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Practice Summary

Max Schlote undertakes a broad range of commercial work.  His practice covers both litigation and international arbitration.  As well as appearing unled in the County Court and the High Court, Max is often engaged in complex, high value and profile disputes.  He also has appellate experience and has appeared before both the Supreme Court and Privy Council.

Legal 500 2020 have ranked Max as a 'rising star' in Commercial Litigation - "Max is super bright; super committed and super easy to deal with." Legal 500 2019 ranked Max as one of the top ten juniors under eight years call describing him as "very, very clever and one to watch".

Highlights of Max’s practice include his work in large group litigation, for example the RBS Rights Issue Litigation, where Max acted for the Claimant institutions in their £4bn claim arising out of the RBS’s £12bn rights issue in 2008; and now the Fundão Dam Litigation, the largest (by number of Claimants) group litigation in England ever, where Max acts for the defendant, BHP. 

Other highlights include Max’s work in the energy sector, for example an ICC Arbitration concerning a major gas pipeline infrastructure project (2019), and an LCIA Arbitration concerning a major energy construction project (2017-2019); and in the banking/finance sector, for example, the RBS Rights Issue Litigation; Dana Gas PJSC v Dana Gas Sukuk Limited, which concerned the validity and enforceability of Islamic financing arrangements); and his work in three Madoff-related cases (each in the Privy Council: Pearson v Primeo Fund No 1 [2017] UKPC 19 and No 2 [2020] UKPC 3 and Fairfield Sentry Ltd v Migani [2014] UKPC 9).  Max also appeared (alongside Laurence Rabinowitz QC and Alexander Polley) for Barclays in its high profile and successful stay application in the PCP v. Barclays Bank PLC Litigation [2017] EWHC 2897 (Comm) - news item linked here. 

Max has also been involved in several tax restitution cases, including the Littlewoods Litigation ([2017] UKSC 70) where Max acted for the Claimants (who were seeking £1.2 billion of compound interest in respect of overpaid VAT dating back to 1973) in the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Max is fluent in German.

Prior to transferring to the bar in 2012, Max worked for two years at Slaughter and May.