Arbitration

Commercial companies increasingly choose arbitration as a means of resolving contractual disputes. It is normal to insert an arbitration provision into most commercial contracts and stipulate some form of arbitral body such as the ICC Paris, the LCIA, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Geneva or Zurich or some such international organisation. The usual good reasons for arbitration are speed and confidentiality and the knowledge that the Award can be enforced substantially worldwide and that appeal from Awards are usually very restrictive in scope.

We offer a “one stop shop” in relation to arbitrations, handling all aspects of the case in house including the advocacy. Provided the arbitration is conducted in the English language we are ready and able to deal with arbitrations where the proper law may be other than English law.

Our charges in such arbitrations are a fraction of the costs charged by medium to large law firms who would generally involve barristers as advocates and overman the case with too many fee earners. Further, we are prepared, in suitable cases, to pursue arbitrations on a contingency basis taking a percentage of the potential award as compensation for pursuing the arbitration without fees.

Examples of cases conducted by our personnel include:

• A CCIG arbitration between an American oil company and an African national oil company where Nigerian and international law were the proper law of the contract. The dispute involved the breach of a joint venture agreement for an oil project in Africa with substantial sums at stake. A successful Partial Award finding liability in the client’s favour was obtained.
• An ICC arbitration between a Singaporean owned Bahamian company and a firm of lawyers in the Bahamas for breach of contractual duty, where English law applied. A successful Award was obtained in the client’s favour and a dismissal of a subsequent appeal to the High Court in England was achieved.
• An ICC arbitration in Switzerland between a Cayman Island company and a very substantial French company for unpaid commission/fee payments. We were successful and had an appeal to the Supreme Court in Switzerland dismissed within three months. Enforcement in France followed immediately and resulted in full payment of the Award and costs.
• An ICC arbitration in Switzerland with a substantial Nigerian construction company with Swiss law as the proper law in relation to substantial fees/commissions on major construction projects in Nigeria. The arbitration is presently on-going.

Usually the costs charged by us where no contingency is involved, would represent one third to one half of the fees charged by most medium to large law firms in London.

Recommendations from clients in some of the above arbitrations:

At the outset, I wish to thank and place on record my deep appreciation for the all the efforts and pains taken to handle all of our legal matters.

Your association with the college for the past 9 months (though formal point was made in February 2015) has been a story of great transformation from a position of desperation and loss on all fronts to one of positive hope and success.

When you took over our main litigation at short notice last October, it was going nowhere, since we were delayed in submission of responses to courts and few others solicitors who were then dealing the cases had given up hope of any chance of success. When we approached you thereafter, you had refocused our counter-claim and analysed what were the real legal issues and redrafted our pleadings and organised our expert evidence all within a very tight timetable. From a situation of almost certain failure, you were able to turn it around and win the case on liability. We look forward to you dealing with the assessment of damages on our behalf as also the appeal application against the part liability not allowed by the judge.

Our other two important litigation cases have been a success to date and we expect more success to come as the litigation develops. We always know you will not leave any stone unturned and that we can rely on you to put forward our case on the best possible footing with clarity and making all the relevant legal points. You have shown expertise based on your research, study and analysis of legal cases that are most apt and suitable to be applicable in all our litigating situations.

Please Keep up the good work and we look forward to continuing success in the coming months with great confidence in your abilities and legal expertise.

Dr. S Basha 2015

 " Dear Paul,

Just a note to thank you for all your hard work on the ICC arbitration.

I am always astonished how you are able to crystallise the issues in the case so clearly from a mass of documentation spanning many years.

I am delighted at the outcome. I am grateful for your advice, guidance and confidence of success throughout the case despite all the complications of foreign law and all the defences put up.

I cannot recommend your services enough.

I look forward to "Round 3" next year."

Bill Taylor November 2014

"As my arbitration has now settled very satisfactorily, I would like to thank you for all your advice and efforts on my behalf.

You were able to sort through a mass of my assorted documentation and produce a strong coherent case against my contractual counterparty. You marshalled all the facts and law against a formidable opponent and put my case in a clear and concise way, dealing effectively with the myriad of legal issues raised by the opposition in a complex case which included foreign legal issues.

Seeing the number of barristers and solicitors engaged by the defence, I am grateful for your approach of very modest fees and the balance by results, which also helped to creat confidence that you had my interests at heart and belived in the case.

I am sorry you will not now have your opportunity to cross examine all the defence witnesses but I am very happy with the result."

William Taylor October 2013

“In view of the success that you have achieved on our behalf in our arbitration
with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation relating to our slop oil joint venture there, we would wish to reinstruct you to handle…[confidential details omitted].

We were very impressed by your preparation and your very detailed and successful cross examination of NNPC’s witnesses both at the liability stage and at the quantum hearings. You were able to get to grips with the extremely complicated financial and commercial details of the oil refining business, present detailed financial and industrial concepts clearly and eloquently question their experts with ease and you extracted what we needed to establish the case.

We are sure you can do it again and hope that you are happy to continue to act for us?"

Gulf-Petro Trading Company Inc
Petrec International Inc

“Now that the arbitration is fully concluded, I write to express our thanks and gratitude for a job well done.

We were impressed with your grasp of the subject matter, your preparations and your vigorous cross-examination which was very much instrumental in achieving a successful result.

It was clearly unfortunate from our point of view that Saint Gobain did appeal to the Supreme Court in Switzerland, but the appeal was conducted successfully in our favour at record speed and the enforcement in France produced the required payment of the Award very rapidly.”

International Consultants Inc. 2011