International & Transnational Litigation

Fact Sheet

Experience

    • A leading infrastructure and engineering contractor in a dispute under a Construction Management Agreement related to a mixed-use development project in a Caspian state.
    • An investment firm in evaluating investments in various commercial arbitration awards and litigation against a foreign sovereign.
    • A subsidiary of GOL Airlines in U.S. litigation to enforce a Brazilian arbitral award in a dispute arising from an acquisition.
    • General Electric in resolving disputes with multiple customers whose contracts involving sanctioned countries were cancelled when GE acquired a subsidiary. Some of the disputes led to arbitration or domestic litigation, and many others were resolved amicably.
    • A U.S. commodities trading company in an LCIA arbitration and a related litigation in the Dubai International Financial Center Court.
    • An international oil and gas company in litigation in the Southern District of New York to recognize and enforce an ICSID arbitration award that was rendered in 2012 against a Latin American country.
    • Norilsk Nickel and Interros International Investments in a dispute with United Company Rusal, including LCIA arbitration proceedings and related court litigation in the United States, England, Russia, Switzerland, St. Kitts & Nevis and The Netherlands.
    • British Caribbean Bank Ltd, in successfully defending anti-arbitration injunction proceedings brought by the Government of Belize to avoid arbitration under a BIT in the courts of Belize and the Caribbean Court of Justice (before which Debevoise is believed to have been the first non-Caribbean firm to argue a case).
    • An Asian government in an inter-state treaty dispute in an ad hoc international arbitration under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
    • Ust-Kamenogorsk Hydropower Plant, a subsidiary of Samruk Energy, as advocates to the appellant in the UK Supreme Court on a landmark arbitration appeal to determine whether the English Court has jurisdiction to grant an anti-suit injunction in circumstances where no arbitration is intended or in prospect.
    • The Attorney-General of St. Kitts and Nevis in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (St. Kitts and Nevis) and Court of Appeal in constitutional proceedings brought against the Government by Members of Parliament seeking to carry a motion of no confidence in the Government.
    • A large Russian investment company in its defence of an LCIA arbitration claim brought by a Russian individual, relating to a corporate dispute with respect to a manufacturing group.
    • Korea Asset Management Corporation, an organ of the Korean government, in a derivative action originally brought in New York state court. After removing the case to the Southern District of New York, Debevoise successfully moved for dismissal under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). The plaintiff thereafter appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals where oral argument took place in June 2006. In July 2006, the Court affirmed the lower court's FSIA dismissal by summary order.
    • EM Limited in obtaining payment in full of an $849 million judgment against the Republic of Argentina arising from Argentina’s default on its sovereign debt, recognized as the 2016 Global Dispute of the Year by The American Lawyer.
    • A series of court actions on behalf of General Electric Company (GE) against Deutz AG for breach of contract arising from an agreement to design and develop a new generation of locomotive engines. GE filed a complaint in the Western District of Pennsylvania alleging over $80 million in damages from Deutz's breach of certain financial obligations. Debevoise's representation involved a series of favorable decisions obtained in four different fora, applying the law of four different legal systems, including a unanimous jury verdict in the District Court, reversal of an ex parte injunction obtained by Deutz from the High Court of Justice in London, a unanimous final award following a two-day ICC arbitration in London and an affirmance by the Third Circuit of the District Court's jurisdictional and new trial rulings.
    • A German accounting firm in a fraud action in New York State Court alleging negligent misrepresentation and RICO violations relating to its audit of another German company. We were able to win complete dismissal, on the grounds of forum non conveniens.