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Thorne & Vance

London · Established 1987

Counsel for the decisions that cannot be undone.

A disputes and corporate practice of eleven partners. We take a small number of matters and staff them with people whose names are on the door.

The record · 2025

£640m

Value of matters in 2025

94%

Disputes resolved pre-trial

11

Partners

The chambers library

On how we work

Litigation is a commercial decision that happens to involve lawyers.

Almost every client who walks through our door is certain they are in the right. Most of them are. It is rarely the relevant question.

The relevant question is what the outcome is worth, what it will cost to obtain, how long the business will be distracted, and what happens to the counterparty relationship afterwards. We give you that assessment in writing within ten working days of being instructed — including the case we would put against you.

Roughly a third of our advice in the first month is that a matter should be settled rather than fought. It is a poor way to maximise fees and a very good way to keep clients for twenty years.

Practice areas

Six · select to open

01 Commercial litigation +

High Court and arbitral disputes, from injunctive relief through to enforcement across jurisdictions.

Freezing & search orders
Contractual disputes
Shareholder actions
Enforcement & asset tracing
02 Corporate & M&A +

Acquisitions, disposals and reorganisations for owner-managed businesses and mid-market funds.

Share & asset sales
Management buy-outs
Investment & funding rounds
Group reorganisations
03 Employment +

Board-level exits, restrictive covenants and the tribunal claims that follow them.

Board-level exits
Restrictive covenants
Tribunal defence
TUPE & restructuring
04 Real estate +

Development, institutional investment and landlord-and-tenant disputes on commercial portfolios.

Development agreements
Institutional investment
Dilapidations
Lease renewals & forfeiture
05 Regulatory & investigations +

FCA, HSE and internal investigations where the commercial risk outruns the legal one.

FCA enforcement
HSE prosecutions
Internal investigations
Dawn raid response
06 Private wealth +

Succession, trusts and the contentious probate that families do not plan for.

Succession planning
Trusts & settlements
Contentious probate
Family investment companies

Recent matter · Commercial Court · value £64m

Freezing injunction obtained within thirty-one hours of instruction.

Acting for a manufacturing group whose finance director had moved £11m through four jurisdictions over nineteen months. We obtained a worldwide freezing order and an ancillary disclosure order on a without-notice application, traced the funds through Jersey and Dubai, and recovered £9.4m inside a year.

£9.4m

Recovered

31 hrs

To order

Four

Jurisdictions

The first conversation is privileged and costs nothing.

Tell us what has happened. We will tell you whether you have a case, what we think it is worth, and whether you should bring it — before any question of fees arises.