Jus Connect<\/a> is pleased to nominate Chaffetz Lindsey <\/a><\/strong>for its coveted Arbitration Team of the Month (ATOM) Award<\/strong>, in appreciation for the firm\u2019s extensive work in international arbitration as well as its standing in the United States and worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chaffetz Lindsey <\/a><\/strong>has an impressive track record in arbitration. They have been involved in at least 28 international and domestic arbitration case(s) known by Jus Mundi (<\/strong>20 Commercial Arbitration, 7 Investor-State, and 1 Iran-US Claims<\/strong>) in a variety of economic sectors, including Construction, Energy \u2013 Oil & Gas, and Financial Services<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Hosking<\/a><\/strong> (Founding Partner) and An\u00edbal Mart\u00edn Sabater<\/a><\/strong> (Partner) at Chaffetz Lindsey<\/a><\/strong>, along with Yasmine Lahlou<\/a><\/strong> (Partner) at Chaffetz Lindsey<\/strong><\/a>, discuss the firm\u2019s culture & growth, as well as developments in international arbitration in the US and Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Hosking<\/a><\/strong>: Thanks, delighted to receive this honor. On your question, Chaffetz Lindsey<\/a> is the premier New York-based international disputes boutique. We were founded almost 15 years ago when the five founding partners left Clifford Chance<\/a>\u2019s US office to start something different. We provide top-tier counsel on complex international arbitrations around the world. While proud of our New York roots, we are in no way limited in geographic scope or subject matter, and regularly act in \u201cbet the company\u201d cases around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent years, we have been particularly busy in disputes involving Latin America (Argentina<\/a>, Brazil<\/a>, Mexico<\/a>, and Peru<\/a> among others), the Middle East, Continental Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. We have six partners with a full-time international arbitration practice (Yasmine Lahlou<\/a>, Caline Mouawad<\/a>, Gretta Walters<\/a>, and David Lindsey<\/a>, in addition to An\u00edbal and me), and we regularly have over a dozen associates and foreign associates helping in our cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although these things change over time, for the last few years we have kept an almost even balance between investment and commercial arbitration cases. We are currently counsel in approximately 33 arbitration-related matters, involving over 20 jurisdictions, and valued at approximately $13 billion. Our international presence and the global nature of our practice, as well as the diversity of our core team, is truly unique for our size. We are particularly proud of our ability to attract top young talented associates from around the world. This allows us to conduct cases in English or Spanish, and to be able to work efficiently in cases where all or part of the evidence is in, amongst others, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian or Portuguese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to our international arbitration work proper, our partners Andreas Frischknecht<\/a> and Yasmine Lahlou<\/a> lead one of the nation\u2019s leading judgment and award enforcement practices. Along with Gretta Walters<\/a>, they have written the go-to textbook on the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and judgments in New York\u2014and they are often in court putting it in practice. Chambers just recognized them as Band 1 in this category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We also work closely with our colleagues whose practices are primarily litigation focused. We have a top-ranked insurance and reinsurance practice, and busy specialty practices in bankruptcy, financial disputes and sovereign-related litigation and arbitration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Hosking<\/a>: <\/strong>Like a lot of people, I fell into international arbitration by chance. New Zealand<\/a> had just enacted the UNCITRAL Model Law<\/a> when I was a freshly-minted lawyer back home. I knew nothing about arbitration, but started working on cases under the new law, co-taught a class on it at my old law school, and ended up getting bitten by the international arbitration bug. I also benefited from several mentors along the way, especially my former boss Sir David Williams KC who was instrumental in encouraging me to study overseas in the US<\/a> for a year \u2013 that was 23 years ago! <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An\u00edbal Mart\u00edn Sabater<\/a>:<\/strong> My background is a bit different. Since law school in Madrid, I was intrigued by international disputes and hoping to work on them.