Litigation
Judgment and Arbitral Award Enforcement
Gibson Dunn is a leader in global judgment and arbitral award enforcement, providing successful strategies and creative solutions for both creditors and debtors.
60+ lawyers across 12 offices worldwide
Secured one of the largest enforcement victories ever against a sovereign debtor and multibillion-dollar settlement in decade-long litigation against foreign sovereign
Our lawyers have been recognized for obtaining results where others have failed or where the issues are of first impression
Defeated efforts to recognize a sham $18 billion arbitral award against Chevron in what The Wall Street Journal called the legal “fraud of the century”
Overview
Gibson Dunn is a leader in global judgment and arbitral award enforcement, renowned for its expertise in enforcing and defending judgments and arbitral awards worldwide.
The team excels in navigating complex cross-border legal challenges, leveraging deep knowledge of international arbitration and litigation to secure favorable outcomes for clients. With a track record of success in high-stakes enforcement actions, the practice is distinguished by its strategic approach and ability to handle intricate legal and procedural issues, ensuring that clients’ rights and interests are effectively protected and advanced.
Strategic Expertise and Innovative Solutions
Gibson Dunn has substantial experience crafting creative and highly effective global enforcement strategies. Our approach involves a thorough analysis of the judgment debtor’s business, assets, and financial conditions, utilizing both publicly available information and insights from trusted global investigators. We then develop the most effective course of enforcement, including both prejudgment and post-judgment actions in multiple jurisdictions. Additionally, we excel at defending companies and individuals against fraudulent arbitration awards and foreign judgments, exposing massive frauds and corporate shakedown attempts in the process.
Integrated Litigation Strategies
Our enforcement strategies are integrated from start to finish. We begin working towards enforcing an arbitral award or judgment at the inception of the dispute process, not just once an award or judgment has been issued. We routinely collaborate with counsel—whether within Gibson Dunn’s international arbitration group, transnational litigation practice, or outside the firm—to plot an enforcement strategy that will realize our client’s anticipated award. Utilizing tools such as prejudgment attachments, fraudulent transfer actions, and 28 U.S.C. § 1782 discovery petitions, we have successfully secured billions of dollars in judgments and arbitral awards that many deemed unrecoverable.
Recognized Achievements
Our lawyers have been recognized for obtaining results where others have failed or where the issues are of first impression. For instance, Robert Weigel, co-chair of our group, was named Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer’s Am Law Litigation Daily for securing one of the largest enforcement victories against a sovereign debtor on behalf of Crystallex. This victory helped Crystallex become the first judgment creditor of Venezuela to obtain judicial authorization to attach key U.S.-based assets. This work contributed to Gibson Dunn being named The American Lawyer’s 2020 Litigation Department of the Year.
Matt McGill, the group’s other co-chair, represented NML Capital in its decade-long litigation against the Republic of Argentina, which The Financial Times called “the trial of the century in sovereign debt restructuring.” Mr. McGill won a significant victory before the U.S. Supreme Court, confirming the availability of discovery in aid of enforcement of money judgments against foreign sovereigns, leading to NML’s multibillion-dollar settlement.
Gibson Dunn has also been lauded for its representation of Chevron Corporation in its successful RICO suit against the purveyors of what The Wall Street Journal called the legal “fraud of the century,” exposing a $9.2 billion Ecuadorian judgment as the product of fraud and bribery. Recently, our lawyers were again named Litigators of the Week for defeating efforts to recognize a sham $18 billion arbitral award against Chevron Corporation and Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
Global Team
The strength of our group extends beyond its co-chairs. Gibson Dunn has premier enforcement-focused practitioners across the world, including in the United States, London, Paris, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Our team members have been at the forefront of major cases that have shaped judgment and arbitral award enforcement law globally.
“Gibson is a top firm for global, multi-jurisdictional enforcement work.”
Chambers Litigation Support Guide
Experience
Recent representations include:
- NML Capital: Represented NML Capital in its effort to collect on judgments on defaulted sovereign bonds, which, after years of litigation at all levels of the U.S. court system, resulted in a multibillion-dollar settlement in favor of our client.
- Various Gas Companies: Represented Pearl Petroleum, Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas in enforcing $2 billion in arbitral awards against Kurdistan. After initiating enforcement proceedings in multiple jurisdictions, including in the U.S., the U.K., and the Dubai International Financial Centre, the clients succeeded in recovering a substantial cash settlement, along with additional contract concessions.
- Yukos Capital: Represented Yukos Capital S.a.r.l. in a complex, decade-long battle arising out of the Russian government’s expropriation of the multibillion-dollar Yukos Oil Company. Using coordinated parallel enforcement proceedings in the U.S., the Netherlands, Ireland, Singapore and the U.K., Gibson Dunn obtained a prejudgment attachment resulting in a $420 million payment in one action, and secured a $186 million judgment confirming an arbitral award in another — which Gibson Dunn leveraged into a successful global settlement of our client’s claims.
- Chevron Corporation: Represented Chevron Corporation in its successful RICO suit against Steven Donziger and certain plaintiffs, resulting in the judicial finding that a $9.5 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron was procured through fraud and bribery, in what The Wall Street Journal called the legal “fraud of the century.”
- Owens Plaintiffs: Won a $5.2 billion default judgment against the Taliban for its role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, awarding substantial damages to 197 victims and their families, and marking the first accountability for the Taliban in this case.
- Nike, Inc. and Converse, Inc.: Secured a $3.388 billion judgment for Nike Inc. and Converse Inc. against over 600 defendants involved in counterfeiting, freezing and garnishing their accounts, shutting down nearly 700 counterfeit websites, and retrieving domain names with the trademarks of its clients.
- Opati v. Republic of Sudan: Successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of victims of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and secured a ruling that “unanimously reinstated as much as $4.3 billion in punitive damages awarded against Sudan” (The New York Times). Gibson Dunn then worked to broker a settlement between the United States and Sudan on behalf of the attack victims, pursuant to which Sudan paid $335 million in exchange for legislation extinguishing Sudan’s obligations to bombing victims, which was signed into law in December 2020.
- Chevron Corporation: Represented Chevron Corporation and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. in their successful defeat of a petition before the federal court in the Northern District of California to enforce a sham $18 billion award procured before a suspect arbitral institution in Egypt.
- Tethyan Copper Company Limited: Commenced proceedings in the British Virgin Islands, Washington, D.C. and New York to enforce Tethyan Copper Company Limited’s $6 billion arbitral award against Pakistan, resulting in a multi-billion dollar settlement.
- ArcelorMittal: Won motions in actions in New York, London and the Cayman Islands resulting in a successful settlement of ArcelorMittal’s $1.3 billion arbitral award against Essar Steel.
- Hotel 71: Obtained a $50 million prejudgment attachment for Hotel 71 over the defendant’s interest in multiple out-of-state LLCs and successfully defended the attachment in a landmark decision in New York State’s Court of Appeals.
- Sea Search Armada: Representation of Sea Search Armada in a $9 billion claim against Colombia under the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement in relation to Colombia’s expropriation of its investment relating to the San Jose Galleon.
Practice Leaders
News & Insights
Client Alert
UK and Australian Courts Confirm No Sovereign Immunity from Recognition of ICSID Arbitral Awards Against Sovereign States
Client Alert
A Major Leap Towards Reciprocity in the Enforcement of Judgments Between the English and Dubai Courts
Client Alert
D.C. Circuit Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act Enforcement Update (September 2022)