Cleary’s International Arbitration Practice and Lawyers Recognized for Big Wins

Following a successful year for Cleary Gottlieb’s international arbitration practice and victories in high-profile matters, the firm is proud to have won, and been shortlisted for, several prestigious awards that recognize the strength of the practice.

Cleary won Global Arbitration Review’s “Most Important Published Decision” in recognition of our representation of the Russian Federation in the landmark Yukos case. The award was presented on March 29, 2017, in Milan. Cleary successfully assisted the Russian Federation in obtaining an order from The Hague District Court that set aside the $50 billion award obtained by Yukos’s former majority shareholders. The decision annulled what has been widely reported to be the largest-ever investment treaty arbitration award.

Several other significant cases in which Cleary has been involved as counsel were also included on GAR’s shortlist:

• Serving as counsel to Telecom Italia in an ICC arbitration seated in Paris and governed by Brazilian law, brought in May 2012. The claimants alleged that Telecom Italia deceived and coerced them into agreeing  to a comprehensive settlement agreement of earlier disputes in 2005. The claimants sought to recover $15 billion in damages. If successful, this claim would have resulted in the largest reported commercial arbitration award in history. In September 2016, Cleary’s clients achieved a complete victory when the tribunal unanimously rejected all claims in their entirety and awarded zero damages to the claimants. The tribunal concluded there had been no deceit or coercion, and that all other claims were barred by the parties’ comprehensive settlement agreement.
• Defending Électricité de France in an ICC arbitration initiated by the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. This proceeding was the subject of significant media attention in Germany and France. The tribunal unanimously dismissed all of Baden-Württemberg’s claims, totaling over €800 million.
• Representing the Etablissement Public de Financement et de Restructuration (the French State) against French businessman and former minister Bernard Tapie. Cleary played a key role in an earlier phase of this case before the Paris Court of Appeals, which annulled a 2008 arbitral award of €403 million in damages to Mr. Tapie.

For GAR’s full profile of Cleary, click here.

In addition:

• Cleary has been named one of the top 30 firms in GAR’s annual ranking of the top international arbitration practices in the world.
• The firm was shortlisted at the Legal Business Awards 2017 for the “International Arbitration Team of the Year” award  for our work on the Telecom Italia case.
• Law360 named us as one of the “International Arbitration Practice Groups of the Year.”
• The firm was shortlisted at the Fifth Annual Benchmark Litigation U.S. Awards.
• Partner Ferdinando Emanuele was recognized at the LegalCommunity Energy Awards, where he was named “Italian Arbitration Lawyer of the Year,” and Cleary was recognized as “Arbitration Law Firm of the Year.” In December 2016, Ferdinando was also recognized by TopLegal as its “2016 Litigation and Arbitration Lawyer of the Year.”
• Partner Richard Kreindler received the “Client Choice Award 2016” for Arbitration and ADR for Germany from International Law Office.

Several of our lawyers were also listed in Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration 2017: Jean-Yves Garaud, Claudia Annacker and Richard Kreindler were recognized as “Experts”; Richard Kreindler was recognized among the “Global Thought Leaders”; and Laurie Achtouk-Spivak, Cameron Murphy and Aren Goldsmith were included as “Future Leaders.”