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Contact

Contact with chambers should be made through the Practice Management Team. They are happy to discuss client requirements and provide further information on such matters as the expertise and experience of individual members, fees, working practices and languages spoken. We have members able to work in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Greek and Chinese (Mandarin).

Outside working hours, a member of our team is always available to be contacted on matters of an urgent nature. Contact should be made using the Chambers main number or email.

For our Singapore office, for client enquiries please contact our BD Director, Asia Pacific, Lara Quie and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out of office hours calls will automatically be diverted to our clerking team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

enquiries@twentyessex.com
t: +44 20 7842 1200

Singapore

28 Maxwell Road
#02-03 Maxwell Chambers Suites
Singapore 069120

singapore@twentyessex.com
t: +65 62257230

Contact

Contact with chambers should be made through the Practice Management Team. They are happy to discuss client requirements and provide further information on such matters as the expertise and experience of individual members, fees, working practices and languages spoken. We have members able to work in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Greek and Chinese (Mandarin).

Outside working hours, a member of our team is always available to be contacted on matters of an urgent nature. Contact should be made using the Chambers main number or email.

For our Singapore office, for client enquiries please contact our BD Director, Asia Pacific, Lara Quie and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out of office hours calls will automatically be diverted to our clerking team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

enquiries@twentyessex.com
t: +44 20 7842 1200

Singapore

28 Maxwell Road
#02-03 Maxwell Chambers Suites
Singapore 069120

singapore@twentyessex.com
t: +65 62257230

Paul Lowenstein KC

Paul Lowenstein KC

Silk: 2009 Call: 1988 (England and Wales); 2019 (British Virgin Islands)

Languages: French (proficient); German (basic); Italian (basic)

Paul is a leading commercial silk in domestic and international litigation and arbitration. A highly experienced courtroom advocate, he has expertise in high-profile, heavy, and sensitive commercial, financial, and international disputes of all kinds. He appears regularly in the Commercial Court, Chancery Division, other specialised courts, and the appellate jurisdictions in England and the Eastern Caribbean; as well as in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), where he is called to the Bar.

He is regularly instructed in complex and ground-breaking international and domestic fraud and asset-tracing cases, often involving urgent applications such as pre-emptive freezing and proprietary injunctions, receivership orders, anti-suit and anti-anti-suit injunctions, search orders, imaging and password orders, property preservation orders and orders for disclosure, as well as jurisdictional and choice of law issues. He has substantial experience of litigation involving digital assets, hacking and cyber-fraud; and obtained the first Worldwide proprietary injunctions and freezing orders against ‘Persons Unknown’ in the English courts. Paul has strong and overlapping practices in the fields of banking and finance, information technology and telecommunications and art and antiquities. He firmly believes in maintaining a broad commercial practice and regularly leads teams of barristers both within his core fields of practice and in diverse and specialist areas.

Acknowledged as a formidable trial, interlocutory and appellate advocate and an accomplished cross-examiner, Paul is a team player and expert strategist with a highly commercial approach.

Paul has been listed for many years as a leading silk in several categories in all the principal directories, including commercial dispute resolution, civil fraud, banking and finance, crypto and blockchain assets, information technology and telecoms.

Paul is regularly instructed in international and domestic arbitration and in English and BVI court proceedings in aid of arbitral proceedings and in connection with the enforcement of arbitration awards and foreign judgments. He also advises overseas lawyers on issues arising in domestic and international litigation and arbitration and gives expert evidence on issues of English law and procedure arising in foreign proceedings.

In addition to his core practice as a barrister, Paul:

  • is called to Bar of the British Virgin Islands, where he has rights of audience;
  • has rights of audience in the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal;
  • is a member of the Investment Committee of Harbour Litigation Funding;
  • is a qualified Centre for Dispute Resolution (CEDR) mediator and an experienced mediation advocate;
  • as a member of the Service sub-committee of the Civil Procedure Rules Committee, was a co-author of its 2022 report on “Proposed Amendments to the PD6B ‘Gateways”, leading to the introduction on 1 October 2022 of the new which he had proposed should be adopted. Disclosure Gateway (PD 6B para 3.1(23)), which he had proposed should be adopted;
  • is a committee member of CFAAR, the ‘Crypto Fraud and Asset Recovery’ network (Twenty Essex is a founding member);
  • is an active senior advocacy trainer at the Middle Temple and in Chambers;
  • sat for many years as a chairman of (BTAS) Bar Disciplinary Tribunals;
  • is chairman of Trustees of the International Law Book Facility (ILBF), a registered charity that provides used printed legal texts to the developing world; and
  • is registered with Rights of Audience in the Astana International Financial Court, Kazakhstan

Nominations:

  • Paul was nominated for the Sydney Elland Goldsmith Bar Pro Bono Award for his work with the ILBF (2015).
  • Paul was a nominee both for the ‘Barrister of the Year’ award at The Lawyer Awards (London, 2019) and for the ‘Commercial Advocate of the Year’ award at the Legal Week Awards (London, 2019).
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Key recent cases