\u00a0 I graduated in 1997 and was fortunate to be hired for what turned out to be the first full-time international disputes practice a large law firm set up in Spain\u2014the one at G\u00f3mez-Acebo & Pombo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Hosking<\/a>: <\/strong>We built our business to serve the needs of sophisticated clients with complex cross-border disputes. We simply don\u2019t have the conflicts and internal distractions that come from being a full-service firm. We are really good at what we do without having to pretend to be all things to all people. That gives us greater flexibility in hiring and a lower cost base that gives us more flexibility on pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We also made some conscious decisions to practice differently than some of our big firm competitors. We are not a leverage-based firm; we provide real partner involvement throughout a case but supported by a small team of associates with manifest hands-on expertise. We frequently work with co-counsel outside the US<\/a> or bring on specialized US expertise. Because we don\u2019t have a network of offices we have to sustain, in consultation with the client, we can assemble a team of the best lawyers for the particular case. We very much value our co-counsel relationships, and we know they value working with a top-tier firm that isn\u2019t going to try to \u201csteal\u201d the next corporate transaction because we don\u2019t do that work. Having spent many years at defense-side banking-focused firms, we understand complex financial transactions but enjoy the flexibility of being conflict-free to be adverse to banks when necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Hosking<\/a>: <\/strong>We\u2019re really proud of our work on a lot of different commercial and investor-State cases. Our most recent case just had its evidentiary hearing last week and typifies our profile. It\u2019s confidential so we can\u2019t mention names, but it\u2019s an ICC<\/a> case that involves Mexican law, with a Mexico City seat, arbitrators of three different nationalities, and a Mexican project in the renewable energy sector. We teamed up with a Mexican law firm and together put on 13 witnesses and cross-examined 14 witnesses, in both English and Spanish. Our client appreciated our international arbitration specialty expertise, our advocacy skills, and our sector experience, while we were also respectful of working closely with our excellent Mexican colleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An\u00edbal Mart\u00edn Sabater:<\/strong><\/a> This was mostly the idea of Charles Scibetta, one of our founding partners and a specialist in insurance and reinsurance litigation. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, he encouraged the firm to develop a COVID-19 resource center\u2014a webpage where we would provide live information about COVID-19-driven legal changes. The webpage proved to be useful. For instance, as early as late March 2020, we were getting calls from clients who wanted to know whether the implementation of social distancing measures on site\u2014and the delays this entailed\u2014could give rise to a mitigation of the schedule in a potential construction arbitration case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/strong>Also, our partners Yasmine Lahlou<\/a>, Peter Chaffetz<\/a><\/strong>, and Andrew Poplinger<\/a>,<\/strong> as well as several of our associates, were in the middle of a large in-person hearing in New York when the city went into shutdown. The tribunal and the parties immediately agreed that the rest of the hearing would be conducted remotely as soon as everyone made it safely back home. This may have been one the first large hearings done remotely\u2014at least in part\u2014due to the pandemic. Yasmine, Peter, and Andrew wrote an article<\/a> on the subject and received several media inquiries to discuss their experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, as virtual hearings became prevalent during the pandemic, James and Yasmine were two of the three co-editors in an ICAA study on whether laws around the world provide a right to in-person hearings. This also became a useful tool for users. The report is available here<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All these efforts helped put us at the front of COVID-related arbitration work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are letting our partner Yasmine Lahlou, one of the co-editors of the publication, take on this one. These are her words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yasmine Lahlou<\/a><\/strong>: Thank you for mentioning Arbitration in the Courts, a publication that the firm takes great pride in. The United States<\/a> is such a prominent jurisdiction thanks to practical and legal reasons. Since the Federal Arbitration Act was adopted in 1925 and the New York Convention<\/a> ratified in 1970, courts in the U.S., including the Supreme Court, have developed one of the most sophisticated, prolific and pro-arbitration bodies of arbitration law in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is due in part to the fact that, with respect to cross-border disputes, the United States is not a party to any international convention on the recognition of court judgments that is in force as of today. As a result, international arbitration has an outsize role in resolution of cross-border disputes in the largest economy in the world. Moreover, New York remains the financial capital of the world, which makes it one of the most natural jurisdictions to enforce foreign awards. New York courts are all the more attractive that once you have reduced an award to a judgment, a creditor has access to a whole panoply of enforcement and discovery tools, to locate assets not only in the United States but also abroad. Finally, the key arbitration jurisdictions in the United States benefit from a bar and a bench of the highest caliber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An\u00edbal Mart\u00edn Sabater:<\/a><\/strong> As mentioned, Latin America is a big part of what we do. The changes the region has gone through are too many to enumerate, but they basically come down to the tremendous growth of the practice there. For decades now, through political changes and FDI flows, Latin American legal culture has been rapidly evolving, including becoming more accepting of some common law practices and solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Latin America also has a strong tradition of integration. The Organization American States, for instance, already existed before the European Community, now Union, was established. