John Abbott

John Abbott was a former partner at Laytons where he was a Mediator & Arbitrator in the Dispute Resolution team.

John handled a wide range of complex and high-value commercial litigation and international arbitration, often involving multi-jurisdictional issues.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (International Arbitration) and is also an experienced mediator accredited in the UK by the Civil Mediation Council.

With more than 30 years' of experience and expertise, John is a very effective dispute resolution lawyer. In practice, he was a tenacious litigator with the ability to identify key issues early enabling him to resolve issues as quickly and cost effectively as the circumstances allow.

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John’s experience includes:

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• International arbitrations and domestic arbitrations

• English High Court and County Court litigation

• cross-border disputes and issues of proper law, jurisdiction and forum

• injunctions and freezing orders

• mediation, as a mediator and representing clients at mediations

• commercial/contractual disputes

• construction disputes

• property and landlord and tenant litigation

• shareholders’ and boardroom disputes

• guarantee disputes

• intellectual property litigation and theft of data claims​

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John is an experienced arbitrator and his arbitration experience spans more than 25 years and he has extensive experience representing clients in both international arbitration and domestic arbitration, institutional and ad hoc. Some of John’s most notable recent cases have involved: 

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• an arbitration between two middle eastern parties in respect of a contract for the distribution of high value medical equipment supplied from Jordan to Saudi Arabia

• a dispute in respect of the quality of steel supplied by a Korean steel producer to a Polish roofing manufacturer

• a construction dispute in relation to a redevelopment of a London property

• a dispute between a Chilean manufacturer of green coke and an importer from Italy

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John has considerable experience as a mediator and believes that there are very few disputes which are not capable of resolution by the use of mediation. He has proved to be very effective at bringing the parties to the point where they feel they can reach accord.

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John accepts appointments as arbitrator and as a mediator through ArbDB Chambers.