Kate DAVIES KC

Kate Davies KC is head of Skadden’s Europe International Litigation and Arbitration Group. She focuses on international commercial and investment treaty arbitration, with extensive experience in institutional and ad hoc arbitrations, seated in both common and civil law jurisdictions, including ICC, LCIA and LMAA arbitrations. She also has advised investors and governments in ICSID arbitrations.

Ms. Davies represents clients at all stages of international arbitration disputes, including before several renowned international tribunals. She has extensive experience advising on commercial disputes in the pharmaceutical, telecommunications, automotive, technology, energy and construction sectors, as well as those arising out of a variety of agreements, including joint venture, shareholder, post-M&A, licensing, distribution, technology transfer, patent and construction agreements. Additionally, she counsels on disputes arising from complex contracts and projects, including in the energy, mining and transport sectors. She also has handled a range of matters involving investment treaty arbitration and public international law.

Ms. Davies recently served as secretary to the International Bar Association’s Arbitration Committee and on the ICC Task Force considering dispute resolution in the context of climate change and the Paris Agreement, and is a recent former member of the ICC U.K. Appointments Committee. She also sits on the Executive Committee of the Foundation for International Arbitration Advocacy and was co-chair of the 2022 Institute for Transnational Arbitration Workshop. Ms. Davies also regularly sits as arbitrator on single- and three-member tribunals.

In recognition of her work, Ms. Davies was named Best Lawyers’ 2024 London International Arbitration Lawyer of the Year and has been repeatedly recognized by Chambers Global and Chambers UK, in which clients have described her as “absolutely phenomenal” and “a comprehensive lawyer” who “gets every aspect of the case.” She also has been named a Global Leader in Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) Arbitration, recognized in The Legal 500 for International Arbitration and Public International Law and ranked in The Legal 500’s U.K. Private Practice Arbitration Powerlist and U.K. International Arbitration Powerlist. Additionally, she has been named one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Global Litigators.