Practice
Richard Kelly is a partner in Shearman & Sterling’s Litigation and International Arbitration practices. He has worked in both London and New York for many of the world’s leading companies and financial institutions on a broad range of litigation, arbitration and risk management issues.

Richard joined Shearman & Sterling in 2007, after nearly 10 years at Allen & Overy. Prior to joining Shearman & Sterling, Richard taught law for four years at the University of Oxford and in 1999 served as judicial assistant to Lord Woolf M.R., then head of the civil division of the English Court of Appeal.

Richard is recognised in several categories by Legal 500 (including banking litigation, commercial litigation, international arbitration and civil fraud) and it notes that clients have described him as “quite an operator.”

• Acting for a US industrial company in a multi-billion dollar ICC arbitration in London against a Middle Eastern state-owned enterprise, arising out of a wide-ranging joint venture agreement
• Advising on allegations of portfolio mismanagement in collateralized debt obligations
• Acting on fraud disputes on matters ranging from fine art to employee theft
• Acting for an investment bank on an insurance dispute relating to a credit indemnity policy
• Acting for an investment bank defending a federal securities class action claim in the US for several billion dollars relating to the collapse of a large corporate
• Defending proceedings where it was alleged that a bank was an advisor/fiduciary rather than an arm’s length counterparty
• Conducting several internal investigations for banks and corporates into alleged misconduct, both domestically and internationally
• Preparing anti-money laundering programmes and anti-corruption policies
• Advising on various aspects of market misconduct and regulator enforcement
• Acting for institutions involved in a variety of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms including mediation and statutory adjudication
• Advising on legal risks generated by the sale of complex structured products
• Advising on litigation matters arising out of ISDA documented transactions, such as occurrence of Events of Default, Early Termination and Schedule/Confirmation drafting errors
• Advising on problems relating to many aspects of a day to day banking and capital markets business, such as the incorrect specification of Reference Entities in credit default swaps, jurisdiction clauses, counterparty refusals to make payments which are due and the exercise by a calculation agent of a contractually conferred discretion

• Richard has had a number of articles on a variety of legal topics appear in publications such as the International Financial Law Review, Complinet, Bloomberg European Law Journal and Legal Week.
• The UK Bribery Act 2010, The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation, (August 17, 2011) (with Stephen Fishbein and Philip Urofsky).