Aimee Smart
Senior Counsel
Areas of Focus
- Complex Commercial Litigation
- International Arbitration
- Pro Bono
- Disputes & Investigations
- Energy Disputes
- Climate Change
- International Disputes
- UK & International Finance Litigation
- Restructuring Litigation
- Energy & Infrastructure
- Commercial Arbitration & International Commercial Disputes
- International Investment Disputes
- Senior disputes lawyer focusing on civil fraud and complex, cross-border commercial litigation and arbitration, handling a wide range of high-value international disputes.
- Dedicates significant time to pro bono including developing and coordinating Akin’s London and international pro bono practices.
Aimee is a senior disputes lawyer (and solicitor-advocate) with extensive experience conducting complex cross-border commercial litigation and arbitration. She advises companies and individuals on a wide range of commercial and financial matters, with a particular focus on cases involving allegations of misconduct, fraud and money laundering.
Aimee also maintains a substantial pro bono practice—advising clients in a variety of areas of public interest law—and works to develop and coordinate the firm’s London and international pro bono practices.
The Legal 500 UK cited Aimee as someone who “is exceptionally bright, astute and persuasive” and who “has a mastery of the detail, is efficient and very hard working.”
- Acting for one of the largest Russian energy companies in a commercial court claim involving allegations of fraud, which was brought pursuant to Russian tort law.
- Serving as counsel for a hedge fund, as the majority holder of senior secured notes in the Norske Skog group, in expedited proceedings before the Commercial Court involving allegations of insider trading in breach of the Market Abuse Regulation.
- Representing the majority shareholder in a global consumer goods brand on claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, unlawful means conspiracy and defamation (and in respect of an interim prohibitory injunction) in a complex boardroom dispute with a private equity investor in the business. The dispute was fought out in a number of different jurisdictions and forums, including high-value claims in the English Commercial Court, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and India; arbitral proceedings in Switzerland; and criminal proceedings in Dubai.
- Advising an individual who had been incarcerated in Washington, D.C. for 31 years on convictions he had always denied, ultimately securing his release on parole.
- Assisting a Bahraini investment bank and Saudi Arabia’s largest real estate development company in a long-running $1 billion dispute in the courts of England, Bahrain and Kuwait, involving allegations of conspiracy, money laundering, breach of confidence and defamation.
"Aimee Smart is exceptionally bright, astute and persuasive” and “has a mastery of the detail, is efficient and very hard working."
Legal 500 UK, 2023
EducationL.P.C., BPP University Law School, England, 2011
GDL, BPP University Law School, England, 2012
Master of Chemistry with Patent Law, University of Manchester, 2009
L.P.C., BPP University Law School, England, 2011
GDL, BPP University Law School, England, 2012
Master of Chemistry with Patent Law, University of Manchester, 2009
Bar AdmissionsSolicitor, England and Wales
Solicitor, England and Wales
- The Legal 500 UK, Fraud: Civil, 2021 – 2023.
