Zaiwalla & Co’s close
relationship with Iran
dates to 2009
When few City law firms were willing to accept instructions from Iranian clients. We were one of the first to assist Iranian corporates and entities with sanctions disputes. Today our team has extensive experience of the legal issues affecting Iranian business and individuals.
We successfully acted in a landmark Supreme Court win for the Iranian Bank Mellat, challenging the sanctions imposed on it by both the UK Government and Council of European Union. We were able to ensure that Bank Mellat recovered the damage caused to it as a result of those sanctions. This was a Lawyer Top 20 Case in both 2013 and 2015 such was its significance to sanctions jurisprudence.
We are a City of London firm practising the law of England and Wales, and our public international law and sanctions team acts for designated persons before the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and before the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg. Kartik Mittal and Leigh Crestohl lead the sanctions work.
Our expertise
We act for designated banks, energy companies, shipping companies and individuals, and for the counterparties, insurers and banks exposed to them, under the Iran (Sanctions) Regulations 2023 and the European Union and United States regimes, in the Administrative Court, the Commercial Court and the General Court in Luxembourg. Our Iran work includes:
Administrative reviews and ministerial reviews
Administrative reviews and ministerial reviews of United Kingdom designations, and statutory reviews under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018
Judicial review and section 38 court reviews
Judicial review and section 38 court reviews of designation decisions in the High Court, and appeals to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court
Annulment actions before the General Court
Annulment actions before the General Court of the European Union under Article 263 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and damages actions under Article 340
Delisting petitions
Delisting petitions to the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control, working with United States counsel
Licence applications and general licence advice
Licence applications and general licence advice, including humanitarian, legal fees, insurance and wind-down licences
Ownership and control analysis
Ownership and control analysis where an entity is not itself designated but may be owned or controlled by a designated person
Contract advice on sanctions clauses
Contract advice on sanctions clauses, termination, frustration, force majeure and payment blocking in banking and trade finance disputes
Arbitration and litigation
Arbitration and litigation where performance has been blocked by sanctions, including recovery of frozen funds
Internal investigations
Internal investigations and voluntary disclosures where a breach has already happened
Shipping and cargo advice
Shipping and cargo advice on vessel designations, insurance, port calls and attribution of ownership
Past and present cases
We successfully represented Bank Tejarat in challenging sanctions
Imposed by the Council of the European Union and in its subsequent damage claim against the Council of the EU.
We also represented and advised Petropars Iran Co., Petropars Oilfields Services Co and other affiliated entities in challenging sanctions imposed by the Council of the EU.
Other Iranian clients of the firm include Persia International Bank Plc, Bank Saderat Plc, NITC and Hirbodan Management Company.
Speak to our team
Iranian clients regularly move matters to us from larger competitors, because we provide the quality of service expected of a City firm at considerably lower rates. Phone +44 20 7312 1000 or email info@zaiwalla.co.uk.
Frequently asked questions
Can you challenge a UK sanctions designation?
Yes. You can ask the Secretary of State to revoke or vary the designation under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, and if that fails you can apply to the High Court under section 38 for a court review, which applies judicial review principles. Bank Mellat’s challenge to a financial restriction’s direction succeeded in the Supreme Court on procedural fairness and proportionality, and both grounds remain available.
Can you claim damages for a wrongful designation?
It can be done but it is rarely successful. Bank Mellat’s damages claim against HM Treasury was settled before trial rather than decided, and HM Treasury recorded a special payment of £80.6 million in its 2019 to 2020 accounts. Before the General Court of the European Union, every damages action brought by an Iranian bank after a successful annulment has been dismissed, because annulment alone does not establish a sufficiently serious breach of a protective rule of law.
Can you get an OFSI licence?
Sometimes, and the grounds are defined. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation can license payments falling within the statutory licensing purposes, which include basic needs, reasonable legal fees, prior obligations, extraordinary expenses and humanitarian assistance, and general licences cover some categories without an individual application. Applications need the underlying contract, the payment route, the bank details and an explanation of why the payment falls inside a licensing purpose.
Does delisting restore your access to banking?
Not automatically. Removal from the UK Sanctions List ends the legal prohibition, but banks apply their own risk appetite, and correspondent banks in third countries apply United States rules as well as United Kingdom and European Union rules. An Iranian entity delisted in London may still be blocked by a clearing bank in New York. Restoring payment channels usually needs written comfort for each bank in the chain, beyond the delisting decision itself.
What is your next step?
Send us the designation notice, the statement of reasons and the correspondence with your bank, by email to info@zaiwalla.co.uk or by telephone on +44 20 7312 1000. We will tell you which review route is open, whether an OFSI licence is the faster answer, what evidence the route needs and how long it is likely to take.