Global firm King & Spalding has long been a market leader for international arbitration in the region. Its Singapore team comprises six partners with over 70 years of experience in Asia, and 11 other fee earners who exclusively practice international arbitration. The team had a record year in 2022, acting for some of the world’s best-known multinational corporations in significant pleadings and hearings for large commercial, construction and investment treaty cases. The firm has one of the largest dedicated arbitration teams in Asia, covering a wide range of industry sectors and dispute types. The lawyers have carved out a niche expertise in the nuclear sector and is the go-to firm for investment treaty arbitration. Many of the lawyers practice as arbitrators in international arbitrations under major arbitration rules across multiple jurisdictions.
The leadership is stacked will well-respected international arbitration specialists such as Wade Coriell, Elodie Dulac, Nils Eliasson
and Peter Chow. Eliasson joined from Shearman & Sterling Hong Kong last year. Emerson Holmes left the firm in November 2022.
The list of notable highlights is long for the King & Spalding team, which is handling several individual cases with over $1 billion at stake. Recent victories include securing a full dismissal of claims involving disputed share ownership valued at $3 billion for San Miguel, with a $14 million costs award in its favour, and securing a partial award for Chevron in the quantum phase of its dispute against Ecuador.
The team is representing Shell Philippines Exploration in an ICSID arbitration against the Republic of the Philippines in relation to the allocation of petroleum revenues under a petroleum services contract with the state. This is one of the two highest value arbitrations in Philippine history, with $1.5 billion at stake. In another similar high-stakes case, King & Spalding is acting for Chevron’s Thai subsidiary, CTEP, in a $2 billion dispute against the Kingdom of Thailand and its Ministry of Energy. CTEP is the former operator of the Erawan blocks, Thailand’s first commercial natural gas field, located in the Gulf of Thailand.
Partner Simon Dunbar departed for Gateway Law Corporation at the beginning of 2022.