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nowadays, as a vibrant region long exposed to the globalization in legal education and in the economy, Latin America has a strong cadre of international arbitration specialists at ease in the civil law, the common law, the lex mercatoria<\/em>, and the public international law traditions. The versatility of practitioners is such that Latin America has strong local bars with prominent practitioners who have studied and worked abroad. The region has also become an \u201cexporter\u201d of lawyers and arbitrators. Think, for instance, of the relatively high number of sensitive investment arbitration cases that have a Latin American chair, even if they are unrelated to the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for predictions, we will be bold and make three. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As you can tell from all this, our expectation is to continue to remain busy with work from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An\u00edbal Mart\u00edn Sabater:<\/a><\/strong> The best promotion is doing a good job for clients in their cases. Also, of course, we try to cultivate personal relations as much as possible. We are a New York-based boutique, but not ashamed to travel the world to meet clients and friends who may need our services. We also are heavily involved in thought leadership, whether taking speaker roles at conferences or producing high quality publications, such as our newsletter Arbitration in the Courts. Yasmine Lahlou<\/a>, Andy Frischknecht, and Gretta Walters<\/a> have also authored the go-to handbook on the enforcement of foreign judgments and awards in New York. James has co-authored the main commentary on the ICDR Rules<\/a>. We also encourage our more junior lawyers to take a leading role in such initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are deeply involved in the arbitration community and the leading arbitral institutions. For example, James is a member of the ICAA governing board and the co-chair of the New York International Arbitration Center\u2019s Program Committee (a position An\u00edbal also previously held); Caline is a vice president of the ICC Commission and a NYIAC executive committee member; Gretta is co-chairing this year the New York International Arbitration Week; Yasmine is a vice president of the ICC Bulletin<\/a> editorial board; I lead one of the most relevant commissions at the Union International des Avocats \u2026 Our associates currently have leadership roles on several young practitioner organizations like those of the ICDR<\/a>, ASIL and ITA, as well as positions with the IBA. One of our associates, May Khoury, recently co-launched the ArabArb group, while another, Lidia Rezende, leads a networking group for Brazilian-trained women lawyers in the US. We believe this type of involvement is good for our clients, assists our colleagues in profile-building, and helps create a more vibrant arbitration community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An\u00edbal Mart\u00edn Sabater:<\/a><\/strong> At a more granular level, we are keeping an eye on potential claims against Mexico<\/a> (under NAFTA 2.0 or otherwise) as the energy reform unrolls, the status of the ECT and the potential negotiation of a replacement treaty, and the award enforcement cases currently brought against Spain<\/a> in Washington DC. In terms of industry developments, the renewable energy revolution is obviously producing a lot of work, as are issues around new technologies like carbon capture. The increasing use of AI in arbitration is also a topic worth following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually, I just did a panel on the subject in Stockholm with Jus Mundi\u2019s<\/a> Head of Product, Monica Crespo<\/a><\/strong>, so we know you are also on top of this important issue. And the Silicon Valley Mediation and Arbitration Center has just circulated for commentary a draft set of guidelines on the use AI. The guidelines are expected to be approved and be a hot topic in 2024. Also, UNCITRAL Working Group III seems close to finishing its ISDS provisions on procedural and cost-cutting issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n James Hosking<\/a>:<\/strong> If you\u2019re talking general trends for the practice, much of what happens will continue to depend on the economy, the war in Ukraine<\/a>, and the general international trade sanctions regime. It is really hard to make predictions there. Meanwhile, in terms of legal industry developments, the trend towards Big Law mergers appears to be continuing \u2013 and it\u2019s driven by transactional practices, not disputes. This creates more conflict work for us while also creating pricing pressure for our competitors. We\u2019ve watched clients gravitate towards our specialized boutique model in the almost 15 years since our founding. This just strengthens our view that we made the right choice in setting up the firm!