Charles Balmain is an associate in the London Dispute Resolution group. His practice covers a broad range of contentious matters on behalf of corporate clients and financial institutions.

Charles has acted for clients in litigation before the English High Court and Court of Appeal and in offshore jurisdictions, as well as in several international arbitrations, principally conducted under ICC rules. Charles is a Solicitor Advocate with oral advocacy experience, notably, in arbitral proceedings.

Charles also has EU law experience and has advised on contentious and non-contentious competition matters. He has previously practised in the firm’s Paris and Brussels offices.

Examples of recent representations include:

• Representing a Turkish conglomerate in proceedings before the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court concerning the disputed ownership of a US$1.5 billion stake in a mobile phone operator;
• Acting for the owner in a US$175 million ICC arbitration concerning the construction of a gas processing plant, conducted in French and English and governed by a North African substantive law;
• Acting for a syndicate of international banks in connection with the recovery of in excess of US$1 billion owed to the syndicate by ministries of a sovereign state. This representation included the conduct of High Court and Court of Appeal litigation to establish the extent of one syndicate member’s equitable rights of set-off;
• Assisting a client in its response to ex parte Search and Seize Orders obtained against it and in its subsequent defence of High Court proceedings based on an alleged misuse of confidential information; and
• Acting for a Dutch telecoms client in its defence of substantial (US$100 million) ICC arbitration proceedings involving complex questions of EU competition law.

Bars and Courts
England & Wales, admitted 2003
Solicitor Advocate, admitted 2008

Education
Diploma in European Legal Studies, Heidelberg University, Germany, 1997
LL.B. in Law with European Legal Studies, King's College London, Honors, London, 1998
LL.M. in European Law, The College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium, 1999
Legal Practice Course, The College of Law, London, 2001

Publications
Regular contributor to the Institute of Competition Law's "E-Competitions" bulletin
“The United Kingdom Competition Act: Issues of Due Process and Decentralisation”, Modernisation and Decentralisation of EC Competition Law, Kluwer Law International, 2000
“Putting the Lid on Pandora's Box”, Perspectives on European Business Law, 2000

Languages
English, French, German

Citizenship
British