Sentinel & Partners · Est. 1971 · London · New York · Singapore · Geneva Vol. LV · Spring Quarterly 2026
Sentinel & PartnersCounsel · since MCMLXXI

Advisory at the
margin of the law —
where the interesting
questions sit.

Forty-eight years of arguing the cases other firms turn away. International litigation, cross-border M&A, white-collar defence, and the quiet matters that never make a press release.

Speak to a partner Our track record No fee for the first 45 minutes
Chambers GlobalBand 1 Legal 500Hall of Fame The LawyerFirm of the Year — 2024 · 2025 WhosWhoLegal14 partners listed
Practices · I — VI

Six chambers.
Each led by a partner
you'll actually speak to.

We do not have eighty-three practice groups. We have six — narrow, deep, well-shelved with people who have argued the same questions for thirty years.

I.
International disputes

International litigation
& arbitration.

Commercial High Court · LCIA · ICC · SIAC · ad-hoc UNCITRAL. We argue cross-border at the bench and the table, and we keep one of the most decorated arbitration benches in the City on the wall.

  • Group I FTSE/Fortune 500 disputes
  • Sovereign & sub-sovereign matters
  • Treaty arbitration (BIT · ECT)
→
II.
Corporate

Cross-border M&A
& private capital.

Bid-side, target-side, take-private, carve-out, club deal. Quiet work — most of it never reaches a press release because most of it is by design.

  • £50m — £4.2bn ticket range
  • Five-continent execution bench
  • Family-office & sovereign mandates
→
III.
Regulatory · criminal

White-collar defence
& investigations.

SFO, FCA, DOJ, BaFin, MAS. We defend before the press release and, when necessary, we defend the press release itself. Confidential by default; the matter never leaves the room.

  • SFO Section 2 interviews — same-day cover
  • Cross-border investigative privilege
  • 14 senior counsel on retainer
→
IV.
Private client

Wealth, succession,
& the family.

Trusts, foundations, pre-nuptials, contentious estates. We have advised the same six families for four generations — and we'd rather you not be the seventh, if it can be helped.

  • UK · BVI · Jersey · Liechtenstein · Singapore
  • Privy Council certificated
  • Discretion is the only policy
→
V.
Markets

Capital markets
& structured finance.

Eurobond, regulation S, regulated covered bond, sukuk, securitisation. Five lead partners on call to global underwriters and arrangers — same names that wrote the original ISDA close-out commentary.

  • LSE main-market & ISM listings
  • Sustainability-linked & sukuk frameworks
  • Restructuring & close-out advisory
→
VI.
Public & constitutional

Public, regulatory,
& constitutional.

Judicial review, sanctions challenges, international human-rights matters. Pro bono work makes up roughly 8% of partner time — we publish the receipt every year.

  • Supreme Court & Privy Council practice
  • OFSI & OFAC sanctions defence
  • ECtHR Strasbourg representation
→
Track record · 1971 — 2026

A record we'll publish.
And the matters we'll
never discuss.

We won't pretend we win every case — nobody who claims that should be trusted with one. Here is what the last four decades actually look like, on a wall.

N° 01 / Bench
94.2per cent

Cases resolved in client's favour at first instance, last 10 years. We don't include the ones that settled before pleadings — those would push the number into the dishonest range.

N° 02 / Mandates
£14.2billion · 2025

Aggregate value of corporate and arbitration mandates advised on. Roughly two-thirds cross-border; one-third never reached a public docket.

N° 03 / Partner ratio
1 : 3partner to associate

A senior partner is on every matter — by the partnership deed, not by marketing copy. You will never hear "I'll have to ask the partner" from someone who isn't on the call.

N° 04 / Tenure
19median partner years

Our senior partners have, on average, argued the same kind of question for nineteen years. We can think of no other property we'd rather purchase for a client.

2025
Lambourne & Crest v. Veridian SE
High Ct · QBD · Commercial Cross-border breach of warranty · £820m Judgment · client
2025
In the matter of The Veria Group
LCIA · seat London Shareholder & control dispute Settled · favourable terms
2024
R (on the application of NK) v. SSHD
Court of Appeal · Civil Div Sanctions challenge · pro bono Judgment · client
2024
HFM Securitisation N° 14 · arrangement
London · Frankfurt €1.4bn covered-bond restructure Closed · on time
2023
Sovereign of (redacted) v. Investor
ICSID · UNCITRAL Investment-treaty arbitration Tribunal · client
2023
SFO investigation · (client redacted)
Section 2 interviews · London White-collar · 18-month inquiry No charges brought
2022
Estate of The Late Sir A.W.
Chancery · contentious probate Cross-jurisdiction succession Trust restored · client
Partnership · Senior chambers

The names
on the door.

