The international journal of gacommercial and treaty arbitratiron
Fully revised and updated 8th annual edition GAR100 2015
Track record Among other things, Charles Adams and his group are responsible Akin Gump Strauss Hauer for one particularly spectacular enforcement action: they enforced an award won by the Eurotrain consortium against Taiwan High Speed & Feld Rail Corporation by arresting and impounding the then-largest container ship in the world. Pending cases as counsel: 12 They also steered one of the longest-running investment cases against Poland to a conclusion after taking over the case at the quantum Value of pending counsel work: US$4 billion phase. The case eventually settled for less than one-tenth of the €14 Treaty cases: 2 billion initially claimed. 7 (of which 5 are Current arbitrator appointments: Meanwhile, Spencer Griffith in Beijing and Bernd Janzen in as sole or chair) Washington, DC, secured a victory for British Columbia in an LCIA Lawyers sitting as arbitrator: 4 claim brought against it by the US government. In 2012, the tribunal dismissed claims that the Canadian province had breached the 2006 The US firm saw success in an east African dispute and its softwood lumber agreement between Canada and the US. practice head tapped for a diplomatic post The firm also advised Renova Holdings in a series of claims arising from BP’s attempt to form a US$16 billion joint venture with Russia’s The firm began in Texas in 1945, serving the oil and gas industry. Rosneft to explore oil in the Russian Arctic. BP’s Russian partners Although it has worked regularly on international arbitrations over the in its TNK-BP joint venture, the Alfa-Access-Renova consortium, years for clients in that sector, its name grew markedly in 2010 when brought an arbitration under their shareholders’ agreement to block it acquired a well-established team from Hogan & Hartson in Geneva the Rosneft deal – leading BP to bring two mirror arbitrations against (ahead of that firm’s merger with Lovells). Renova and the other TNK-BP partners. The dispute was resolved in That brought the highly regarded Charles Adams to Akin Gump. 2012, with BP paying the consortium a reported US$325 million to One very famous arbitrator confided to GAR that Adams – who has settle all the claims. some 250 arbitrations under his belt and 40 years in Paris, Geneva and In addition, the firm obtained an €11 million award on behalf of Washington, DC – is one of the most persuasive advocates he knows. Carlson Anse Marcel (a French affiliate of The Carlson Group) in a In July 2014, Adams was nominated by President Obama to serve dispute with an engineering company over a €60 million project for as US ambassador to Finland. At the time of writing, his appointment the renovation of one of its hotels in the Caribbean. has yet to be confirmed by the US Senate. If he is confirmed in the New York-based partner Steven Pesner also led a team that post, he expects to leave full-time practice and relocate to Helsinki by defended VimpelCom, the world’s sixth-largest mobile telephone the end of 2014. operator, in an arbitration with Telenor, one of its largest shareholders. In his absence, the practice will be led by Michael Stepek, who Telenor withdrew its claims in 2012. is English and US-qualified, and divides his time between Geneva and London. The practice also includes Justin Williams in London, Recent events who is particularly known for his expertise in energy disputes and Besides Adams’ ambassadorial appointment, the only major change on Russia-related work. the personnel side was the arrival of senior counsel Alan Yanovich in Geneva in October 2013. He brings 12 years’ experience working at Network the WTO Appellate Body secretariat. Yanovich is acting for Colombia For the international arbitration practice, the key cities are Geneva and in the WTO matter mentioned above. London, with other practitioners based in Abu Dhabi, Beijing, New Williams and Adams led a team that helped an east Africa-focused York and Dallas. The wider firm has 22 international offices, including private equity firm, Emerging Capital Partners, win US$22 million in Moscow, Hong Kong and Singapore, on top of its network in the plus costs in an LCIA dispute. The case concerned an investment in United States. an African construction company and also spilled into the UK and Mauritian courts. Who uses it? In Geneva, partners Michael Stepek and Matthew Bate continue The Alstom Group is a long-time client – Adams and his team have to defend Houston-based Virasa Technologies in a US$700 million conducted over 24 proceedings for it in the past two decades. Other ICC claim brought by a Korean industrial manufacturer affiliated with regular clients include Renova, the Russian conglomerate owned Hyundai. by Viktor Vekselberg; and AIM-listed oil and gas company Urals In addition, Stepek is advising Swiss-controlled investor Bryn Energy. The team is a decent option too if you have a last-minute Capital Services in a US$260 million investment treaty claim against instruction. Elektrim Finance called on it very late on during one part Latvia over the expropriation of a bank. of its long-running dispute with Vivendi and Deutsche Telekom over control of a Polish telephone company. The Akin Gump team geared Client comment up for the principal merits hearing in less than four weeks. French construction company Colas recently used Akin Gump to VeriSign retained the firm with only two weeks to go before AAA/ challenge an award resulting from a Romania-related arbitration seated ICDR hearings against RealNetworks. Akin Gump was also called on in Geneva. The company’s legal director, Alain Clotte, says the firm’s to replace counsel for Norilsk Nickel when the deadline to appeal services were “very good”, singling out partner Vanessa Liborio in the award was already running. The firm also does work for states in particular. international trade disputes. It is defending Colombia in a billion-dollar Philip Ray, senior counsel at Siemens, praises the firm’s “willing- dispute with Panama at the World Trade Organization over import ness to be there for you and brainstorm, even if not representing you duties on apparel and textiles. In 2013, the Chinese government added on a matter”, and the “extraordinary value” of its service. the firm to a panel of advisers on WTO and regional trade disputes.
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