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Portrait of Jonathan Warne

Jonathan Warne

Partner

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP SCP
7 Straits View - Marina One East Tower - #19-01
Marina One East Tower
#19-01
Singapore 018936
Languages English

Jonathan Warne is Head of International Disputes. He has over 30 years of experience in handling complex domestic and cross border disputes in a range of sectors including life sciences, financial services and technology, in company commercial, fraud and insolvency related litigation. He is known for acting for international clients in significant multi-party jurisdictional matters. He has a track record of success supported by client feedback.  

Jonathan has worked extensively with General Counsel and has led a GC thought leadership initiative for over ten years. To date, nine substantive reports have been published, the most recent being, "Beyond a personal brand: a guide for general counsel". The work has been commended in the Financial Times’ Innovation Awards for client service.

Jonathan has featured in the leading legal directories for many years. 

Legal 500 2022 list him in the Hall of Fame and describe him as “...a market leader. He has unrivalled experience in the conduct of “big ticket” commercial litigation. He has a superb tactical brain and an instinct for what will be a good (and a bad) point or approach to adopt. He has an easy and approachable manner with clients and a keen sense of the commercial objectives and imperatives in a matter.”

Chambers and Partners 2022 describe him as "...commercial, pragmatic and very easy to deal with." "Jonathan Warne is a fantastic litigator."

Jonathan is named in the Legal 500 Hall of Fame and as a Thomson Reuters: "Stand-out Lawyer".

He is a former Officer of the Inter Pacific Bar Association (2018-22).

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“Jonathan Warne is rightly regarded as a market leader. He has unrivalled experience in the conduct of “big ticket” commercial litigation. He has a superb tactical brain and an instinct for what will be a good (and a bad) point or approach to adopt. He has an easy and approachable manner with clients and a keen sense of the commercial objectives and imperatives in a matter.”

Legal 500, 2022

"Jonathan Warne is a fantastic litigator", "He is commercial, pragmatic and very easy to deal with".

Chambers, 2022

"He is brilliant when it comes to advising clients on strategy."

Chambers, 2021

"Jonathan is very commercial and to the point, and has a good rapport with clients and his team."

Chambers, 2021

"An expert litigator and great tactician, who always gives extremely valuable, strategic advice."

Legal 500, 2020

“Jonathan Warne is an expert litigator and great tactician, who always gives extremely valuable, strategic advice”.

Legal 500, 2019

"an extremely good litigator" and also remarks on his "exceptional client skills", saying that "his tact, diplomacy and approachability are second to none".

Chambers 2018

"a particularly impressive litigator", "a skilled strategist and has brilliant client skills".

Legal 500, 2017

“Able and tenacious”

Chamber and Partners

“Shrewd and has excellent client skills”

Legal 500

“He’s down to earth and creates a very good empathy with the clients so they feel, early on, that he is on their side”

Chambers

“Very good for big disputes”

Legal 500

Memberships & Roles

  • Commercial Litigators Forum
  • London Court of International Arbitration
  • Member of the Inter Pacific Bar Association
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Publications

  • Jonathan has worked extensively with General Counsel and has led a GC thought leadership initiative over a number of years.
  • To date, nine reports have been published: “From In-House Lawyer to Business Counsel”, “General Counsel: Vague about Value?”, “The Influential GC”, “Room to Grow? How to manage and engage talent”, “General Counsel: reaching new heights?”, “General Counsel in Singapore: Setting the Pace”, “The Latin American GC: Rising to the Challenge”, “Creating connections, bridging gaps” and most recently "Beyond a personal brand: a guide for general counsel". 
  • The work has been commended in the Financial Times’ Innovation Awards for client service.
  • He is general editor of Bloomsbury’s text on International Commercial Dispute Resolution.
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Education

  • 1984 – LL.B. Reading University  
  • 1985 – The Law Society’s Final Examination, Lancaster Gate, London
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Feed

15/09/2020
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We are pleased to announce our latest General Counsel Report “Creating Connections, Bridging Gaps”, developed with the support of the European Company Lawyer’s Association (ECLA). CMS have been...
14/09/2020
General Counsel report: Creating connections, bridging gaps
The next report in our General Counsel series ‘Creating connections, bridging gaps’, produced in partnership with ECLA, is now available to download.  Based on the real-life experiences of 18 of...
14/09/2020
New CMS report aims to empower GCs with practical insights and tools
In­ter­na­tion­al law firm CMS is pleased to announce the launch of “Creating connections and bridging gaps”, the latest report in its General Counsel (GC) series, produced in partnership with the European...
19/06/2020
The Latin American General Counsel
The first CMS General Counsel report in the Latin America region, “The Latin American GC: Rising to the chal­lenge”, explores the development of the General Counsel role and how the world in which...
03/06/2020
General Counsel Report: reaching new heights?
In this General Coun­sel (GC) thought leadership report we focus on a number of important matters that relate to the role of General Counsel (GC). In many senses it is a ret­ro­spect­ive commentary on the...
05/03/2020
Coronavirus: key insurance con­sid­er­a­tions
As a result of the continued global rise in confirmed cases of Covid-19 (Coronavir­us) and consequent travel and quarantine re­stric­tions, un­der­stand­ably concerned individuals and businesses are assessing...
12/05/2019
ACC Europe Annual Conference 2019
CMS - Meet our experts Access to markets worldwide has improved sig­ni­fic­antly, thanks to technology and trade agreements. However, doing business in diverse markets, each with its unique legal en­vir­on­ment...
23/04/2018
Singa­pore’s GCs are more ambitious than ever but the profession still has...
CMS is proud to launch its flagship General Counsel (GC) in Singapore Report, in partnership with the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association (SCCA). Based on a survey and interviews with a number of...
07/05/2017
ACC Europe Annual Meeting 2017
Our more than 4,500 lawyers in 39 countries worldwide provide busi­ness-fo­cused advice, whether in a single market or across multiple jur­is­dic­tions. Our focus is on building long-term partnerships to keep...
28/07/2016
General Counsel services
General Counsel Initiative As General Counsel, you need to strike a balance between your professional obligations and commercial re­spons­ib­il­it­ies to your employer. This is why CMS have been working in...
13/12/2015
GENERAL COUNSEL REPORT:Room to grow?
In our Room to Grow General Counsel report we thought we would look, by way of  contrast, at one of the biggest management challenges facing GCs who have been successful in those things: how to engage...