Ted Greeno

Ted Greeno is a senior litigation partner based in the London office of Herbert Smith.  Since qualifying as a Solicitor with the firm in 1983, he has conducted commercial litigation in all the higher English Courts on disputes ranging from general contract and tort claims through company law, public law, tax and anti-trust cases as well as disputes with an intellectual property element.  He has also undertaken cases before the Special Commissioners, the Copyright Tribunal and in numerous international arbitrations, in which he has participated both as Counsel and Arbitrator.  He has spoken and written widely on litigation and arbitration issues and participates in the Commercial Court Users Group and its Sub-Committees.  He has Higher Rights of Audience in the English Courts.

Much of Ted's work is in the energy sector.  In particular he advises a number of major oil, gas and power companies on litigation, arbitration and expert determinations regarding a wide range of matters including disputes relating to: the price of oil, gas and LNG; equity determinations under unitisation agreements; joint bidding agreements; production sharing contracts; concession agreements; joint venture accounting; drilling contracts; gas sales and transportation agreements; gas and power tolling agreements; bulk supply agreements and electricity and gas trading agreements.  He also has particular experience of engineering and construction disputes, media and product liability law, IT, defence contracts, professional negligence and accountancy disputes arising on completion accounts.

Ted has conducted international arbitrations involving oil, gas and minerals disputes in the Middle East, Indonesia, China, India, North America, South America, Central Africa, the UK, continental Europe and the USA. He conducts arbitrations under the ICC, LCIA and UNCITRAL Rules as well as ad hoc arbitrations both as arbitrator and counsel. 

Ted led the teams which won The Lawyer Litigation Team of the Year Award in both 2009 and 2010, as well as the Litigation Team of the Year at British Legal Awards 2010 and Legal Business Litigation Team of the Year in 2011. He is recognised as a leader in the fields of Dispute Resolution and Energy in the legal directories.