Fourteen partners, all called to the Bar before 2005, all with the time to take the call themselves. No "senior associate" who returns it on Friday.

Eleanor Marleigh, KCManaging partner · litigation

Called 1996. Appointed Silk 2014. Has led on four of the largest commercial trials in the last decade and remains the only person we trust to argue them next year.

CalledMiddle Temple, 1996 Silk2014 Tenureat firm, 22 years

Henrik DaugaardSenior partner · corporate

Has executed cross-border M&A across thirty-one jurisdictions in the last twelve years. Quietly responsible for three of the four "deals of the year" the trade press wrote about without naming us.

AdmittedEngland, 2001 · Denmark, 1999 Tenureat firm, 17 years LanguagesEN · DA · DE · FR

Lucía Ruano-IyerPartner · white-collar & investigations

Former senior counsel to the SFO; defended seven Section 2 inquiries in 2024 alone. Two of the three "investigations of the year" you read about quietly closed because she answered the phone first.

CalledLincoln's Inn, 2003 FormerSenior counsel · SFO Tenureat firm, 11 years
The Sentinel Quarterly · Vol. LV

Notes on the law,
as we read it.

All editions →
Feature essay By E. Marleigh KC 18 min read · April 12, 2026

The quiet death of the
"contract of adhesion".

On the slow erosion of the standard-form defence in commercial high-court practice — and what it now costs the party drafting the document.

Read the essay →
BriefCorporateApr 09

Take-private in 2026: a shorter playbook.

Why the three best deals we did last year all closed before the auction process started.

3 min read →
BriefRegulatoryMar 28

The SFO's new Section 2 cadence.

A counsel's checklist for the first 48 hours after the brown envelope arrives.

6 min read →
BriefDisputesMar 14

Arbitration seats we used to like.

Why we are quietly steering clients away from one Asian seat and toward another.

9 min read →
BriefPrivate clientFeb 26

Pre-nuptials, post-Standish.

The new arithmetic of marital agreements after the Supreme Court's quietest decision of the year.

5 min read →
Re: confidential
Speeches By L. Ruano-Iyer Cambridge · 12 March 2026

"Defending the press
release" — annotated.

An annotated transcript of last term's Cambridge lecture on reputation, regulation, and the architecture of an investigation defence.

Download transcript →

We do not have a "growth strategy". We have a partnership that has, in fifty-four years, never opened an office because it would look good in a deck. We open them when we have a client who needs us there at six o'clock the next morning.

— From the deed of partnership · 1971 · re-signed 2024
Engagement & fees

We will write you
a fixed letter.

No "London rate" by stealth, no junior-hours surprises. After the first consultation we send a one-page engagement letter with a number on it. The number does not change unless you change the matter.

Consultation
£0first forty-five minutes · in chambers or by call

A first conversation, in private, with the partner who will run your matter — not a junior, not an associate.

  • BYA named partner, every time
  • SCOPEUp to 45 minutes, in confidence
  • NEXTOne-page written view, by post
  • FEENone — engagement only if asked
Request consultation
Fixed engagement
£·A fixed letter — one page, one figure, one signature

For the matter you can describe in a paragraph. We propose a number. You sign or you don't. The number does not change.

  • FORMOne-page engagement letter
  • FEEFixed, written, signed by a partner
  • PARTNERSame name through to closing
  • RETURNFull refund if it doesn't proceed
  • USEM&A · transactional · advisory
Open a file
Retained counsel
£·quarterly retainer · for the matter that's always running

For the family office, the listed group, the founder whose calendar has more than one matter alive at once. A named partner on a quarterly fee.

  • FORMQuarterly fee, agreed by deed
  • CALLDedicated partner mobile, in hours
  • NOTEMonthly written matter note
  • BREAKNotice clause, both sides, fair
Discuss a retainer
Contact · in confidence

Send a note. Not
a contact form, a note.

The form below reaches the desk of the partner-of-the-day. Read once, replied to within 24 hours, never copied to anyone we did not name.

Four offices.
Each with someone on call.

If your matter is genuinely urgent — and lawyers should be very careful with the word "urgent" — please ring the office direct. The named partner is on call between 06:00 and 22:00 local.

Londonheadquarters
14 Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3JF+44 (0)20 7212 3100 →
New YorkPark Avenue
432 Park Avenue, Suite 41-W, NY 10022+1 (212) 614-0800 →
SingaporeMarina Bay
8 Marina View, Asia Square Tower 1, S 018960+65 6221 0800 →
GenevaRive droite
Quai Wilson 47, 1201 Genève+41 22 821 0800 →
Form 01 / new matter

The first conversation.

All correspondence is read by a partner and held under client-confidence rules — Solicitors Regulation Authority §6.4. Nothing here forms a retainer until we have written to you confirming it does.

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