Tim Constable is a partner in our Commercial Disputes team and has over 30 years’ experience in domestic and international commercial disputes.
Tim represents clients in the financial, professional, supply chain, mining, oil, defence and retail sectors.
His expertise covers a range of disputes with particular focus on contract, shareholder, partnership, professional negligence and asset recovery.
Tim has a broad commercial disputes practice, both domestic and international. He has conducted litigation in every type of English Court up the Court of Appeal and arbitration in many different institutions including LCIA, ICC, DIFC and ad hoc.
Tim is a CEDR accredited mediator and well-known mediation advocate. He is also an honorary fellow of the University of East London Faculty of Law for services to mediation.
Recognised as a leading practitioner in Chambers and Legal 500 for many years. “A fantastic lawyer – clients love him and he gets results.” Legal 500.
Expertise
- Commercial Disputes
- Conduct of disputes in or involving clients from over 40 jurisdictions in six continents
- Lengthy experience in international arbitration
- Expertise in most aspects of international supply chain disputes for clients in the manufacturing, logistics, franchising, distribution, agency and retail sectors
- International fraud and asset recovery
- CEDR accredited mediator since 2007
Recent work
Domestic commercial disputes
Some examples of reported decisions:
- Acted for the defendant bank in the interpretation of a company pension contract. Tahmassebi v Persia International Bank Plc (2007 High Court)
- Represented the Claimant in its successful summary judgment claim against an employer for an unpaid director’s loan account, which involved a detailed consideration of company accounts. Capita Trust Company Ltd v Optical Service (2014 High Court).
- Acted for the company in defending a claim for unjust enrichment, determining the current value of an historic investment. Kowalishin v Roberts & Tech21 UK Ltd (2015 High Court).
- Represented a Mozambique mining company in resisting a claim to its shares, based on an English contract. This case is one of the authorities on Branganza duties of good faith in English contracts (Horlick and others v Covaco and others 2022 (High Court).
- Represented a large airline in its ultimately successful defence of a group action brought by a group of airline pilots based on a collectively bargained agreement. Case concluded after my departure. Appeal ongoing. Crabb & Others v Tui Airways Limited (2024 High Court).
- Acted for the Defendants on the extent of director rights to see company information, Dilato Holdings Pty Ltd v (1) Learning Possibilities Ltd (2) GVM Holdings Ltd (3) Sunil Antani (2015 High Court).
International commercial disputes
- Conduct of disputes in or involving the US, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, British Virgin Islands, UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Russia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, India, China, Singapore, Egypt, Liberia, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, Mozambique, Mauritius, Somalia, South Africa, Kenya, Australia, and the Marshall Islands.
- Representing a well-known international NGO in an LCIA arbitration defending Somalian contractor claims based on English contract.
- Acted for a local Ghanian and Nigerian distributor for a large US pharmaceutical manufacturer concerning allegations of wrongful termination.
- Acted for a US dairy manufacturer in a USD50m+ dispute over the sale and supply of 15,000 tonnes of butter to the Middle East resulting from an acute shortage of shipping and other issues.
- Represented a Chinese city port in what is thought to be one of the first international disputes of its kind arising out of the cancelled visit of the Clipper Round the World yacht race because of the outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020.
- Acted for a Polish importer of denatured ethanol, which was manufactured in Germany, routed through Hungary and seized by the Polish tax authorities due to allegations that the ethanol was not properly denatured.
- Represented a Liberian oil importer in a dispute with its supplier concerning missing oil deliveries. The jurisdiction challenge was reported: Addax Energy SA v Petro Trade Inc (2022 High Court).
- Acted for the largest dairy supplier in Poland in an eight figure dispute with a household name US chocolate maker over a strongly disputed allegation of Salmonella contamination.
Professional negligence claims
Previously panel member on indemnity claims for two UK clearing banks and several other lenders.
Reported cases include:
- Barclays Bank v Christie Owen and Davies (2016 High Court) valuer negligence.
- Santander v RA Legal (2014 CofA) breach of trust.
- Abbey National v Key Surveyors (1997 CofA) which was the judicial forerunner to the Woolf reforms on single joint experts.