Energy Disputes
Our international energy disputes team is comprised of lawyers who assist clients with both contentious and non-contentious matters in the upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas and power sectors.
Our oil and gas trial and arbitration lawyers focus on contract formation, project and operations advice, and dispute resolution for clients globally, including offshore construction disputes often involving significant technical content. Additionally, our team has represented clients in judicial and administrative proceedings involving a wide variety of issues, including leasehold and surface use disputes; royalty payment issues concerning crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; joint operating and participation agreement disputes and taxation issues; gas sales agreements, processing agreements, asset purchase agreements, drilling issues; personal injury actions; challenges to municipal regulation of oil and gas development; coal bed methane issues; and storage rights disputes.
Our clients include top tier oilfield services, engineering, technology and drilling contractors, FPSO owners and operators, and independent oil companies.
We are actively engaged in dispute avoidance and are regularly involved in a range of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including mediation, mini-trial, or bespoke forms of structured negotiations.
We have acted on some of the world’s largest, highest-profile, and most complex international arbitrations in this sector. Our experience includes successful results in arbitral proceedings in the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe, Latin America, Australia, and Asia under all major international arbitration rules, including those of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, International Chamber of Commerce, International Centre for Dispute Resolution, Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Santiago Arbitration and Mediation Center, London Court of International Arbitration, German Institute for Arbitration, Singapore International Arbitration Centre, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, and China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission.
We also have a proven track record in ad hoc arbitrations under the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Rules and with investment treaty cases under Multilateral and Bilateral Investment Treaties acting on behalf of both investors and respondent sovereign states. Our prominent arbitration practice has been recognized by publications such as the Global Arbitration Review, Legal 500, and Chambers.
Thought Leadership
On 30 January 2024, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule (Final Rule) increasing the premium processing fee from US$2,500 to US$2,805, increasing filing fees for I-129 and I-140 employment-based petitions, and imposing a new Asylum Program Fee for each Form I-129 and I-140 filed by employers.
On 3 April 2024, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced the first settlement with a stand-alone registered investment adviser for, among other things, failures to maintain and preserve certain electronic communications.
On 22 December 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amendments (the final rule) to Rule 206(4)-1 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the Advisers Act) to modernize the regulation of investment adviser advertising and solicitation practices.
On 7 March 2024, the Illinois Pollution Control Board proposed amendments to its Ground Water Quality regulations, which would set standards for selected per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances compounds at or near their levels of detection and would result in some of the most stringent standards in the country.