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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 Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific, Katie-Beth Jones, and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out of office hours calls will automatically be diverted to our practice management team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

enquires@20essex.uk
t: +44 20 8133 3810

Singapore

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

enquires@20essex.uk
t: +45 36988379

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 Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific, Katie-Beth Jones, and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out of office hours calls will automatically be diverted to our practice management team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

enquires@20essex.uk
t: +44 20 8133 3810

Singapore

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

enquires@20essex.uk
t: +45 36988379

Thomas Raphael KC

Thomas Raphael KC

Silk: 2015 Call: 1999

Languages: French (fluent)

Thomas is a commercial silk, with a wide commercial practice, and well known as a lead advocate in difficult cases on private international law.

His commercial practice covers general commercial matters, banking, financial services, shipping, aviation, commodities, property, offshore energy, insurance and reinsurance, marine insurance, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, telecommunications, competition law, and transjurisdictional disputes. Thomas also has a leading practice in cross-over cases involving intellectual property, media and communications, commercial law and private international law.

Thomas has argued cases at all levels of the higher English courts including the Supreme Court and has been called to the Bars of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands for specific cases. His advocacy in one case was described as “of the highest possible calibre” by the Court of Appeal.

He appears in commercial arbitrations before the ICC, LCIA, and other trade specific arbitral forums, including the LMAA, LME, and RSA. Arbitrations have concerned subjects including mobile telephone contracts, international construction, superyachts, shipbuilding, charterparties, commodities, patent licensing and FRAND.

Thomas accepts appointments as an arbitrator in international arbitrations. He speaks fluent French and also acts as an expert witness on English law in foreign courts, including the French, Italian, Belgian, Irish and US courts.

He is the author of The Anti-Suit Injunction, which is the lead work on anti-suit injunctions and related issues in the conflict of laws. It has been cited with approval and adopted by the High Court and Court of Appeal on numerous occasions, and the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, as well as in the courts of Hong Kong, Singapore, Bermuda and the DIFC.

He is the Visitor of Green Templeton College, Oxford.

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Example cases

Private international law

General commercial

Banking and financial services

Shipping

Commodities

Insurance

Competition

Media and communications

Sectors and services

Publications

Professional memberships

Lectures / talks

Education

An excellent advocate who can get a complicated point across very well to arbitrators and judges. Also extremely bright and very knowledgeable on the law.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2024

Thomas Raphael has a very cerebral, intellectual style. He produces extremely impressive skeleton arguments.

Chambers UK Bar 2024

He has an incredible ability to get into the detail and develop powerful arguments, whilst also seeing the bigger picture.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2023

Thomas is excellent academically and researches his brief very thoroughly. He is very persuasive and clear as an advocate

Chambers UK Bar 2023

He is a great advocate who is both charming and authoritative.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2023

He is very bright intellectually and knows his field of law extremely well. His advocacy is incisive and well presented in a calm manner.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2023

A very intelligent barrister. His work is very carefully prepared. He puts across his arguments in a calm but very effective manner in oral submissions. He is also a very pleasant person and easy to work with.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2022

Very thorough and intelligent, he's an expert on conflicts of laws.

Chambers UK Bar 2022

His high level of legal analysis really stands out.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

Well-regarded for his work in cross-jurisdictional matters.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2021

He is really thorough and is very good on his feet.

Chambers UK Bar 2021

He's exceptionally clever, well prepared and persuasive in court, and someone whose written work is outstanding.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

A very innovative thinker who is adept at tackling difficult problems.

The Legal 500 UK Bar 2020

Extremely knowledgeable about jurisdictional matters and good on his feet.

Chambers UK Bar 2020

Produces masterful opinions.

Chambers UK Bar 2019

First-rate in the field of conflicts of laws issues and anti-suit injunctions, he is a great advocate.

Chambers UK Bar 2019

He is a great advocate.

Chambers UK Bar 2018

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