Anthony Riem
Senior Partner

Named as one of the Hot 100 Lawyers for 2021 by The Lawyer, by The Times as one of Britain's most sought-after lawyers and recognised as a leading lawyer in fraud investigation and litigation, asset recovery, banking litigation and commercial litigation, Anthony has deep expertise in handling complex cross-border disputes. Strategically-minded and a source of astute, commercially-focused advice, Anthony has an established practice acting for banks in multi-million-dollar litigation, often involving freezing orders in several jurisdictions. He has also been instructed in many leading commercial litigation cases over the years, at both first instance and appellate levels.

The Directories Say

Chambers and Partners UK (2023)

• Anthony is double top ranked in Civil Fraud and Global Asset Tracing and Recovery. They say:  'Tony is absolutely the man you want representing you as he will leave no stone unturned, looks at every angle and understands immediately the opposition's weak points and leverages them.' 'He is practical, a very good strategist and has a wealth of unique experience in his field.' 'He is masterful at dealing with clients' …, a leader in the market', …highly experienced and thorough with good judgement.'

Legal 500 (2023)

• Anthony is identified as a Leading Individual for civil fraud and together with his partner Trevor Mascarenhas, they are described as: 'giants of the civil fraud market and deservedly so. They combine a wealth of experience with a commercial approach that always gets the best possible result for the client.'  Anthony is also recommended for banking litigation and commercial litigation where he is described as 'a powerhouse who is approachable and sees the shape of issues from a client's perspective. He is solution-oriented in a truly unusual way.'

Who's Who Legal (2023)

• Anthony has been named as a Global Elite Thought Leader in Asset Recovery, and as a Thought Leader in Commercial Litigation and Investigations. He is described as 'a supreme strategist', 'a brilliant lawyer for offshore litigation' and 'a real doyen of the investigations world' who has a 'very commercial attitude to litigation.' and is 'highly respected for his top-tier knowledge in complex multi-jurisdictional disputes'. He 'always finds solutions no matter how difficult the challenge.'

Notable Experience

• Enforcing the UK's largest-ever divorce award of £453 million across nine jurisdictions.
• Acting on a US$200 million dispute between Russia's two largest banks involving the double selling of oil.
• Representing a businessman in a series of claims brought by the Libyan Investment Authority alleging hundreds of millions of dollars of investments were procured through bribery.
• Establishing the jurisdiction of the Cayman Court to grant freezing orders in support of foreign proceedings, so as to be able to freeze effectively substantial assets held through Cayman vehicles.
• Obtaining freezing orders in multiple jurisdictions for various banks including VTB and Bank of Moscow, freezing many hundreds of millions of dollars and in one case obtaining a judgment in excess of US$180 million for deceit where the case against the defendant was almost entirely built on inference.
• Enforcing overseas judgments in England where the defendants challenged they could receive fair trials in their home countries.
• Obtaining password cracking orders to break passwords on encrypted electronic devices and a disclosure order against Google in respect of Gmail accounts to obtain evidence about assets.
• Acted for a claimant company in claims to recover dividends with a value of US$800 million.
• Acted on the leading case challenging the jurisdiction of the English Court to grant freezing orders where the defendants were not resident in England and had no assets here.
• Acted for a former senior employee of a state-owned aluminium company accused of corruption which is one of the leading cases of when legal privilege can be waived.

Background

Anthony is the English member of Fraudnet, the International Chamber of Commerce's global network of asset recovery specialists, and a founding member and former Chairman of the Commercial Fraud Lawyers Association. Anthony was both the Managing Partner and Senior Partner at PCB Litigation and is now the Senior Partner at PCB Byrne. In 2021, he was named as one of the 100 Hot Lawyers by the Lawyer Magazine (previously mentioned in 'current version' page 1) for the deal by which Burford Capital became an equity stakeholder in the firm and provided financing for cases. In 2021, he was named as one of the 100 Hot Lawyers by the Lawyer Magazine for the deal by which Burford Capital became an equity stakeholder in the firm and provided financing for cases.

Contact Anthony