Profile details
About Ali Kirby-Harris
Ali is a partner based in the Dispute Resolution team of our London office. Ali has significant experience of complex, large-scale contentious mandates. She has a wide-ranging practice based on managing both commercial litigation and global internal and criminal investigations.
Ali specialises in complex contractual disputes, including in particular disputes arising in a pre- and post-M&A deal context. Her experience includes advising on both domestic litigation and multinational disputes involving multiple jurisdictions. In 2020, Ali advised on the landmark Covid-19-related contractual dispute in Travelport v WEX [2020] EWHC 2670.
Ali also has particular experience in investigations involving bribery and corruption issues and has significant experience of contentious mandates arising from alleged accounting fraud and audit mandates. Ali advises on the related area of compliance risk management, including advising on compliance with business and human rights standards, modern slavery compliance and terrorist financing regimes.
Ali’s advice is commercially focussed and combines expert technical legal know-how with a highly pragmatic touch.
Recent work
Ali’s recent experience includes:
- regularly advising multinational clients on bribery and corruption, money laundering, human rights and other risks facing their businesses. This has included:
- advising a major corporate client on a significant investigation with potential UK Bribery Act risks within Europe;
- advising a large multinational company in connection with allegations of corruption and fraud in Uzbekistan;
- advising a major pharmaceutical company in relation to allegations of misconduct in its Russian businesses;
- advising a publishing company in relation to allegations of misconduct in Turkey and Central Asia; and
- advising a private equity company on various allegations of misconduct concerning pre-sale shareholder conduct.
- advising on significant litigation in the English High Court, including:
- advising on various aspects of a dispute between
Formula One and the Indian tax authorities, involving proceedings in the Bombay High Court in India and the English High Court; and - advising a Russian businessman in connection with a dispute in the English High Court worth over US$1.2 billion.
- advising on various aspects of a dispute between
- advising on various contentious aspects of a receivership worth over US$6 billion, which involved disputes against multiple parties in the English High Court as well as in numerous overseas jurisdictions, including Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands, the Seychelles and Belize;
- advising a major UK bank in connection with litigation brought by a group of 300 individual claimants in Tahiti, France and the UK; and
- advising a client in the oil and gas sector in connection with enforcement of an ICC arbitral award in numerous European jurisdictions.
Qualifications
Education
- St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge, UK (law)
- BPP Law School, London
Professional qualifications
Solicitor, England and Wales