Ace arbitrator

Competing with over 10,000 solicitors’ firms, UK based Zaiwalla and Company enjoyed the distinction of being among the four shortlisted for the Law Firm of the Year — Exceptional Achievement award for 2016. The three other legal firms shortlisted for this award category were Reed Smith LLP, Stewarts Law LLP and Vardags. The 13 honors bestowed under the Halsbury Legal Awards since 2013 recognize the "exceptional and outstanding achievements and contributions of individuals, teams and organizations across the legal sector,” according to the Halsbury website. The Awards are open to all organizations and individuals practicing within the legal profession, ranging from law firms to legal support services and legal journalists.
At the awards night at Grosvenor House Hotel in London on September 29, 2016, among the distinguished guests was Chief Justice Lord John Thomas, noted Sarosh Zaiwalla, founder and senior partner of the firm, in an email to Parsiana. Gracing Zaiwalla’s table at the function was the Russian ambassador Alexander Vladimirovich Yakovenko.

Sarosh Zaiwalla (left and third from left) at the Halsbury Legal Awards

As reported in Lex Witness, July 2016, Zaiwalla and Company’s dedicated Russia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) desk "partnered with Rosneft’s legal team to advise on a litigation strategy in its successful sanctions matter [OJSC (Open Joint Stock Company) Rosneft Oil Company vs Her Majesty’s Treasury], one of the lawyer’s top 20 cases of 2015. The firm now has a five-year accreditation to Rosneft’s legal panel with a cost budget of USD 15 million.” Further, with the firm’s "growing reputation in Russia, the well-known lawyer for the Russian oligarchs, Alexander Dobrovinsky, has instructed the Zaiwalla team to defend him in an ongoing USD 330 million High Court dispute in the English court relating to commissions from the sale of a business involving billionaire and Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.”
Zaiwalla and Company’s specialization being international arbitration, handling over 1,000 cases from different countries, in 2015 it became well known for successfully representing Bank Mellat, Iran’s leading private bank, in the UK Supreme Court challenging its inclusion in the list of Iran Nuclear Sanctions by the British Government. Yet another case handled by the firm, Hashwani vs Jivraj, was rated by the English legal magazine The Lawyer as the top litigation case of the year in 2011. Considering European labor law cases and the purpose of discrimination legislation, the Supreme Court held that it was legitimate to select a person of a particular religion to be an arbitrator.