Sarah MONNERVILLE SMITH

Sarah Monnerville Smith is a Partner at Eversheds Sutherland based in Paris. Sarah represents global corporations, financial institutions, States and State entities in complex litigation and international arbitration matters.

Her experience covers a broad range of business sectors with a focus on industrial and energy disputes across Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Over the last decade, Sarah has built deep experience in disputes relating to the enforcement of arbitral awards and foreign judgments, conflict of laws and jurisdiction issues, and asset recovery. She also advises in economic sanctions.

Sarah has secured major wins for clients including a landmark annulment decision, in connection with an arbitration involving claims of US$525 million, which was listed among the most important decisions of the year at the 2021 Global Arbitration Review Awards. Sarah has also represented a North African state in multi-jurisdictional proceedings relating to the enforcement of a treaty award; a Ukrainian oil and gas company in a multi-jurisdictional dispute concerning the enforcement of an SCC award; and a North African bank in a successful application to lift US$120 million attachments that were levied pursuant to an award issued against a North African State.

Sarah is Co-Chair of the CFA40, the French Arbitration Committee’s group below 40.

Sarah also lectures in international dispute resolution, and she frequently speaks or writes on related issues.

Sarah was recognized as an Arbitration Future Leader in the Lexology Index 2025, where peers and clients say “Sarah is a rising star in the arbitration field” who “possesses great rigor and determination”; she is “an excellent lawyer with a very good expertise in enforcement proceedings” and “great client skills”.

Clients also say that “Sarah practices law at the highest level of professional excellence, skill, and integrity”, that “her legal skills, ethical standards, and communication skills are exceptional” and that “she impresses by her energy and determination to successfully manage cases”. (Legal 500, 2023).

Sarah’s commitment to Diversity & Inclusion includes her involvement in the Revel@Her mentoring program, an initiative by Club 21e siècle, which aims to help women from diverse cultural and social backgrounds to break the double glass ceiling.