Mishcon de Reya LLP is a British law firm with offices in London and Singapore. Founded in 1937, it employs more than 1200 people with over 600 lawyers. It is regarded as forming part of the " Silver Circle" of leading UK law firms. In March 2017, the firm was announced Law Firm of the Year at the Legal Business Awards. Mishcon de Reya records revenue of £230.7 million for the last financial year, 2021-2022 – an increase of 22% from the previous financial year, which saw profit per equity partner (PEP) at the London firm jump by 11% to just over £1m.

History

Mishcon de Reya was formed by the merger of Victor Mishcon & Co, a one-man office founded by

Victor Mishcon Victor Mishcon, Baron Mishcon, Queen's Counsel, QC, Deputy Lieutenant, DL (14 August 1915 – 27 January 2006) was a leading British solicitor and a Labour Party (UK), Labour politician. His firm acted for Diana, Princess of Wales in her divor ...

, and Bartletts de Reya. In 2008, the firm launched the specialist 'Pink Law' Legal Advice Centre in conjunction with

Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

, and two other city law firms. The project offers free and impartial legal advice on issues affecting the

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

(LGBT) community, such as employment discrimination, civil partnerships and cohabitation. In 2016, this expanded to include SPITE, for victims of 'revenge porn', and again in 2020 with the Black Justice Project, which assists members of the Black community. The firm became a limited liability partnership on 9 October 2015. In 2016, Mishcon de Reya and children's charity Place2Be produced a book written for adults by children on the topic of parental separation 'Splitting Up: A Child's Guide to a Grown Up Problem'. Mishcon de Reya was named Law Firm of the Year at The Legal Business Awards 2017. Mishcon de Reya represented the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) in a landmark case in 2019, in which the High Court in London ruled that the £1,012 fee the Home Office charges children to register as a British citizen was unlawful. In May 2020 the firm opened a new branch office in Singapore, focused on delivering legal services to high net worth families across South East Asia. In 2021, the firm announced MDR Solutions I, a venture with

Harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

to fund litigation and arbitration cases. It also shared news of a strategic combination agreement with Taylor Vinters, a legal and advisory business, to offer legal and consultancy services to innovators and entrepreneurs. In November that year, it launched an association with Karas LLP in Hong Kong, following its approval to open a branch office in association with the Hong Kong-registered firm earlier that year. The company runs a VIP Russia service that provides “reputation protection,” wealth structuring and asset protection for Russian clients. The Pandora Papers revealed that the company helped Russian politician Alexei Chepa use an offshore company to buy a London mansion. In January 2023 Mishcon de Reya LLP merged with Taylor Vinters bringing over 200 people from Taylor Vinters: 145 fee-earners and 60 business operations and legal operations staff.

Notable clients

In 1995 one of the firm's solicitors,

Anthony Julius Anthony Robert Julius (born 16 July 1956) is a British solicitor advocate known for being Diana, Princess of Wales' divorce lawyer and for representing Deborah Lipstadt. He is a partner at the law firm Mishcon de Reya. He holds the chair in Law ...

, represented

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

, in her

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

. In 2000 the firm represented historian

Deborah Lipstadt Deborah Esther Lipstadt (born March 18, 1947) is an American historian, best known as author of the books ''Denying the Holocaust'' (1993), ''History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier'' (2005), ''The Eichmann Trial'' (2011), and ' ...

in the case '' David Irving v Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt''. The 2016 film ''

Denial Denial, in ordinary English usage, has at least three meanings: asserting that any particular statement or allegation is not true (which might be accurate or inaccurate); the refusal of a request; and asserting that a true statement is not true. ...

'' was based on the case. Mishcon de Reya's Employment team won a case in the

UK Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (initialism: UKSC or the acronym: SCOTUK) is the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom for all civil cases, and for criminal cases originating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As the Unite ...

on behalf of its client Krista Bates van Winkelhof, in which it was determined that members of

limited liability partnership A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liabilities. It therefore can exhibit elements of partnerships and corporations. In an LLP, each partner is not ...

s (LLPs) do have the protection of

whistleblowing A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

legislation. In 2016 the Supreme Court ruled financial claims can be brought over 20 years after divorce for client Kathleen Wyatt. In 2016 the company co-ordinated a challenge in the High Court by

Gina Miller Gina Nadira Miller (' Singh; born 19 April 1965) is a Guyanese-British business owner and activist who initiated the 2016 ''R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union'' court case against the British government over its aut ...

, an investment manager and philanthropist, against the process of the

United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

. The Government in January 2017 appealed the High Court ruling to the Supreme Court, but were unsuccessful. In a majority decision, it ruled that Parliament must vote on whether the Government could start the process of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. The firm again represented Gina Miller in 2019 in R (on behalf of Miller) v The Prime Minister. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue Parliament was unlawful. In 2019 the Court of Appeal overturned the Judgment of Mr Justice Warby dated 8 October 2018 which had refused Mishcon de Reya's client, Richard Lloyd, permission to serve a representative action on Google LLC. The claim relates to what is known as the "Safari Workaround" - Google's alleged unlawful and clandestine tracking of iPhone users in 2011 and 2012 without their consent through the use of third party cookies. In 2020, the firm acted on behalf of 397 Hiscox Action Group members, in a £52 million claim against Hiscox Insurance for refusing to pay out on business interruption claims due to COVID-19. The Supreme Court handed down its judgment in favour of the policyholders.

Notable people

, Baron Mishcon, QC, DL, founder

, Deputy Chairman

Criticism

In January 2022, the firm agreed to pay a record fine of £232,500 plus costs, following an investigation by the

Solicitors Regulation Authority The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is the regulatory body for solicitors in England and Wales. It is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of more than 125,000 solicitors and other authorised individuals at more than 11,000 f ...

(SRA), for committing what the SRA called "serious breaches" of

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

rules. In 2020 the

(SRA) announced that their forensic and anti-money laundering investigators were conducting a multi year investigation into the company's activities. In connection with the murdered Maltese journalist

Daphne Caruana Galizia Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia (; 26 August 1964 – 16 October 2017) was a Maltese writer, journalist, blogger and anti-corruption activist, who reported on political events in Malta. In particular, she focused on investigative journalism, repor ...

, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper reported: According to the British satirical magazine ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...

'':

References

External links