign courts, having been involved in litigation in a number of other jurisdictions, including most recently Spain, Italy, Switzerland, the United States and the Cayman Islands. He is often involved in litigation spanning multiple jurisdictions, and in coordinating clients’ litigation strategy in complex, cross-border scenarios.

Leo has been recognized by Legal 500 UK in both their competition and banking litigation rankings, including being named as a Rising Star for Banking Litigation: Investment & Retail for three consecutive years, and as a Next Generation Partner in their most recent, 2024 rankings.

Leo graduated with a first-class degree in History from the University of Durham in 2009, before completing his legal studies at BPP Law School in London (to which he returned in 2016 to obtain his higher rights of audience). Prior to joining the firm in 2019, Leo spent six years as an associate at a magic circle law firm in London. As a trainee solicitor he spent 6 months in Hong Kong.