HERBERT SMITH FREEHILLS PROMOTES FOUR ARBITRATION SPECIALISTS TO ITS GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP

Herbert Smith Freehills has promoted eleven disputes lawyers to its partnership out of a total of 23 worldwide. The promotions in the disputes practice, which take effect on 1 May 2021, span across the firm’s international network.

Of these new partners, four are arbitration specialists, reflecting the strength and importance of the practice area to the firm.

The new arbitration partners are:

Antony Crockett, Hong Kong:

Antony is a disputes lawyer specialising in public international law (including Business and Human Rights) and investment treaty arbitration.

Antony is a member of the firm’s ESG leadership group and will also lead our Band 1 ranked Business and Human Rights practice. Antony represents Axiata Berhad in an ICSID arbitration against Nepal in relation to a claim under the Malaysia-Nepal BIT arising from the imposition of certain taxes by Nepal. He has also represented Zhao Changpeng, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, in an arbitration brought by Sequoia, a venture capital firm.

Dana Kim, Seoul:

Dana specialises in international arbitration and corporate crime & investigation.

A skilled advocate with more than 12 years of experience, she has worked on disputes across Asia, including in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and South Korea. Dana is dual-qualified in New York and England and Wales. She also sits as an arbitrator. She has worked on many major cases including: Hyundai Heavy Industries on its successful settlement in an ICC arbitration arising out of the US$10.3 billion Barzan gas pipeline project in Qatar; and Samsung C&T Corporation in significant downstream disputes with Laing O’Rourke on the $10 billion Roy Hill Iron Ore Project.

Ivan Teselkin, Moscow

Ivan specialises in litigation (both domestic and cross-border) and international commercial arbitration.

He has considerable experience in advising banks, financial services institutions, state institutions, corporates and private clients on various aspects of contentious work, much of which is multijurisdictional, and was seconded to our London office from October 2017 to January 2019.

Ivan's experience includes representing a Russian businessman in connection with a complex cross-border shareholders dispute valued around US$300 million across 9 jurisdictions, including obtaining disclosure and freezing orders in a number of jurisdictions, representing a sovereign state in annulment proceedings in numerous jurisdictions and related enforcement proceedings following a multi-billion dollar investor-state arbitration, and acting for an investment bank in an LCIA arbitration.

Jaime de San Roman, Madrid

Jaime sits within our litigation, ADR and arbitration practice and his practice includes providing contentious and pre-contentious advice to large financial institutions across a broad range of topics. Jaime has experience in commercial and investment treaty arbitration seated in Madrid and Geneva under, among others, the UNCITRAL rules and under the rules of ICSID, the ICC and the SCC.

Paula Hodges QC comments: “I am delighted to welcome our four new partners Antony, Dana, Ivan and Jaime.  All four are outstanding lawyers with their own individual USPs, who bring a breadth of knowledge and experience spanning many continents to our commercial arbitration and public international law practices. I congratulate each of them on their success and wish them all the very best for the next chapter of their careers at Herbert Smith Freehills. In a real testament to the strength of arbitration at the firm, I am also thrilled to see the promotion of two other new disputes partners with significant arbitration experience, Pietro Pouché in Milan and Emma Iles in Melbourne.”

For more information, please contact Antony Crockett, Dana Kim, Ivan Teselkin, Jaime de San Roman, or your usual Herbert Smith Freehills contact.