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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

Philip Riches KC

Philip Riches KC

Silk: 2020 Call: 2001 (England and Wales); 2021 (British Virgin Islands)

Languages: Spanish (proficient); French (proficient); Mandarin (conversational)

Philip is recognised as a leading barrister and arbitrator in international commercial dispute resolution.

As counsel, Philip appears regularly in the English courts and in international arbitrations in England and overseas. He has been involved in some of the most significant and high-profile disputes of the last few years in the English courts and in international arbitration.

He has a strong practice in complex, high-value commercial disputes across a range of business sectors. His work has been particularly focused in recent years on fraud disputes, often requiring urgent applications, as well as energy disputes and disputes relating to the enforcement of foreign arbitration awards. Philip’s practice frequently involves state parties or state-owned entities, in both commercial and investment treaty disputes. He has been instructed in three of The Lawyer’s ‘Top Cases’ of 2023 and 2024.

Philip is ranked in Chambers and Partners UK Bar 2024 in: commercial dispute resolution, fraud: civil, international arbitration and shipping and commodities; and in Chamber and Partners Global 2024 in: commercial dispute resolution, international arbitration, and shipping and commodities. In The Legal 500 he is ranked in: banking & finance, commercal litigation, fraud: civil, energy, commodities and shipping.

Quotes include: “diamond sharp and a true trojan”, “a phenomenal advocate and a skilful cross-examiner”, “He is excellent… he takes the lead and [in fraud disputes] is very experienced”, “He is an extremely hard-working and thorough silk”, “He knows international arbitration inside and out”, “pragmatic and solution-focused” and “strategically creative”. (Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500 UK Bar 2024).

He has also been admitted to the Bar of the East Caribbean Supreme Court, British Virgin Islands and to the Bars of The Cayman Islands and St Kitts and Nevis (on an ad hoc basis).

Philip is regularly instructed as an expert in foreign proceedings, particularly on issues of English arbitration law.

Philip regularly accepts appointments as an arbitrator, with experience as Chairman and co-arbitrator in ICC, SCC and ad hoc arbitrations.

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Example cases

Banking and finance

Civil fraud

Commercial disputes

Commodities

Energy and natural resources

International arbitration

Private international law

Shipping

Public international law

Sectors and services

Professional memberships

Lectures / talks

Awards

Education

Philip has good client skills, excellent attention to detail and great advocacy in the High Court and Court of Appeal.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2024

Philip is very pragmatic and solution-focused, very clear in his advice, and he understands his audience well.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2024

Philip is strong in dealing with expert evidence and is strategically creative.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2024

Philip is very pragmatic and solution focused. He is also very clear in his advice, and understands his audience well.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2024

Philip has excellent technical ability and is a very pleasant member of the team.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

He is excellent - he's really friendly and takes the lead. You can trust him.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

He knows international arbitration inside and out.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Philip is very efficient and commercial in the way he works.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Philip is an extremely hard-working and thorough silk.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Philip is extremely hard-working, thorough and an up-and-coming junior silk.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Philip is excellent. He takes the lead and is very experienced in fraud.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

He is very collaborative and manages cases behind the scenes very well.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

Philip is an excellent advocate and a great team player. He is very responsive, approachable and easy to work with.

Chambers UK Bar 2023

His advice is always clear and easy to read. He delivers exactly what is needed.

Chambers UK Bar 2023

Philip is a very strong junior silk who drafts very well and has sound judgement.

Chambers UK Bar 2023

A really approachable KC who gets stuck in.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2023

A very strong junior silk who drafts very well and has sound judgement.

Chambers UK Bar 2023

His advice is always clear and easy to read. He delivers exactly what is needed.

Chambers UK Bar 2023

He is hardworking and creative, with an ability to get to grips quickly with complex factual matters.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2023

Philip is very bright and detail-oriented. He gives clear advice.

Chambers UK Bar 2023

Philip is absolutely diamond sharp and a true trojan.

Chambers UK Bar 2022

He does a sterling job - his advocacy is clear, concise and he adapts easily in the face of time restrictions.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

He is extremely clever, very hands-on, highly responsive and someone of brilliant charm who appeals to judges.

Chambers UK Bar 2022

Can grapple with complex, thorny issues, and will come up with innovative solutions.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2021

A junior silk who is making impressive strides in handling silk-level work and who drafts well with sound judgement.

Chambers UK Bar 2022

He is a phenomenal advocate. He's an extremely bright and very good technical lawyer.

Chambers UK Bar 2022

He is incredibly bright, very helpful in terms of his availability and brilliant with clients.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

He is an excellent advocate and skilful cross-examiner.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2021

He is very thorough and very commercial. He thinks things through very clearly and precisely, and is a good advocate and incisive cross-examiner.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

An intelligent, efficient and hardworking new silk.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2021

He is extremely bright and is a capable practitioner with experience of work in Asia.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

A brilliant, incredibly bright and responsive advocate.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

He has a wonderful ability to work through and articulate clearly both orally and in writing any knotty legal or factual problem.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2021

Thorough, astute and really knows his law.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

He gets into the nitty gritty of cases and comes up with creative ideas and approaches.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

A formidable advocate who rolls up his sleeves and immerses himself in the detail of cases.

The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2020: The English Bar

Efficient, diligent and intelligent, he is thorough and detailed with a no-nonsense style.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2020

Unflappable, resourceful and effective.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

He has a very good analytical brain and helps navigate and dive through the case.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

A thorough, diligent and perceptive adviser, willing to roll up his sleeves and really work alongside the client and solicitor team.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2020

Particularly adept at building relationships with Chinese clients.

The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2020: The English Bar

He's very thorough and bright, he looks at the detail and he's very creative in his legal arguments.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

Philip is quite capable of handling silk-level work, drafts well and has sound judgement.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

He is great at complex matters.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2020

A strong senior junior who is capable of handling silk-level work and is very good at drafting.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

He's a very, very good shipping barrister.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

A very strong senior junior who is capable of handling silk-level work…

Chambers UK Bar 2019

A very good, elegant advocate.

Chambers UK Bar 2019

He's very thorough, has an excellent manner with clients and good judgement of which legal arguments to pursue.

Chambers UK Bar 2019

He has a real talent for taking on any kind of case and finding his way through.

Chambers UK Bar 2018

A superstar junior who is responsive, commercial and bright.

Chambers UK Bar 2017

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