Commercial dispute resolution

Civil fraud and asset tracing

Banking and finance

Information technology, digital assets, crypto and blockchain assets and telecommunications

Jurisdiction, conflict of laws and enforcement of foreign judgments

Professional negligence

Art and artefacts, antiques and antiquities, media and entertainment

Offshore

International arbitration

Mediation

Sectors and services

Publications

Memberships and appointments

Lectures / talks

Education

Paul has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the law, practice and procedure. He is an excellent strategist and instils confident in clients and the wider legal team. Clients absolutely want him on their side.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2024

An excellent advocate and highly adept at building rapport with judges. He is one of the best barristers to instruct in fast-moving injunctive relief work for the recovery of stolen monies.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2024

A very good strategist and a hugely experienced advocate, super at cross examination.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2024

Incredibly competent, clients really trust him and he's an excellent leader.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Paul is incredibly impressive, gets across the detail very quickly whilst maintaining a strategic outlook.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Knows his stuff inside and out; he is very formidable.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Paul has the ear of the court and tribunal. He is an excellent advocate, who is easily able to grasp the details in a case.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Paul has great attention to detail, is very analytical and is very good with judges.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Paul is one of the leading silks on fraud matters. He builds up an extremely good rapport with the court and is brilliant on his feet.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Paul is brilliant on cases with tricky, technical fraud issues and sensitive clients.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

He's extremely detail-oriented.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Paul is a senior silk at the top of his game. He is always in demand (and rightly so), and is an excellent strategist in high-value, complex claims.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2023

Very responsive, commercial and user friendly. A robust well prepared advocate who leaves nothing to chance

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2023

One of the leading IT barristers at the Bar. Paul understands all the underlying tech and is able to synthesis complexity on his feet for a judge.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2023

A first rate advocate. Clear, concise, and well liked by the bench. Knows his papers well.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2023

Extremely thorough, hard-working and responsive.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

An immensely impressive commercial silk who was able to cut through very complex legal issues governed by entirely contradictory and evolving authority and offer clear, definitive (and ultimately the right) advice.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

He's a very good advocate and very good at building a rapport with a judge.

Chambers UK Bar 2022

He is extremely knowledgeable, prepares his cases thoroughly and comes at them from a strategic perspective. Paul is a forceful advocate. Everything you want in a top commercial silk.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

He has a steeliness to his advocacy that makes solicitors reluctant ever to see him pop up on the other side.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

Paul's two most impressive characteristics are his ability to see the wood for the trees where others cannot, and his the fact that he is a dogged fighter.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

On complex cases he can see how they can be distilled into simple principles better than almost anyone.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

An incredibly tough courtroom battle silk. A really brilliant heavyweight.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

He is brilliant under pressure, bright, innovative, hardworking, responsive, and brilliant as a leader.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2021

A very determined advocate who is up to speed, pays attention to detail and understands the commercial realities of a case.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

A fraud specialist who receives numerous endorsements for his experience with international fraud and asset-tracing proceedings.

Who's Who Legal Thought Leaders, Asset Recovery 2020

He has a wealth of experience in civil fraud matters.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

He is incredibly bright.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2021

His power of analysis is excellent.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

He is my go-to silk for heavyweight commercial disputes, particularly those with an international element.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2021

He is just a supreme advocate and a master of the art: a very good communicator who is very measured and ensures that points are not lost in translation.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

Polished, confident, and stylish in the way he goes about his business.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2020

Thinks outside the box and is not limited by current legal thinking.

Who's Who Legal, Asset Recovery 2019

Undoubtedly one of the genuine fraud specialists.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2020

Very forthright and no-nonsense in court; he takes good points, and has a very aggressive style.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

An excellent cross-examiner.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

A silk who can be relied upon to deal soundly with difficult hearings.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2020

Paul is very responsive, and stands out for his robust and measured approach.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

He is incredibly bright.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2020

He's an excellent option for representation in complex contractual disputes, and has good experience in the automotive sector.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

A very strong advocate.

Who's Who Legal UK Bar 2019

He is known for his experience in a range of telecoms contracts and IT disputes.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2020

Thought Leader for Asset Recovery.

Who's Who Legal Thought Leaders GIR 2019

A very gathered individual, who has impressive self-control and doesn't put a foot wrong.

Chambers UK Bar 2019

He is aggressive and effective.

Chambers UK Bar 2019

A wonderful cross-examiner who has a great presence in court. Paul can deal soundly with difficult hearings and makes creative applications involving injunctive relief.

Chambers UK Bar 2019

An immensely impressive commercial silk; extremely thorough, hardworking and responsive.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2019

A wonderful cross-examiner, who is very tenacious and has good client-handling instincts.

Chambers UK Bar 2018

A very formidable advocate, who’s prepared to regularly stress-test your case in detail.

Chambers UK Bar 2018

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