S&A
Schneider & Andre LLP
Disputes Annual
We win the cross‑border cases
general counsel are told
cannot be won — through a
partner‑only courtroom culture.
Schneider & Andre is a London- and Frankfurt-anchored disputes boutique that has recovered more than €1.4 billion for corporate claimants across 31 jurisdictions since 2001.
Audited mandate evidence · 2001–2024
Twenty-three years of recoveries, recorded in chambers.
Cross-referenced against the Cross-Border Enforcement Index, published annually by Schneider & Andre since 2012 and cited by the European Commission’s DG JUST.
Table of contents
Why general counsel retain us.
Eight propositions, each substantiated by mandate data. Read them as you would read a chambers’ annual — slowly, and in order.
A partner reads the file on the day it arrives.
No triage desk, no intake committee. A named partner acknowledges the matter, issues the conflict check, and attends the first conference — in person, in chambers.
31 jurisdictions, argued at the highest bench.
Successfully appeared before the CJEU, the UK Supreme Court, the Bundesgerichtshof, and the Swiss Federal Tribunal — with the briefs still on the record.
Standing counsel to 41 FTSE 350 and 28 DAX 40 issuers.
Reappointed, on average, every 4.2 years. The roster is published in our annual and is available on reasoned request to in-house teams.
Average matter value €18.6M.
Smallest active engagement €2.1M; largest €740M (2023). We do not staff matters below the threshold at which a partner-only file is economic.
Authors of six practitioner texts on Brussels Ia & Hague 2019.
Including the leading annotated commentary cited by the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal in the 2022–2024 reporting period.
Four of the seven precedent-setting CJEU cross-border cases since 2015.
Won, not merely argued. The full list of reported judgments is held in the Cross-Border Enforcement Index.
A permanent in-house forensic evidence team of fourteen.
Former police, banking, and Big Four investigators — on the payroll, not on retainer. They report to the partner of record.
A single €312M enforcement, nine jurisdictions, one year.
2023: coordinated arbitration-enforcement action spanning nine jurisdictions, recovered in full, with judgment in twelve of twelve fora.
Anonymised mandates
Selected mandates, 2022–2024.
Client identities are withheld in accordance with professional conduct rules. Jurisdictions, bench levels, and outcomes are stated as recorded.
Coordinated arbitration-enforcement action across nine jurisdictions.
A European industrial claimant, defendant’s assets dispersed across the EU, UK, and Switzerland following an ICC award. A single coordinated team, a single forensic-tracing exercise, twelve concurrent enforcement filings. Recovered in full.
Precedent-setting ruling on the Brussels Ia concurrent proceedings rule.
A logistics group faced with parallel proceedings in three Member States. Schneider & Andre argued the lead reference before the Grand Chamber; the ruling is now the cited authority in cross-border lis pendens.
Forum dispute under Brussels Ia — choice-of-court contested across three fora.
A software licensing dispute seated between Frankfurt, London, and Dublin. The forum challenge was resolved in the client’s favour at first instance and upheld on appeal — in all three jurisdictions.
Methodology · Chapter I
How a partner-only file is run.
From the moment a matter enters the firm to the morning of the hearing, the file is held by a single named partner. The intake is not delegated. The drafting is not delegated. The oral argument is not delegated. What changes between matters is the scale of the team beneath that partner, not the partner’s presence on the file.
A senior associate may run a procedural track under the partner’s direct supervision, and a forensic specialist may lead an evidence workstream, but the partner of record attends every case management conference, signs every pleading, and appears at every hearing — including in our last 412 consecutive mandates.
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i.
Intake — day zero.
A named partner reads the brief on the day it arrives. Conflict check is run personally; a 45-minute intake conference is offered within five working days.
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ii.
Forensic scoping — weeks one to four.
The in-house forensic team opens an evidence file under privilege; tracing, disclosure, and electronic discovery are scoped by the partner.
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iii.
Pleadings — partner-signed.
Every pleading, skeleton, and written submission is signed by the partner of record and counter-signed by a second partner where the matter value exceeds €20M.
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iv.
Hearing — partner-argued.
Oral argument is led by the partner of record. A second partner is on brief for cross-examination of expert and forensic evidence.
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v.
Enforcement — partner-supervised to receipt of funds.
Judgment is only the half of it. The same partner who argued the hearing supervises enforcement to receipt of funds, across every relevant jurisdiction.
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