Isabel Asquith

With a decade of experience in legal investigations, Isabel advises states, investors, and corporate clients on complex cross-border disputes. She co-leads Raedas' sovereign disputes practice and supports clients at all stages of the dispute lifecycle, from pre-action intelligence and interim relief through to enforcement and settlement strategy.

Isabel has extensive experience supporting enforcement of criminal claims, civil litigation, and arbitral awards (including ICC, UNCITRAL, ICSID and LCIA awards), particularly in the context of bilateral investment treaty claims. She brings together investigative, legal and reputational analysis, drawing on her background in reputation management, to develop multi-jurisdictional recovery strategies, including veil piercing, alter ego, and commercial purpose arguments, and the identification of assets and pressure points overlooked by conventional due diligence.

As well as her work on sovereign matters, Isabel assists clients involved in sensitive internal investigations, whistleblower complaints, and instances of corruption and fraud. This includes matters involving state-owned enterprises and politically exposed individuals across the energy, extractives, telecoms and construction sectors in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.

She has authored expert reports presented in foreign courts and arbitration forums, and acts for both claimants and respondents. She is recognised for her understanding of enforcement as a forward-looking, strategic component of high-value disputes - including the identification of unusual and hard-to-locate assets - and for integrating investigative, legal and reputational expertise in a single analytical framework.

Isabel has been ranked by Chambers, both in the Global Asset Tracing & Recovery Guide and Business Intelligence & Investigations Guide since 2025. Clients describe her as: "Brilliant ... very knowledgeable, practical and detailed," noting she is "very clever and good with clients," with an "understanding of the global enforcement space and options available to clients that go further than the standard."

She is a regular speaker on enforcement strategy at London International Disputes Week, London Arbitration Week, Dubai Arbitration Week, the Nivalion Legal Finance Summit in Frankfurt, and on ThoughtLeaders4 panels. She regularly provides bespoke client training on investigative issues and co-leads Raedas' Women in Disputes initiative, where she moderates discussions with leading practitioners across sectors.

She began her career with a background in reputation management and legal strategy in support of high-profile litigation. She has lived and worked in Malaysia.