Members of Chambers are pleased to announce that Alexander Riddiford has joined Essex Court Chambers. Alex joined Chambers from South Square on Monday 6 June 2022.
Alex specialises in insolvency and restructuring law, both domestic and cross-border, as well as in domestic and offshore commercial litigation. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2011 and to the Bar of the British Virgin Islands in 2021.
Alex is a highly-rated and successful junior, often acting unled, with a noted expertise in insolvency and restructuring and a growing reputation in international commercial dispute resolution. Alex’s cases, both insolvency and commercial, often involve complex securitisation structures and structured finance issues. Alex’s deep and extensive insolvency experience has included acting for the joint administrators of LBIE in the Waterfall litigation and for the Nortel officeholders in numerous applications, both led and as sole counsel, in the High Court. His recent commercial litigation experience has included obtaining final injunctions, as sole counsel before Mr Justice Miles, in the Business Mortgage Finance litigation in which he has acted for four issuers of notes. He also has a keen interest in the law of crypto assets and crypto asset recovery.
Alex is recommended in the legal directories as a leading junior for Commercial Litigation and Restructuring/Insolvency. In Chambers and Partners 2022 Alex is described as “very thorough and responsive – he is particularly helpful in drilling down into the detail. He is incredibly intelligent and also has the ability to distil complex legal issues into digestible and strategic advice.” The Legal 500 2020 describe Alex as “a superb draftsman who really knows how to structure a skeleton argument to engage the court’s attention and to focus on the lead points that are likely to win the argument.”
Alex will join a number of cross-recruits who joined Essex Court Chambers in the last 18 months including Ben Juratowitch QC, Paul Wee, Sean Aughey, Sophia Hurst and Christopher Lloyd and academic cross-recruits Professor Paul Davies and Dapo Akande. This chambers expansion across all core practice areas has been complemented by six members of chambers appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2022 and the successful completion of pupillage by Katherine Ratcliffe, Akash Sonecha, Daniel Fox and Gretta Schumacher.
Joint Heads of Chambers, Richard Millett QC and Joe Smouha QC say, “We are delighted that Alex is joining Chambers. He is widely recognised as a rising star in the field of insolvency and financial disputes, having been instructed in many of the high profile and landmark insolvency and restructuring cases of the last decade. Not only will Alex add weight to our existing expertise in that field, but he will strengthen the bench of juniors in Chambers in the wider field of international commercial dispute resolution. Members of Chambers know him as a natural advocate and a fluent and elegant draftsman, and we look forward very much to working with him.“
Senior Clerk Joe Ferrigno said “Alex has an excellent reputation and caseload and we look forward to him joining our already well-established international commercial disputes team. He will no doubt contribute considerably to the breadth and depth of insolvency and restructuring expertise offered to clients.”
Alex says, “I am delighted to be joining Essex Court Chambers, where I hope to continue building on my insolvency and restructuring practice, whilst also consolidating and developing my practice in commercial dispute resolution.”