Credentials

• Dana Petroleum and Anor v Woodside Kenya: acting for Dana and Star Petroleum on their claim for damages for breach of an obligation to drill a carried well under a Farm-In Agreement (Commercial Court 2010).
• British Sky Broadcasting v Electronic Data Systems: acting for BSkyB in its £0.5 billion damages claim against EDS for fraudulent misrepresentation in obtaining the contract to integrate Sky's CRM call centre systems (Technology and Construction Court 2007-2010).  The Herbert Smith team was awarded "Litigation Team of the Year" at The Lawyer Awards 2010.
• Colour Quest v Total: acting for Chevron in its defence of Total's claim that their joint venture managing company was liable for the £1 billion costs of the Buncefield oil depot explosion and that, alternatively, Chevron was obliged to indemnify Total for its liability for those costs (Commercial Court 2009 and Court of Appeal 2010).  The Herbert Smith team was awarded "Litigation Team of the Year" at The Lawyer Awards 2009.
• Bertrand v Baker Tilly and Anor: acting for 75 investors in a claim for damages for negligent advice on the tax implications of film finance schemes (Chancery Division 2008).
• Shell UK v Revenue and Customs Commissioners: acting for Shell in proceedings before the Special Commissioners relating to the application of Petroleum Revenue Tax to gas sold under the extended Brent Principal Agreement (Special Commissioners and Chancery Division 2007).
• Westerngeco Ltd. v. ATP Oil & Gas Ltd.: acting for ATP on its defence of Westerngeco's claim for a contractual indemnity under the CRINE standard terms against Westerngeco's liability to compensate Total for damage to a wellhead marker buoy (Commercial Court 2006).
• International Finance Corp. v Chevron Nigeria Ltd: acting for Chevron in Interpleader proceedings in which an English court upheld for the first time a purchaser's equitable lien under a contract for work and materials (Commercial Court 2005).
• Intel Corporation v. VIA Technologies Inc.: acting for Intel on VIA’s defence to a patent enforcement action based on European competition law (Chancery Division, Patents Court 2003).
• Enron Capital and Trade Resources Ltd v. TXU Europe Energy Trading Ltd: acting for TXU in defence of claims for alleged breach of two long term “Virtual Power Station” agreements valued by Enron at £1.2 billion (Commercial Court 2002).
• Conoco and Chevron v Lattice: acting for the owners of the Britannia Field in proceedings relating to entry capacity rights at the St Fergus gas terminal in Scotland (Commercial Court 2001).
• Amoco (UK) Exploration Co and Ors v. Teesside Gas Transportation Ltd: acting for the six owners of the CATS North Sea gas pipeline in a send-or-pay dispute with Enron through which Enron sought to avoid paying for pipeline capacity and ultimately to escape its obligations under the J-Block gas take or pay agreements (House of Lords 2001).
• Amoco (UK) Exploration v British American Offshore Ltd: acting for the owners of the Arbroath field in a dispute arising from the termination of a drilling contract by reason of defects in the Blow Out Preventer Control System and the pinions in the Jacking System (Commercial Court 2001).
• Koch Hightex Gmbh v. New Millennium Experience Company: acting for Koch Hightex on their claim for cancellation of the contract to supply the roof for the Millennium Dome (Court of Appeal 1999 and Queens Bench Division 2001).
• Total Gas Marketing Ltd v. ARCO British Ltd. and Ors.: acting for ARCO and others in relation to a dispute concerning a take or pay gas sales agreement for the Trent field (House of Lords 1998).
• British Sky Broadcasting Ltd v Performing Right Society Ltd: acting for BSkyB in proceedings before the Copyright Tribunal to determine the reasonable royalty payable for broadcast music (Copyright Tribunal 1997).
• Chevron UK Ltd v. Total Oil Marine plc and Elf Exploration PLC: acting for the Ninian and Heather Field Groups (comprising ten oil companies) in relation to a dispute with the Alwyn North and South Field Groups concerning the latter's entitlement to transport crude oil from the Alwyn South Field without payment of tariff (Chancery Division 1996).
• Amoco (UK) Exploration Co and Ors v. Enron Corp: obtaining an anti-suit injunction restraining parallel proceedings in Texas (Commercial Court 1996).
• Svenska and Neste v. Shell, Esso, Enterprise and Enterprise Elf: acting for the owners of the Nelson field in relation to proceedings arising out of an expert's equity redetermination process under the Nelson Field Unitisation Agreement (Chancery Division 1992).
• National Power v. United Gas: acting for United Gas in proceedings against National Power concerning interpretation of a "take-or-pay" gas supply contract and, in particular, the obligations for physical delivery of gas (Court of Appeal 1996, Commercial Court 1998).
• Grand Metropolitan V William Hill Group and Brent Walker: acting for GrandMet in relation to its claim for the deferred purchase price of the William Hill betting business sold to Brent Walker and defending Brent Walker's claim for a £300 million price adjustment based on completion accounts to be determined by an expert accountant. The matter involved High Court proceedings for summary judgment, proceedings to rectify the relevant agreement and proceedings before the expert accountant with regard to accounting issues (Court of Appeal 1991 and Chancery Division 1996).
• The BSkyB Merger Litigation: acted for BSkyB in relation to claims brought following the merger of BSB and Sky Television, defending numerous and substantial claims totalling £290 million brought by consumer electronics companies in relation to the development and manufacture of systems unique to the old BSB technology. Judgments include Tatung (UK) v. BSkyB (Court of Appeal 1993), Philips v. BSkyB (Court of Appeal 1994) and Gillatt v Sky Television (Court of Appeal 2000).

Most of his Arbitrations are confidential.  However, Arbitrations which have been reported (and are therefore in the public domain) include:

• Enron Oil and Gas India Ltd v Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and another
• Elpis Finance v International Petroleum Refining Services
• Creighton Ltd v Government of the State of Qatar
• Svenska Petroleum v Government of Lithuania (as Arbitrator)
• Shell Egypt West Manzala v Dana Gas Egypt

Accolades

"Top of the league" Ted Greeno is "tactically astute and completely reliable"
Chambers UK 2012
 
Ted Greeno's disputes practice is immensely respected within the energy industry - a sector he is reputed to "have made his own"
Chambers UK 2012

“unfailingly impressive”
Chambers UK 2011

Ted Greeno "is someone in whom you can place complete confidence. His tactical acumen is second to none and his calm, clear, analysis of the facts and law is extremely helpful in stressful situations"
Legal 500 2010

"Ted Greeno, "one of the great partners at the firm", who is "a hard tactical player and a redoubtable opponent'"
Chambers UK 2009

The disputes team is "hard to beat", fielding the likes of the "legendary expert" Ted Greeno.
Chambers Global 2007 (Energy and Natural Resources)

Highly recommended litigation partners include Ted Greeno, "whose intellectual ability and tactical expertise one would find hard to fault"
Legal 500 2005 (Commercial Litigation)

Ted Greeno [is] known among peers as an aggressive fighter who is "happy to go to the nth degree..."  
Chambers 2003-2004

"Ted Greeno has the respect, and sometimes the fear, of the competition"  
Chambers 2003-2004