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Schneider & Andre Schneider & Andre International Commercial Litigation
London · Lincoln's Inn Fields Frankfurt am Main Zürich Twenty-three years restoring justice across 31 jurisdictions.
Practice No. 06 / VI

The Practice Index

Six disciplines, one partner-led courtroom culture.

Twenty-three years of restoring justice for Europe's most complex commercial disputes — a confidential contents page of where Schneider & Andre accepts work, and the partners responsible for each.

Prepared for general counsel. London & Frankfurt, MMXXIV.

I. Avg. matter €18.6M · 31 jurisdictions · 2001–2024

Cross-Border Commercial Disputes

The flagship. We act for corporate claimants in parallel proceedings spanning the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and the Nordics — typically where an enforcement foothold in one jurisdiction unlocks recovery in several others. We have argued before the CJEU, the UK Supreme Court, the BGH, and the Swiss Federal Tribunal on the questions of Brussels Ia, the Hague 2019 Convention, and the Lugano regime.

Our forensic evidence team — fourteen former police, banking, and Big Four investigators — operates alongside counsel from the first preservation letter through to trial. In 2023 we recovered €312M in a single coordinated arbitration-enforcement action spanning nine jurisdictions. Forty-one of the FTSE 350 and twenty-eight of the DAX 40 retain us as standing disputes counsel.

  • Brussels Ia
  • Hague 2019
  • Parallel proceedings
  • Asset tracing

Led by Charles Andre, founding partner, London.

II. ICC · LCIA · SCC · DIS · Swiss Rules

Arbitration & Enforcement

Award enforcement is where cross-border disputes are actually won. We draft arbitration clauses engineered to survive challenge, sit as lead counsel in major institutional proceedings, and convert arbitral awards into enforceable judgments in every seat of commerce in Europe.

Of the seven precedent-setting cross-border enforcement cases decided by the CJEU since 2015, our partners won four. We are particularly active in post-award asset discovery, anti-suit injunctions, and the increasingly consequential interface between investor-state arbitration and EU sanctions regimes.

  • Award enforcement
  • Anti-suit relief
  • Seat selection
  • Investor-state

Led by Dr. Henrike Voss, partner, Frankfurt.

III. Family offices · Private equity · Founder estates

Shareholder & Succession

Discreet representation for European family offices, PE portfolio companies, and multigenerational founder estates when control, valuation, or fiduciary duty is in contest. We move quietly, file only when filing serves the matter, and resolve the majority of engagements without public judgment.

Our work spans shareholder oppression and unfair prejudice claims, post-M&A earn-out disputes, squeeze-outs, trustee removal proceedings, and the cross-border recognition of succession instruments under the EU Succession Regulation. We routinely coordinate German, English, and Swiss proceedings so that an estate plan executes as written.

  • Unfair prejudice
  • Squeeze-outs
  • EU Succession Reg.
  • Trustee disputes

Led by Marc Devereux, partner, London.

IV. Coverage disputes · London & continental markets

Coverage & Insurance

We act for corporate policyholders — not carriers — in coverage disputes arising from D&O, professional indemnity, cyber, and political-risk placements. The threshold question is almost always whether the carrier's reservation of rights is supportable; we make the call early and litigate it when we must.

Our matters regularly turn on the interaction between English and German insurance law, the assignment of policies in M&A, and the duty of good faith under §19 VVG. We have secured coverage for clients in connection with underlying judgments ranging from €8M to €410M.

  • D&O
  • PI & cyber
  • VVG §19
  • Reservation of rights

Led by Dr. Anneliese Kort, partner, Zurich.

V. Pre-dispute · Strategic counterpart

Pre-Litigation Risk Advisory

Before a dispute is filed, we advise boards and general counsel on the litigation risk embedded in a transaction, a regulatory exposure, or a counterparty relationship. Engagements are typically six to twelve weeks, fixed-fee, and conclude with a written recovery probability assessment and a recommended posture.

We have advised on matters ranging from €50M supply-contract disputes ahead of arbitration, to pre-enforcement due diligence on sovereign counterparties, to the litigation-odds review of a contested €740M cross-border carve-out in 2023. Our advisory engagements convert to instructed mandates in roughly one-third of cases.

  • Recovery probability
  • Posture review
  • Evidence preservation
  • Counterparty stress

Led by Dr. Nikolaus Faber, partner, Frankfurt.

VI. Joint counsel · Special expertise · Capacity

Co-Counsel Engagements

We are retained as special or co-counsel by international law firms whose matters require forensic capability, a continental advocacy seat, or partner-level reinforcement. Engagements are scoped in writing; lead counsel retains conduct of the matter at all times.

Our recent co-counsel mandates include evidence-gathering in a BGH proceeding led by a Magic Circle firm, junior-counsel substitution on a €180M Commercial Court matter where the standing firm faced a conflict, and the provision of a forensic investigator on a multi-jurisdictional regulatory inquiry. We do not advertise these engagements; the work comes from peers who know the file.

  • Special counsel
  • Forensic support
  • Capacity reinforcement
  • Conflict substitution

Coordinated by Charles Andre and Dr. Henrike Voss.

By the numbers

The cross-border record, quantified.

Twenty-three years. Eleven jurisdictions of origin. One courtroom culture.

€1.4B+

Recovered for corporate claimants across 31 jurisdictions, 2001–2024.

87%

Partner involvement on every matter across our last 412 cases — no associate-led hearings.

38

Lawyers and forensic specialists across London, Frankfurt, and Zurich — 11 partners, 14 senior associates.

14.3 yrs

Average partner tenure — one of the lowest attrition rates in the Magic Circle-adjacent tier.

Chambers Europe 2024: Band 1 for Dispute Resolution — Germany. Legal 500 EMEA Tier 1 in Commercial Litigation, 2018–2024 consecutively. Cited by the European Commission's DG JUST.

The partners

Six disciplines, six partners.

The name beside the matter is the partner who will argue it.

  1. I.

    Charles Andre

    Founding Partner, London · Cross-Border Commercial Disputes · Called 1991.

  2. II.

    Dr. Henrike Voss

    Partner, Frankfurt · Arbitration & Enforcement · Joined 2007.

  3. III.

    Marc Devereux

    Partner, London · Shareholder & Succession · Joined 2010.

  4. IV.

    Dr. Anneliese Kort

    Partner, Zurich · Coverage & Insurance · Joined 2012.

  5. V.

    Dr. Nikolaus Faber

    Partner, Frankfurt · Pre-Litigation Risk Advisory · Joined 2014.

  6. VI.

    Sophie Laurent

    Partner, London · Co-Counsel Engagements · Joined 2016.

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