Hughes Hubbard Bolsters International Arbitration Practice

New York and Paris, Feb. 7, 2023 – International law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP announced today it has expanded its International Arbitration practice and named Sébastien Bonnard to lead the Europe, Africa and the Middle East practice, Christine Kang to lead the China practice, and Remy Gerbay to lead the investor-state dispute practice. James Boykin remains Chair of the International Arbitration group. 

Bonnard joined in September 2022 as partner in the firm’s Paris office; he is bilingual in English and French. He has served as counsel for private and public operators, and as arbitrator in many arbitration proceedings, both institutional – including ICC, ICSID, ADCCAC, LCIA and LMAA – and ad hoc. He also represents his clients in arbitration-related disputes in court, including annulment and enforcement of awards. His practice extends to litigation of commercial disputes, liability and industrial risk and alternative dispute resolution proceedings. He is particularly active in disputes relating to construction, mining, oil & gas, telecommunication, joint ventures, defense, transport and distribution agreements in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and also has significant experience in the negotiation and monitoring of construction contracts, including FIDIC contracts, and the settlement of related disputes via adjudication or other forms of ADR. He currently serves as chairperson of a dispute adjudication board appointed in the context of a project for the construction of a nuclear fusion reactor in Europe valued at over €20 billion.
 
Gerbay, who joined the firm in June 2021, has arbitrated under all major arbitration rules, including the rules of the ICC, LCIA, AAA/ICDR, UNCITRAL, Swiss Chambers, DIAC, KIAC, and ICSID. He is also bilingual in English and French, and represents clients across various sectors such as energy, infrastructure, transportation, pharma, banking, and telecommunications. Trained in the U.S., U.K., France and Switzerland, he has been appointed as arbitrator in over 25 international cases. He has practiced with leading litigation law firms in the U.S. and U.K., and is a former Deputy Registrar of the LCIA and Registrar of DIFC-LCIA.  

Kang, who joined the firm in October 2021, represents Chinese companies, specifically some of the largest Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as well as multinational companies doing business in China, with a specific emphasis on investigations, anti-corruption, sanctions, compliance and international arbitration matters. She speaks fluent Chinese (Mandarin), English and French. She has advised leading Fortune 500 companies on their international arbitration cases with major arbitral institutions, including the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), the American Arbitration Association-International Centre of Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), and the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC). Her matters before these tribunals involve a broad array of industries and a diverse array of subject matters such as international trade, joint ventures, construction, finance, insurance, licensing and intellectual property. She also regularly advises China’s SOEs on their overseas litigation cases in concert with U.S. and U.K. litigators.
 
This comes as Hughes Hubbard’s growing practice – which also includes emerging leaders Meaghan Gragg, Amina Hassan and Fara Tabatabai – is handling an increase in demand for the firm’s arbitration team, particularly in high-stakes disputes in the pharmaceutical and alternative energy sectors.
 
Gragg has extensive experience in arbitrating complex commercial disputes, with an emphasis in cross-border matters. She was instrumental in Global Gaming’s successful, seven-year-long battle to win over $300 million in arbitration proceedings against Bloomberry Resorts, which involved collateral litigation in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines, culminating in an October 2021 victory before Singapore’s highest court. She is fluent in Spanish.
 
Hassan’s practice focuses on complex domestic and cross-border financial litigation and investigations, including crypto and securities litigation, employment arbitration and litigation, auditor defense and bankruptcy litigation. Recently, she won a dismissal by a federal jury of all claims against a former Wall Street executive in a crypto-fraud class action – in a first-of-its-kind U.S. verdict, the jury determined that the crypto-products were not “securities." She is fluent in Urdu and Hindi. 
 
Tabatabai’s practice focuses on arbitration and complex commercial and products liability litigation. She represents U.S., Canadian, European and Asian clients in a variety of industries and has served as litigation and trial counsel in numerous high-stakes domestic and international disputes, including Lehman Brothers in a trial against Barclays that resulted in a $5 billion verdict in Lehman’s favor and the European affiliates of Nortel Networks in the first U.S.-Canadian cross-border trial in history. She is fluent in French.

The expansion ran in an exclusive with Law360, which can be read here: Hughes Hubbard Eyes Africa In Growth Of Int'l Arb. Practice.

About Hughes Hubbard 

Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP is a New York City-based international law firm with a relentless focus on providing quality service to our clients and delivering successful results in the most complex matters. With a powerful combination of scale and agility, we offer clients innovative and effective solutions, while remaining flexible to adapt to their needs and market developments. Known for a collaborative culture, as well as our diversity and pro bono achievements, Hughes Hubbard has a distinguished history dating back more than a century. For more information, visit hugheshubbard.com.