Pillsbury’s International Arbitration Group Again Included in GAR 100 Guide as Top International Arbitration Practice

Pillsbury’s International Arbitration group comprises specialists with broad expertise spanning all the major business sectors and industries. London-based partner Deborah Ruff, who serves as global head of the group, and whose arbitration expertise is recognized in leading national and global publications, focuses on energy and infrastructure and has particular experience in MENA region disputes. Michael Jaffe and John Heisse are nationally recognized for their work as both counsel and arbitrators in large construction disputes; Robert Sills and Derek Soller in New York, and Charles Conrad, Richard Deutsch and Willie Wood in Houston represent clients in energy, construction, financial services, pharmaceutical and transportation matters; Stephan Becker in Washington, DC continues to lead the firm’s longtime representation of Mexico in investor-state arbitrations; and June Yeum, who divides her time between New York and Seoul, has extensive experience of Asia-related commercial claims.

The firm’s arbitration group has extensive experience of conducting arbitration proceedings under the auspices of all major institutions including the ICC, the LCIA, SIAC, the HKIAC, DIAC, the SCC, the ICDR, the AAA and CIETAC, and under the UNCITRAL and Swiss Chamber of Commerce rules, amongst others, as well as in ad hoc arbitrations.

The practice has included the representation of well-known clients such as Amec Foster Wheeler, CITGO, Wells Fargo, Duke Energy and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, among many others. The firm is currently engaged in commercial arbitrations across Europe, Asia, the MENA region and North and South America.

In regard to investment treaty arbitrations, Pillsbury’s longtime representation of Mexico in international investment disputes includes claims over a concession to install digital taximeters in Mexico City’s taxis; a claim over mining of deep-sea phosphate deposits; and a claim over environmental permits to develop quarries.

The firm also acts for Amec Foster Wheeler in a significant ICSID arbitration involving a USD $2.4 billion claim against Colombia relating to a refinery, as well as for a major construction group in an ICC arbitration in Latin America, and for a U.S. energy trust in two claims involving offshore drilling rights in Asia. Swiss cryptocurrency exchange Nexo recently retained the firm for its USD $3 billion ICSID claim against Bulgaria for breaches of the Bulgaria-Switzerland bilateral investment treaty.

The firm is currently representing a well-known telecommunications company in the enforcement of a USD $1 billion arbitration award and also successfully represented a group of Chinese cinema investors in the U.S. enforcement of a USD $450 million CIETAC award against a Chinese billionaire, the largest Chinese award ever to be confirmed in the U.S.

Click here to read Pillsbury’s full GAR 100 profile.