Me in a minute

Stephen Ross

Partner

Stephen is a partner in the litigation and arbitration team and leads the global fraud team.

His practice focusses on international asset freezing and recovery cases, heavyweight commercial litigation and regulatory disputes and Stephen is particularly adept at drawing on the firm’s tax expertise in such cases to obtain a strategic advantage. Stephen also often acts for family offices, successful families, entrepreneurs and their businesses on a broad range of commercial disputes and heads up our family office first group, which is an innovative approach to finding positive solutions for family conflicts. Stephen regularly speaks at national and international conferences on a wide range of fraud and litigation topics. Stephen is described by Chambers and Partners 2021 as ‘absolutely fantastic – he exudes calm no matter what the situation, taking everything in his stride and turning it to his client’s advantage.’

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Secretary Christine Woodroffe

+44 20 7597 6444
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In what was a marathon litigation experience, Withers were key. In particular Stephen Ross provided clear leadership, sound and consistent judgement and an ability to get ahead of the issues.

Hedge fund executive
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‘Stephen Ross has very strong judgement and is a master strategist.’

Chambers UK 2018, London
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Stephen Ross heads the practice and has ‘impeccable judgement, always remaining calm and reacting quickly and flexibly to fluid situations’.

Legal 500 UK, 2017
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Stephen Ross has client handling skills that are second to none.

Legal 500 UK, 2018
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Stephen Ross is an excellent litigator, tenacious, very understanding of client’s needs, and user friendly. Stephen makes the work he does seem effortless although he is evidently a very hard worker. He is superb. calm, measured, clever, thoughtful and practical.

Legal 500 UK, 2020
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Stephen demonstrates a depth of knowledge in relation to remedies that are available in a case. He has great commercial awareness and is a pleasure to work with.

Chambers UK, 2021
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Stephen Ross is one of the key fraud litigators in the City, pulling in the biggest work and providing very good results.

Legal 500 UK, 2021
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Master strategist Stephen Ross is adept at client management. He gets the very best out of his own team by instilling a strong sense of mutual trust and confidence.

Legal 500 UK, 2021

Focus areas

Families and family offices

Family businesses

Financial services

Middle East

High-net-worth individuals

Media and reputation

Professional advisers

Track record

Admissions

Memberships

Barrowfen Properties Limited v (1) Girish Patel; (2) Stevens & Bolton LLP; (3) Barrowfen Properties II Limited [2020[ EWHC 1145 (Ch) . Acting in a successful claim involving allegations of professional negligence and conspiracy.

Marathon Asset Management LLP v Seddon and others - Successfully defending a three year £30m claim concerning the removal of confidential information and conspiracy. After a long battle, our client was ordered to pay only £1 in nominal damages and negotiated the recovery of his legal costs.

Acting for the Saudi Algosaibi Group in relation to a US$9.2 billion fraud claim.

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England and Wales, 2001

Commercial Fraud Lawyers Association

Me in a minute

I love this challenge of my specialist area

I own a small vineyard in Somerset and working there at the weekends helps blow away the cobwebs from a week of international fraud litigation and often gives me time to ponder on the right strategy for a case.

Producing wine does not pay the bills, so it is lucky that I always wanted to be a lawyer and a litigator at that.

In my career at Withers, I soon became drawn to large scale international disputes, mostly involving allegations of fraud or dishonesty. When clients are affected by a fraud or drawn into ‘bet the farm’ litigation in several countries, you have to treat the matter like a game of three dimensional chess and plan each move in each jurisdiction accordingly. I love this challenge of my specialist area.

In the run up to a big trial I tend to be tee-total, which is challenging when you own a vineyard and frustrating given that I have regularly been involved in some of the largest fraud trials in the English Courts over the last decade.

Me in a minute

Education

London School of Economics, B.A. (Hons) Philosophy

Languages

  • English

Dates

Joined

1999
Partner

2015

Recognition

Regularly works with...