Professional notice
The Austrian firm saw some team members depart to set up a rival boutique
| People in Who’s Who Legal | 2 |
|---|---|
| People in Future Leaders | 3 |
| Pending cases as counsel | 10 |
| Value of pending counsel work | US$1.5 billion |
| Treaty cases as counsel | 0 |
| Current arbitrator appointments | 9 (3 as chair or sole) |
| Lawyers sitting as arbitrator | 2 |
Christian Konrad founded this Vienna boutique after leaving Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2009.
Konrad’s practice has an emphasis on engineering, construction and energy infrastructure cases, as well as public international law. He sits as an arbitrator and is on the panels of various arbitral institutions in the Czech Republic, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iceland and the Netherlands. He’s also a co-founder of the organisation Young Austrian Arbitration Practitioners, and an academic adviser for a specialised LLM in dispute resolution at Austria’s Danube University.
His team includes special counsel Manfred Heider (who previously spent nearly two decades at the Vienna International Arbitration Centre, where he oversaw two sets of revisions to the centre’s rules as secretary general and helped with a major reform to Austrian arbitration law) and counsel Peter Rižnik, who joined in 2017.
Philipp Peters, who had been a partner since 2012, left the firm with a team at the start of 2022 to launch a new boutique (see below).
Network
Since its founding in Vienna, the firm has opened additional offices in London, Prague, Bratislava and Skopje, North Macedonia. It has a particularly strong practice in Central, South and Eastern Europe.
Track record
Highlights include defending an Austrian engineering client in a Vienna Rules arbitration over a refurbishment project in South Africa; and helping the owners of a pharmaceuticals company prevail in a US$255 million post-M&A dispute under Austrian law.
The firm has represented an Austrian investor against English and Scottish private equity firms in a dispute over profit distributions; an international bank in a dispute with an Austrian debtor that included enforcement of interim measures; and an Austrian manufacturer in a warranty case over construction defects.
Recent events
Partner Philipp Peters left the firm at the start of 2022 to co-found a disputes boutique in Vienna, Peters Ortner Partners. He took a team with him from Konrad Partners including counsel Martin Hackl and Michael Hofstätter, who joined the new firm as partners.
Konrad Partners is representing a global player in the field of construction and operation of healthcare facilities in an ICC arbitration against an African state in connection with several hospital management agreements.
It is advising an industrial dryer manufacturer in an ICC sales contract dispute; a supplier in an ICC case relating to a power plant project; a global insurance company in two LCIA arbitrations; and a high-net-worth individual in a dispute over a share purchase agreement.
Konrad is sitting on the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR and the ICC task force on emergency arbitrator proceedings.
Konrad Partners is a specialized international law firm delivering premier legal services in all areas of international dispute resolution, with a particular focus on arbitration and investment protection.
Over the years, we have advised and represented large private and state-owned companies, states and state agencies and international investors.
The firm’s internationally recognised lawyers are qualified in multiple jurisdictions and have extensive expertise in handling high-profile arbitration cases both as advocates and as arbitrators in ad hoc and institutional proceedings.
Our lawyers’ collective experience in the public and private sectors enable us to respond to our clients’ immediate commercial needs – both nuanced and complex – while keeping in mind their long-term goals. The team integrates comprehensive legal expertise, commercial understanding, and technical industry knowledge to successfully handle disputes across all key sectors, including construction and engineering, energy and natural resources, licensing, distribution and agency, infrastructure, bilateral investment treaties, post-M&A, pharmaceuticals, and insurance and reinsurance.
Our team of lawyers regularly advise clients throughout the lifecycle of a project or dispute, from negotiating and drafting a contract through to claims management and mediation and, ultimately, arbitration and litigation, including enforcement of arbitral awards and court judgments.