LONDON – 16 Jan. 2026 – Greenberg Traurig, LLP’s LondonLitigation Practice is featured in The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2026 for its work representing Crane Bank (CBL) and a group of its shareholders in a high-profile dispute scheduled to run in the UK Commercial Court for 12 weeks from 1 Oct. According to The Lawyer, this year’s Top 20 “captures the legal zeitgeist of the past year”.
Crane Bank & others v DFCU Bank & others concerns substantial claims arising from the 2017 sale of most of Crane Bank’s assets and liabilities to DFCU Bank, and raises significant legal issues relating to alleged bribery and corruption, unlawful means conspiracy, and the application of the Foreign Act of State Doctrine (FASD). The claimants allege that senior officials at the Central Bank of Uganda (BoU) unlawfully seized control of CBL, misappropriated state funds, and sold CBL’s assets to DFCU Bank at a gross undervalue. Crane Bank is seeking substantial damages from the defendants.
The matter has attracted considerable attention for its examination of the circumstances in which allegations of bribery and corruption may disapply FASD under English law. Click here for more information.
The Greenberg Traurig team representing Crane Bank comprises Masoud Zabeti, co-chair of the Global Litigation Practice, Shareholders Katharine Bond and Matt Hancock, Senior Associates Bethany Histed and Miten Vaghela, and Associates Francesca Conroy, Madeleine O’Riordan, and Harvey Rees, among others. The team are instructing Hannah Brown KC, David Caplan, Owain Draper, Ben Zelenka Martin, and Lauren Hitchman of One Essex Court.
Zabeti said: “This recognition by The Lawyer underscores the firm’s strength in handling complex, cross-border litigation and high-value disputes. Crane Bank v DFCU raises novel and important questions at the intersection of bribery and corruption, and the Foreign Act of State Doctrine, and its outcome has the potential to influence how English courts approach similar claims for years to come. We are proud to be acting for Crane Bank in a case of this significance and to be helping to shape an important area of the law.”