Chaffetz Lindsey LLP

The Clifford Chance offshoot now counts the governments of Iran and Liberia among its clients

Based in New York, this boutique was born in May 2009 when Peter Chaffetz, Clifford Chance’s global head of litigation, and David Lindsey, co-head of the Americas international arbitration group, decided to break away. “The key drivers were wanting to rid ourselves of the conflicts and fixed cost structures that come with a full-service international law firm,” Lindsey said. Their boutique won “Small Firm of the Year” at the 2011 GAR Awards.

Today, Lindsey and younger partner James Hosking spearhead the international arbitration work, while Chaffetz and others focus more on insurance, reinsurance and securities disputes, including arbitration in those areas. Lindsey is an active promoter of New York as an arbitral venue and a founding member of the New York Arbitration Club. Hosking, a New Zealander, has co-authored the first stand-alone commentary on the ICDR rules. Both have featured in GAR’s “45 under 45” (Lindsey in 2006 and Hosking in 2011).

A recent addition to the partnership is Swiss-US lawyer Andreas Frischknecht, who has been with the firm since its founding and was promoted in early 2013.

The firm is home to some experienced younger practitioners – including Yasmine Lahlou and Jennifer Gorskie, who were recently promoted to counsel. Formerly of Castaldi Mourre in Paris, Lahlou has a French-Moroccan background and is fluent in English, French, Italian and Arabic. She co-chairs the ABA International Law Section’s Middle East committee.

Gorskie joined from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in 2011 and is treasurer of New York’s new arbitration hearing centre, scheduled to open this summer.

Who uses it?

Ashmore Energy International (AEI) and AES are both long-term clients of the firm. Others include Brazilian private equity fund LAEP Investments, South Korean construction group Samwhan Corporation, Barbados’ Concorde Bank and AIG. The firm has also acted for Delaware-based Excalibur Ventures in an ICC arbitration with the UK’s Gulf Keystone over oil rights in Iraqi Kurdistan – the case has spilled out into the English courts, where the firm is also providing assistance.

The firm also counts some governments and intergovernmental bodies among its clients. Liberia has retained it for a US$750 million ICSID claim brought by a Cayman investor concerning a gold mine. Unusually, Iran has also instructed the firm for two state-to-state claims before the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, the Hague body that is still dealing with the economic fallout of the Iranian revolution of 1979. The firm reckons it’s the first time Iran has turned to US lawyers in the tribunal’s 32-year history.

Chaffetz Lindsey is also a useful referral source for US and non-US firms alike, as well as a decent option to be co-counsel when, as the firm puts it, “you want international arbitration experts but don’t want to engage a big firm that will dominate the matter.”

Track record

One of Chaffetz Lindsey’s European clients won an award at the Netherlands Arbitration Institute worth US$130 million. Impressively, the New York firm was brought in late to the dispute – over a licensing agreement. A multinational was on the other side. Chaffetz Lindsey handled all the New York law aspects of the dispute.

In June 2011, another of the firm’s clients won damages and costs in a post-M&A dispute over a power plant in Pakistan. The case was heard in Singapore under SIAC rules and involved parallel litigation in Singapore, Pakistan and the UK.

Recent events

Frischknecht made partner while Gorskie was promoted to counsel in early 2013. The firm also made two new associate hires: Lisa Vincent, an Australian practitioner who worked at Mallesons Stephen Jaques and then Linklaters; and Andrew Poplinger, who has clerked at the US Court of International Trade and was previously with a litigation boutique.

Brazil’s LAEP Investments recently turned to the firm for an ICC dispute with one of the world’s largest hedge funds. Chaffetz, Lahlou and partner Cecilia Moss are working on that case, which also entails litigation in São Paulo and New York.

Meanwhile, James Hosking is acting as co-counsel to a Korean construction company in an ICDR arbitration arising out of a project in Afghanistan.