Gibson Dunn

THE FIRM

Gibson Dunn is a leading global law firm, advising clients on significant transactions and disputes. Our exceptional teams craft and deploy creative legal strategies that are meticulously tailored to every matter, however complex or high-stakes. More than 1,800 lawyers, spanning 20 offices and dozens of practice areas, operate as a unified whole.

INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION

Our International Arbitration Practice Group advises leading multinational corporations in arbitration proceedings around the world. We regularly assist clients in litigation involving arbitration issues and have represented clients in national court proceedings under the laws of the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Hong-Kong, Dubai, and many others.

The International Arbitration group’s lawyers have appeared before many of the world’s leading arbitrators and work with all major arbitral institutions and rules, including:

• International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
• German Arbitration Institute (DIS)
• Chinese European Arbitration Center (CEAC)
• Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC)
• London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA)
• International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
• American Arbitration Association (AAA)/International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR)
• Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC)
• Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
• Swiss Rules
• Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC)
• Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)

Our experience is particularly deep in the energy, telecommunications, insurance, construction, pharmaceutical and banking sectors, and our cases arise in a wide variety of contexts that include:

• Concession and privatization agreements
• Infrastructure projects
• Insurance and reinsurance arrangements
• Joint ventures
• Licensing and distribution agreements
• Complex financial transactions

We advise clients on each stage of the dispute resolution process, from the drafting of arbitration clauses to mediation or early neutral evaluation to the conduct of arbitration proceedings and through to the enforcement of arbitral awards.

Our international arbitration lawyers are ranked as leaders by legal publications including Chambers and Global Arbitration Review

JUDGMENT AND ARBITRAL AWARD ENFORCEMENT

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is the leader in global judgment and arbitral award enforcement. We provide innovative enforcement strategies and creative solutions for both creditors and debtors.

Our Judgment and Arbitral Award Enforcement Practice Group offers top-tier international arbitral award and judgment enforcement strategies and solutions, deep proficiency in cross-border litigation and international arbitration, and best-in-class advocacy that not only applies the law, but, time and again, has crafted and shaped new law to achieve our clients’ objectives.

Gibson Dunn has substantial experience designing creative and highly effective worldwide enforcement strategies. Our winning strategies involve analysis of the judgment debtor’s business, assets and financial conditions, through both publicly available information and information developed by trusted investigators around the globe. We then use our experience to develop the most effective course of enforcement – including both prejudgment and post-judgment actions in multiple jurisdictions around the world. Gibson Dunn also excels at defending companies and individuals against fraudulent arbitration awards and foreign judgments, exposing massive frauds and corporate shakedown attempts in the process.

We offer integrated litigation strategies that run from start to finish: our work towards enforcing an arbitral award or judgment begins at the inception of the dispute process, not just once an award or judgment has been issued.

Before a judgment or an arbitral award is even issued, we routinely work with counsel – whether within Gibson Dunn’s international arbitration group, Gibson Dunn’s transnational litigation practice or outside the firm – to plot an enforcement strategy that will realize our client’s anticipated award. Through the use of all the available tools, including, among others, prejudgment attachments, fraudulent transfer actions, and 28 U.S.C. § 1782 discovery petitions, we have been able to put our clients ahead of other creditors, resulting in the actual collection of billions of dollars in judgment and arbitral awards that many deemed unrecoverable.

We believe in bespoke enforcement strategies. Ours have no template because every enforcement action is different: different debtors, with different assets in different jurisdictions.

Our lawyers have been recognized for obtaining results where others have failed or where the issues are of first impression. The American Lawyer’s Am Law Litigation Daily named our group’s co-chair Robert Weigel as a Litigator of the Week for obtaining, on behalf of Crystallex, one of the largest enforcement victories to date against a sovereign debtor, helping Crystallex become the first (and, to date, only) judgment creditor of Venezuela (or PDVSA, its national oil company) to obtain judicial authorization to attach key United States-based assets. Indeed, Gibson Dunn’s work defending that unprecedented victory was recognized by The American Lawyer when it named Gibson Dunn its 2020 Litigation Department of the Year, our firm’s fourth win in the last six of the publication’s biennial “Litigation Department of the Year” competitions.

Matt McGill, the group’s other co-chair, represented NML Capital in its 10-year litigation against the Republic of Argentina in what the Financial Times called “the trial of the century in sovereign debt restructuring.” Mr. McGill won an important victory before the U.S. Supreme Court that confirmed the availability of discovery in aid of enforcement of money judgments against foreign sovereigns, helping set the stage for NML’s multibillion-dollar settlement of its claims.
Gibson Dunn has also been lauded for its representation of Chevron Corporation in its successful RICO suit against the purveyors of what The Wall Street Journal called the legal “fraud of the century” and its exposure of a $9.2 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron as the product of fraud and bribery. Most recently, Gibson Dunn lawyers were again named by the Am Law Litigation Daily as Litigators of the Week for defeating efforts to recognize a sham $18 billion arbitral award against Chevron Corporation and Chevron U.S.A. Inc.

The strength of our group extends beyond its co-chairs. Gibson Dunn has premier enforcement-focused practitioners across the world. Our team includes lawyers through the United States, as well as in London, Paris, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Members of the group have been at the forefront of major cases that have shaped judgment and arbitral award enforcement law in the United States and around the world.