Andrea Monks, Deputy Managing Partner of the London office, advises leading financial institutions on their most significant disputes and contentious regulatory matters, both domestically and in a cross-border context.

Drawing on more than two decades of experience, Ms. Monks helps a range of banks, asset managers, hedge funds, and other key participants in the financial services sector to navigate highly complex and sensitive disputes. She brings particular experience handling contentious regulatory investigations, having been involved in nearly all of the key global regulatory investigations to occur in recent years. Her work includes counseling clients in relation to risk management, internal investigations, and regulatory enforcement.

An accomplished litigator, Ms. Monks has been at the helm of a number of test cases, group actions, and precedent-setting matters in the UK involving the banking industry. She has taken cases all the way to the Supreme Court. Her practice encompasses complex and structured products disputes, insolvency disputes, trade and asset finance disputes, loan syndicate disputes, and disputes following on from regulatory findings. A former in-house banking lawyer, Ms. Monks leverages her sophisticated industry knowledge and experience to help clients achieve their commercial objectives, including through settlements and other alternative forms of dispute resolution.

Ms. Monks also provides general commercial litigation representation, including in connection with contract disputes, fraud and asset-tracing, joint venture and supply chain disputes, and aviation disputes.

Ms. Monks’ experience includes advising:

  • A major investment bank in both the High Court and Competition Appeals Tribunal in relation to alleged FX manipulation
  • A global investment bank in an investigation by regulators into the bond trading market
  • A major international bank in relation to a multi-party group action by hundreds of mortgage customers
  • A leading bank in multiple sets of High Court proceedings involving interest rate swaps*
  • A major investment bank in an investigation by the SFO into allegations of money laundering*
  • A major bank in test case proceedings in relation to overdraft charges (Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National PLC & Others)*
  • A leading retail bank in test case proceedings relating to the Consumer Credit Act (Carey & Ors v HSBC & Ors)*

*Matter handled prior to joining the firm

Bar Qualification

  • England and Wales (Solicitor)

Education

  • Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours), University of Queensland, Australia, 1996
  • Bachelor of Arts, University of Queensland, Australia, 1994

Languages Spoken

  • English