Arbitration, Mediation, ADR

Energy & Sustainability

• Successfully defended a biodiesel manufacturer in an arbitration proceeding concerning a supply contract dispute that involved the correct treatment of federal subsidies provided by the Commodity Credit Corporation.
• Represented a privately owned LNG supply company in the successful settlement of an arbitration concerning the alleged breach of a long-term LNG supply agreement.

Healthcare

• Represented inventor of technologies utilized in laser eye surgery in arbitration of claims of breach of royalties by manufacturer of surgical devices. Successfully negotiated payment of over $15,000,000 in royalties on first day of arbitration.
• Represented a publicly owned biotechnology company in an arbitration over a multibillion-dollar drug development collaboration. The arbitration resulted in a victory which confirmed the client’s right to co-develop one of the world’s largest-selling cancer drugs.

Insurance & Financial Services

• Represented an FCM in an arbitration brought by a software developer to recover fees allegedly owed for the use of a platform to support OTC brokers in the fixed income and derivative markets.
• Representing a client in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in the enforcement of a $300 million award issued in an arbitration in Singapore.
• Represented a major multinational insurer in a reinsurance arbitration involving the application of a self-insured retention following the insured’s insolvency, forcing our client to singlehandedly settle a catastrophic claim.
• Secured a defense award on all claims against one of the world’s largest commodity trading firms following an arbitration by a customer before the National Futures Association. Asserting claims of common law fraud, fraud under the Commodity Exchange Act, gross negligence, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty, the customer claimed that it suffered millions of dollars in trading losses allegedly caused by the firm’s negligence in operating an electronic trading platform and related misrepresentations of the firm.
• Represented a Panamanian reinsurer in a $15 million reinsurance arbitration dispute with a US retrocessionaire involving dozens of automatic (proportional and non-proportional) and facultative reinsurance agreements and common account excess of loss reinsurance agreements involving hundreds of contracts that the parties wrote and participated in together over an approximate fifteen year period.
• Represent a multinational financial services corporation in two FINRA arbitrations related to disputes concerning trades in a canceled security.
• Served as lead counsel at an arbitration hearing in which a board member and majority stockholder were sued by minority stockholders of a company that executed a “down round” transaction. The claimants alleged breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and breach of stockholders’ agreement. The case resulted in an award for our client.
• Represented a broker-dealer and its employees in a multi-million dollar FINRA arbitration brought by an introducing broker/investment advisor and his customers. The customers suffered losses in clearing accounts when their short positions became over-leveraged and they failed to meet margin calls, prompting their investment advisor to liquidate their positions. An arbitration panel in Denver rejected the claimants' attempt to blame our clients for the losses, dismissed all of the claims, ordered the expungement of the matter from the FINRA registration records, and awarded $500,000 in damages to our client. A federal district court denied the claimants' motion to vacate the award and confirmed it in all respects.

Life Sciences

• Counsel for respondent in commercial arbitration involving contracts relating to biodefense vaccine development and manufacture; following discovery, briefing and an evidentiary hearing, three-member panel issued a final award in July 2022 that found in favor of our client and issued an award of $0 damages; award confirmed following denial of motion to vacate.
• Lead counsel for synthetic biology company in fast-track JAMS arbitration involving contractual counterparty’s claim for $42 million arising from our client’s alleged breach of collaboration agreement; following discovery, briefing and an evidentiary hearing, three-member panel issued a final award in June 2023 that unanimously found in favor of our client and denied all claims asserted by counterparty.
• Obtained nine-figure award for biopharmaceutical company in contract dispute with international pharmaceutical company involving milestone payments under a license and development agreement. Following extensive discovery, briefing, and an evidentiary hearing, the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce awarded our client all requested relief, including attorneys’ fees and expenses, and rejected the respondents’ nine-figure counterclaims in their entirety.
• Represented Aclaris Therapeutics in a successful mediation related to a securities class action lawsuit in the SDNY. During mediation, Plaintiffs agreed to dismiss the one remaining aspect of their claim for less than Aclaris’ anticipated cost of defense.
• Won an arbitration award, following over a week of trial, completely dismissing all claims of material breach of a collaboration agreement that would have deprived our client, an international biotech company, of its fifty percent interest in a billion-dollar drug.
• Represented a privately owned pharmaceutical company in an arbitration against a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company over the parties’ joint development of a novel therapy for the treatment of Hepatitis C, and the successful settlement of the client’s right to a milestone payment as a result of such development.
• Led a “bet the company” arbitration on behalf of a publicly owned in vitro diagnostic manufacturer, and obtained a successful settlement of an arbitration based on claims that the manufacturer’s licensee had failed to develop and commercialize the manufacturer’s microRNA-based products, as required by the parties’ licensing agreement.

Real Estate, Construction, Hospitality & Infrastructure

• Represented a major university in a multi-party mediation related to the construction of a new central energy plant on campus that was completed nearly 15 months late. Both the Project Engineer and the Construction Manager asserted claims against the university for delay costs which our client countered with errors and omission claims. Ultimately, the parties agreed to a non-binding private mediation which resulted in the groups reaching settlement and avoiding an expensive and lengthy three party litigation.
• Successfully arbitrated a complex partnership dispute involving claims of breach of fiduciary duties in connection with the management of 3 mixed-use buildings in midtown Manhattan.  Secured a $31 million award on behalf of the client, which directed that the partnership be dissolved and that there be an open market sale of the three properties.
• Represented an international theater venue operator in litigation against contractors, design professionals and a steel testing company for defective design and construction of a theater. Action initiated in state court and successfully resolved in mediation more than two years before anticipated trial date.
• Represented a developer in an expedited non-binding mediation process with a Contractor and Subcontractor related to a dispute with the electrical subcontractor's claim for additional compensation due to an alleged deficiency in cable measuring specifications at the site of an ongoing mixed use development project and adjacent parking lot in the Greater Boston area. Mediation resulted in a three-party agreement and no delay to the ongoing construction work.
• Represented an individual in a nine-month arbitration in which our client sued to protect its minority interest in a billion-dollar real estate from claims by the majority that a forced sale was warranted at a dramatic discount. The arbitration panel rejected that claim, preserved the full value of our client’s interest, and awarded attorney’s fees to our client.
• Represented a US commodities trader in an arbitration in Zurich, in respect to its claim regarding losses of nonprecious metals at a Macedonian tolling facility
• Represented 50% owner of LLCs that hold hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate in arbitration over management and potential dissolution of the LLCs.

Technology

• Represented AVX Corporation in a series of successful mediations and settlement intended to resolve an appraisal action brought by various investors, concerning AVX's take private merger with Kyocera.
• Represented foreign claimant in multi-year ICDR/AAA arbitration regarding breach of international sales agreement. Obtained award and judgment of over $21,000,000 including all damages sought plus attorneys' fees and interest.
• Represented developer of real-time operating system in complex arbitration, including 21-day hearing, of claims of copyright infringement in emerging area of law governing copyrightability of application programming interfaces (APIs).
• Successfully prosecuted alter-ego arbitration. Navigated complex array of obstructive discovery tactics to recover documents from off-shore shell companies. Obtained order from US Bankruptcy Court lifting stay on arbitration and remanding case to tribunal following defendant's bankruptcy filing. Obtained positive finding of alter-ego liability against CEO of defendant corporation and judgment of over $26 million.