Yevgeny Prigozhin — a Kremlin confidante better known as "Putin’s chef” or as the founder of the mercenary outfit called the Wagner Group — saw his defamation case thrown out in May by a London court because his lawyers no longer wanted to represent him.

The 61-year-old ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, sanctioned by the U.K., U.S. and the European Union, had sued the investigative journalism organization Bellingcat for libel and was accused by its founder of using the courts to intimidate and silence the group. The case collapsed after Discreet Law, the firm representing Prigozhin, withdrew, saying it could not risk its reputation after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Prigozhin was livid, with his company saying in a statement that it was "objectively impossible to find another English legal representative.” One British law firm told his assistants that if it took up his case, there would be "nothing left of our firm.”

After a sizzling decade when London was the venue of choice for rich Russians fighting cases involving everything from divorces and defamation to cross-border disputes, the city’s law firms are agonizing over whether it’s just too risky to work for them. The so-called Magic Circle of London’s elite law firms that had a presence in Moscow — Allen & Overy, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Clifford Chance — said they’re shutting or winding down those offices. Some of the most prominent U.K. lawyers working with Russian billionaires have been publicly named and called enablers by lawmakers and even face the prospect of U.S. visa bans. The U.K. has warned it could make it illegal for lawyers to offer services to Russians in Russia.