Oliver Middleton

Latham & Watkins

Olswang, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Latham & Watkins, in that order. It’s not exactly a bad career path for a litigator who last year made partner at Latham despite only joining the US behemoth in 2018.

Alongside Oliver Middleton’s unusually fast promotion at the firm, which he found out about during a 12-week stint on paternity leave, he has continued to strengthen his reputation as a disputes dynamo.

As a firm favourite with the banks, his recent instructions include acting for Barclays in two notable class actions, preceded by a stint on secondment at Deutsche Bank. He is equally capable when it comes to tech-related matters, benefitting from Latham’s client relationship with Facebook.

However, a cosy-up with the banks is certainly a contrast for the former Quinn man, who honed his craft working on the mammoth RBS rights issue litigation. In a poacher-turned-gamekeeper role reversal, his task now is to achieve the hard sell in convincing some of the City’s most prominent financial institutions to turn to Latham for their lucrative disputes.

Middleton, alongside his ambitious Latham colleagues, may well be the magic circle’s biggest threat.