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2022-2023 has been particularly busy with high value merits hearings for Chaffetz Lindsey. The firm\u2019s recent highlights include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The enforcement practice also stayed very busy and had some resounding successes, including: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Congratulations to the team once again! Jus Connect<\/a> wishes them nothing but success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEES<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n James Hosking<\/a> <\/strong>is a Founding Partner and International Arbitration Practice Leader at Chaffetz Lindsey.<\/a> <\/strong>He has over 25 years of dispute resolution experience, primarily in international commercial and investment treaty arbitration. James has been counsel in over 100 arbitrations, with clients and proceedings all over the world and has led our team in some of the firm\u2019s biggest wins. James appears in US court litigation concerning international arbitration, including recently filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court addressing the interplay between the New York Convention and the RICO Act. He earned an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 2000 and attended the University of Auckland from 1990-1994, receiving B.A. and LL.B. (with honors) degrees. He is admitted to practice in New York and previously practiced in New Zealand. Prior to Chaffetz Lindsey, James co-led Clifford Chance\u2019s Americas International Arbitration team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An\u00edbal Sabater<\/a><\/strong> is a Partner and International Arbitration Practice Leader at Chaffetz Lindsey<\/a><\/strong>.An\u00edbal has over 25 years of experience in international commercial and investment arbitration under all major rules. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a member of the Commission tasked with disposing of arbitrator challenges at the Madrid International Arbitration Center, and the President of the International Association of Lawyers\u2019 Commission on \u201cThe Future of the Lawyer\u201d. An\u00edbal is licensed in several US jurisdictions, England and Wales (solicitor), and his native Spain, and joined Chaffetz Lindsey in January 2015 and was previously a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, having spent 11 years with the firm in its Houston and New York offices. Prior to that, An\u00edbal practiced for six years at G\u00f3mez-Acebo & Pombo in Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This month, Chaffetz Lindsey is nominated as Jus Connect Arbitration Team of the Month. Find out more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":279058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"custom","single_blog_custom":"274736","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"author","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"hide","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"0","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"0","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"40","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"This month, Chaffetz Lindsey is nominated as Jus Connect Arbitration Team of the Month. 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Can you tell us about Chaffetz Lindsey and its work in international arbitration?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Tell us about yourselves and how you came to work on arbitration cases.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How is being a boutique firm a differentiator in arbitration? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Can you mention a recent case and explain why it was of interest? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You posted on your webpage regular legal updates on the pandemic. Can you tell us more about it? <\/strong> <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your team regularly publishes articles in a series called \u201cArbitration in the Courts\u201d where you comment on recent arbitral-related developments in US courts. In your opinion, what makes the US such a prominent jurisdiction for arbitral enforcement and challenges?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In your opinion, over the last decade, what has evolved in the arbitration world in Latin America -a region your practice has extensive experience in? What changes do you foresee in the region in the next few years?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Chaffetz Lindsey has had a growing arbitration caseload over the years and is regularly praised in the field. How does a boutique arbitration firm like Chaffetz Lindsey promote itself?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What is your vision for the arbitration field in 2024? Any trends that we can expect in the next few years, in the US especially?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Key clients of the firm\u2019s arbitration practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Track-record<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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