International Arbitration

Womble Bond Dickinson's International Arbitration team has conducted arbitrations throughout the world and achieved major successes for our clients in hard-fought, complex cases.

We conduct arbitrations under all of the major institutional rules, as well as ad hoc arbitrations. Our offices and arbitration practices are located in key arbitral centers, including London and Washington, DC. Our lawyers have experience of a variety of difficult cases in a range of countries.

With our vast global experience, we regularly work with local foreign lawyers and consultants across many jurisdictions to provide a seamless service and high quality representation. From London to Geneva, to Hong Kong and Singapore, our lawyers have built real relationships with highly skilled lawyers across the world that can help navigate local issues, both legal and practical, and reach a commercially pragmatic solution.

Through these connections, our clients are provided with an even greater depth of knowledge on critical issues that include the selection of arbitrators and local enforcement of awards.

We have advised clients in international arbitrations in relation to, and have been involved in arbitral proceedings seated in, various locations including London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Geneva, New York, Zurich and Frankfurt.

We have extensive experience of representing clients in arbitrations, including under the rules of the world’s leading arbitral institutions (ICC, LCIA, AAA/ICDR, CIETAC, ICSID, WIPO, PCA, SIAC, HKIAC, SCAI) and also ad hoc arbitrations (UNCITRAL).

Our team regularly represents businesses and sovereign nations in international arbitrations and investor-state arbitrations.

As an international team with deep experience in arbitration and foreign investment law, we have the capability to provide our clients with an appreciation of the laws and procedures applicable to the jurisdictions local to the dispute, ensuring access to legal advice and representation throughout each stage of the proceedings.

We offer a full range of services geared to both preventing and resolving disputes, to help reduce the uncertainties prevalent within cross-border litigation. We appreciate the significance culture plays in international arbitration with arbitrators and lawyers being trained in different jurisdictions under different rules in both civil and common law countries. We have extensive experience representing clients in complex, high value ad hoc arbitrations as well as under the rules of the world’s leading arbitral institutions and under a variety of systems of law and a wide array of languages.

In each case, our goal is to provide innovative and commercial advice, whilst exercising a flexible, cost-effective approach to international problems that maximizes the opportunity for our clients to achieve an advantageous result.

Examples include: 

• Acting for a foreign government in arbitration claims against investors under the SIAC rules.
• Acting for a foreign government in its defense of an alleged US$1 billion expropriation claim in ICSID and PCA arbitration proceedings.
• Acting for the claimant in a LCIA arbitration against a former USSR State in relation to breaches of a bilateral investment treaty.
• Representing a State in relation to proceedings to register and enforce an ICSID award in London.
• Acting for a South American State in ICSID arbitration proceedings involving claims of expropriation by investors.