Practice

Jo Rickard is a partner in Shearman & Sterling’s Litigation Group in London. She has wide commercial litigation experience advising corporates, banks, liquidators and receivers as well as self-regulatory bodies in relation to a variety of claims. Many of these claims involve proceedings in the High Court in London dealing with transnational litigation, regulatory investigation work, mediations and domestic arbitrations. She was recently recognised as a leading practitioner in bank litigation and commercial litigation in the Legal Experts guide 2010 and in Legal 500 2009 as a leading individual.

Jo Rickard joined Shearman & Sterling in 2006. She was a partner in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer from 1981–2006. While there she was the joint head of the worldwide Dispute Resolution Practice Group for five years and departmental managing partner of Dispute Resolution in London for nine years. For two years from 1995 she was seconded to Lloyd’s of London as Director of Legal Services reporting to the then chairman, Sir David Rowland.

• Advising on how to maintain market continuity in a key market where there had been a theft of emissions allowances and there was potential user concern over market integrity and certainty
• Advising on a complex insurance contract arising out of a fire which caused millions of euros damage
• Advising Areva SA in relation to a £250 million damages action brought by the National Grid in the English High Court against Areva and a number of other defendants. This is the largest ever damages action brought in the UK for breach of antitrust rules
• Dealing with an Early Neutral Evaluation in relation to the interpretation of the effect of an economic clause in a commercial contract
• Advising a venture capital fund in relation to breach of warranty claims arising out of its investment in an IT related company in the UK
• Dealing with Lehman related issues for a variety of banks including issues arising under ISDA agreements
• Defending a claim against an investment bank in respect of resulting and constructive trust claims arising out of trading transactions
• Advising on interpretation of agreements in relation to the provision of clearing services
• Conducting an internal investigation and advising an investment bank in relation to conflict of interest points
• Advising a UK plc in relation to an investigation concerning alleged improper payments made overseas involving the UK Anti Terrorism Crime and Security Act, US FCPA issues and US securities law issues
• Advising a UK Building Society on potential regulatory investigations and action resulting from possible secondary endowment policy mis-selling in the UK and Jersey
• Litigation involving Lloyd’s of London in the UK, US and Australia and in particular in relation to “R and R”
• Defending professional negligence claims against barristers, solicitors and accountants
• Commercial disputes for various banks and some FSA investigatory work as well as Pension Ombudsman enquiry work
• Advising the Sultan of Brunei in relation to the dispute with Prince Jeffri
• Advising the National Lottery Commission in relation to awarding the new licence to operate the UK lottery as well as dealing with the aftermath of the award of the current licence
• Private equity agreement disputes
• Conflict issues
• Various commodity arbitrations
• Breach of warranty claims
• Advising The Bank of England in relation to both regulatory Banking Act issues as well as offences under the Act
• Various self-regulatory bodies such as Fimbra, the Football Association and Lloyd’s of London in relation to investigatory and disciplinary issues
• Advising the Football Association in relation to the Hillsborough Inquiry
• Litigation disputes involving Johnson Matthey Bank after it became a subsidiary of the Bank of England
• Advising clients in respect of DTI inquiries into Blue Arrow and Maxwell as well as other investigations including criminal ones
• Advising the Trustees of the National Coal Board in respect of the Pension Fund dispute with the National Union of Mineworkers
• Advising 18 airlines in respect of their challenge to the landing fees charged at London Heathrow in the early 1980s
• Various insurance and reinsurance disputes, general banking litigation and mediation