Cadwalader lays claim to extensive experience in an area of practice that our litigators actually had a hand in creating and naming:  International litigation and dispute resolution.  We are among the handful of firms worldwide that maintain a practice group focused on both the litigation of international disputes as well as on alternate means of resolving international controversies, such an international arbitrations.  Devoting a separate practice group to this area recognizes both the increased globalization of our clients' businesses and the often special issues, challenges, and opportunities that arise in matters affecting controversies touching multiple sovereign jurisdictions. 

Our International Litigation and Dispute Resolution group brings together the talents of highly experienced lawyers with international reputations and unparalleled trial and advocacy skills.  Chambers, for example, specifically records that the practice group head is "particularly prized for his strong international litigation experience".   Through our practice group we provide clients doing business within and across national borders with the perspective and talent required successfully to protect their interests.  We advise and represent clients in all types of complex international commercial and business controversies, including those relating to leading multinationals, sovereigns, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations.  These controversies include jurisdictional, procedural, and substantive issues that arise in multijurisdictional and transnational civil and commercial disputes.

In recognition of the fact that globalization has exposed gaps in legal protection and has encouraged new means of redress, we created the Cadwalader On-Line International Law and Litigation Center. This on-line hub provides in-depth information and perspective on topics and trends in international law and litigation practice through a regularly updated eBook, a practitioner's Blog, current news in law and practice and unique insight from the vantage of highly accomplished specialists actively participating in the development of law and policy in the field of international, transnational, or cross-border business controversies. More information can be found at www.internationalpractice.org.

Our team has broad experience in representing U.S. clients in litigation pending in countries or involving property or law outside the United States, international clients in complex disputes before U.S. federal and state courts, and U.S. and non-U.S. parties in foreign and domestic arbitration tribunals and regulatory agencies in the U.S. and in Europe.  We are experienced in counseling non-U.S. clients on the jurisdictional reach of U.S. courts, the application abroad of U.S. laws and practices, the application of U.S. federal and state discovery procedures to international disputes, settlement strategies, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and the recognition and enforcement of U.S. and non-U.S. judgments under treaties and statutes. 

Although many cases entail Cadwalader lawyers appearing before U.S.  and non-U.S. courts of law, a significant portion of our practice involves counseling and advocacy outside the courtroom.  With increasing frequency, we help clients to resolve disputes without proceeding to litigation and its attendant cost and publicity-through arbitration, mediation, and, in advocacy before  regulatory and government agencies and officials.  In this regard, our litigators act as counsel, as well as arbitrators and mediators, under many of the major arbitration conventions and rules.  We have participated in proceedings under multiple regimes, including all of the major tribunals in the United States as well as, for example, UNCITRAL, ICC, LCIA and SIAC, and WIPO.

Many of our lawyers have been appointed to serve as mediators, arbitrators, Special Masters, and neutral panelists, mediating and attempting to achieve settlements in alternative dispute resolution procedures.  The firm is also a member of numerous organizations, including the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution and the Center for Public Resources, that spearhead innovation in the avoidance, management and resolution of multinational business-related and other disputes.

Our geographical reach extends to international cases involving numerous EU countries, Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Russia, with an even wider breadth of geographical experience in connection with arbitrated matters.  In those cases that require highly specialized local expertise or the use of counsel licensed in a jurisdiction in which Cadwalader attorneys do not practice, we rely on our extensive connections and long-established relationships in the legal community worldwide to select appropriate counsel with whom we would coordinate.

In addition to working with clients to resolve disputes in and out of the courts, we assist our clients in employing preventative measures, such as structuring corporate-wide strategic and cost-efficient arbitration/dispute resolution programs as well as in drafting arbitration clauses for particular international commercial contracts.  

International Litigations include, for example:

• Litigation in the U.S. and in Argentina on behalf of creditors in multinational proceedings in a precedent-setting ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit involving the reach of forum selection clauses
• Litigation representing one of the world's leading museums in a lawsuit by the heirs of Weimar-era artist George Grosz to recover three of his works.
• Litigation representing a putative owner of the world famous Brancusi sculpture, Miss Pogany, in his efforts, in at least five countries, to obtain possession of the sculpture.
• Litigation concerning the reach of the U.S. securities laws in the context of contested non-U.S. restructuring proceedings. Here we made new law in the area of how should the securities laws be interpreted.
• Litigation on behalf of a world-leading manufacturer of beverage products in breach of contract and tort claims in the U.S. as well as in numerous other countries.
• International litigation and parallel enforcement proceedings involving international chip/mass storage company.
• Litigation involving the courts of the U.S. and Peru, including three precedent-setting decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals concerning "comity"
• Litigation concerning 28 U.S.C. Section 1782, including seminal case in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
• Litigation and dispute resolution concerning our Chinese client involving a rare-mineral mine in South Africa.
• Litigation concerning the reach of U.S. copyright laws to non-U.S. claimants, as well as the remedies available in such cases.
• Leading forum non conveniens decision concerning claims under federal law (securities, RICO) by non-U.S. claimants in U.S. courts.

International Arbitrations include, for example:

• A multinational manufacturing corporation in arbitration before a three-member AAA panel involving environmental liabilities stemming from sale of chemical manufacturing business.
• One of the largest publicly traded fuel tanker companies in the world, in successfully resolving commercial disputes before a maritime arbitration panel involving a non-U.S. ship builder.
• A life and annuity reinsurance company operating in North America, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region in arbitration involving the reinsurance of annuity products.
• Holders of U.S. and European patents in confidential arbitrations trials for patent infringements under the rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
• A Belgium-based international financial institution in prosecuting arbitration claims against a state-owned Indonesian insurance company before a Singapore International Arbitration Center panel.
• A leading mutual life insurance company in arbitration before a three-member panel arising out of the termination of its CEO and claims of breach of fiduciary duty, self-dealing and other misconduct.
• A French financial firm in arbitration arising out of the termination of the head of an office.
• Several Liechtenstein Anstalts with manufacturing, import, construction and distribution businesses in Europe, the Middle East and the United States in resolving complex contract disputes pending in New York, London and Geneva, involving the successfully invocation of provisions of the Federal Arbitration Act and the New York Convention to refer the disputes to arbitration in Switzerland.
• A manufacturing company in an arbitration involving the Asia North America Eastbound Rate Agreement.
• A Belgian retail bank in an arbitration with a global insurance company regarding bond defaults.
• The developer of renewable energy facilities in an arbitration regarding the development of a facility in Malaysia.
• A Canadian supermarket chain in a 41-day arbitration regarding renewal rent under leases.

An American insurance company against the Iranian Government before the Iran U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague, obtaining an award for the full amount of the U.S. insurer's investment in a nationalized Iranian insurance company.