Practices

International Disputes

Our expertise:

Governments, major international companies and financial institutions choose us to advise on complex international disputes. Advices include conflicts of law issues, jurisdictional and enforcement issues, the remedies available in Ireland to support litigation in other jurisdictions, the use of the Irish courts as a forum in support of global litigation, international arbitration and international tax disputes.

Key areas:

• Advising on applicable choice of forum and governing law rules and the rules conferring jurisdiction or selecting governing law in the absence of choice
• Advising on the relative merits of different jurisdictions for deciding a cross-border or international dispute
• Advising and acting in disputes as to jurisdiction internationally
• Acting to obtain injunctive or other relief to assist foreign proceedings
• The collecting of evidence for use in cross-border disputes
• Co-ordinating international litigation for Irish and International organisations
• Acting in international arbitrations under the rules of various institutional providers, including ICC and LCIA
• Advising and acting on questions of state immunity and justiciability, the status and powers of international organisations and the impact of international sanctions

Key highlights include advising:

• Government of the United States of America  in intervening (as amicus curiae) in important proceedings in Ireland involving the Data Protection Commissioner and Facebook concerning the legality under EU law of data transfer arrangements between the European Union and the US
• Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (in Special Liquidation) on all aspects of the Quinn family litigation and international recovery, with  international litigation in multiple jurisdictions (including the Russian Federation, UAE, Ukraine, India, Belize, BVI and Panama)
• Vodafone GmbH in Irish proceedings against IV International Licensing and Intellectual Ventures II LLC (IV). Vodafone is alleging an abuse of a dominant position contrary to Article 102 TFEU arising out of an offer by IV to license certain patents The Commercial Court granted a stay on the proceedings pursuant to Article 30(1) of the Recast Brussels Regulation in light of proceedings pending in Germany. The court declined to make orders declining jurisdiction under Article 29 or 30(2) of the Recast Brussels Regulation or on grounds of forum non conveniens, re-affirming the principle established in Owusu and by the Irish Court of Appeal in Abama v Gama Construction (Ireland) Ltd