Fladgate—Garbhan Shanks

Garbhan Shanks, recognised as one of the leading specialists in (re)insurance coverage disputes, joined Fladgate as partner in the dispute resolution practice on 1 April, 2021. Garbhan’s particular focus is on insurance and group actions alongside his expertise in civil fraud, arbitration and general commercial disputes. His appointment further consolidates Fladgate’s reputation as a highly ranked mid-market commercial disputes firm. Garbhan joins Fladgate with associate Naomi Hall and senior associate, Harriet Chopra.  

His arrival along with that of four other partners in the firm over the last 12 months supports the progress of Fladgate’s three-year business strategy. The firm’s focus is on accelerating its successful model of providing a highly rated* personal, agile and enterprising service to some of the world’s leading and fastest growing businesses and ‘trend initiator’ brands as well as UHNWI’s and their advisors.

Garbhan has over 20 years’ dispute resolution experience primarily acting for policyholders (and their captives) in a range of sectors such as financial services, retail, construction, energy and transport. This includes advising on liability policies (professional indemnity, public, product, D&O), cyber/privacy insurance cover, business interruption, property, construction all-risks and political / credit risk. His experience of litigating on complex, international and multi-party coverage disputes reaches across Africa, Russia, France, the US and Pakistan. He has a diploma in French law complementing Fladgate’s strategy of having global reach from one London office.

Commenting on the appointment, Garbhan Shanks said: 'I am impressed with the ambition of Fladgate and the clarity of their vision. I am very motivated by the opportunity this move presents and the impact that the arrival of our team can have. Fladgate’s focus on personal relationships delivering agile, enterprising solutions reflects our own very much.'

Grant Gordon, executive partner at Fladgate, added, 'Garbhan’s arrival is great news for the development of the firm. We are building out a breadth of services for business and private clients that have fast moving, complex challenges. We have a number of Partners in the contentious space joining us in recent months and this adds further weight to that practice. I am also pleased because Garbhan’s global experience builds on our ambition to have the influence and reputation of an international firm but operating from one office.'

*Fladgate 2019 client survey: run by Nisus consulting with 310 client responses. Fladgate outperforms other firms across all the critical element of service related to teamwork and relationships.