People

Rachael D. Kent

Partner

Vice Chair, International Arbitration Practice Group

Kent, Rachael D.

Rachael Kent is a partner in the firm's Litigation/Controversy Department, and a vice chair of the International Arbitration Practice Group. She joined the firm in 1998.

Practice

Ms. Kent represents clients in a wide variety of commercial and investment disputes in arbitration proceedings, under numerous substantive and procedural governing laws. Her experience includes ad hoc and institutional arbitrations, seated in both common law and civil law jurisdictions, including Bermuda, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, New York, Paris, The Hague, Vienna and Zurich.

Ms. Kent also has experience with the taking of evidence in foreign jurisdictions in connection with international litigation and arbitration proceedings. Ms. Kent is now resident in the firm's Washington DC office. She previously spent five years based in the firm's London office.

Honors & Awards

  • Ranked in the 2013 edition of Chambers Global for her international arbitration practice
  • Recognized as a national leader in the international arbitration field in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers in Business
  • Named to the Americas Women in Business Law Awards 2012 and 2013 "Best in Commercial Arbitration" shortlist by Euromoney Legal Media Group 
  • Recommended in the Euromoney Guide to the World's Leading Experts in International Arbitration and Global Arbitration Review’s Who’s Who in International Arbitration
  • Recognized by her peers as one of the world's leading experts in commercial arbitration in Legal Media Group's The Best of the Best
  • Selected by peers for inclusion in the 2012 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the practice area of International Arbitration
  • Named a leading practitioner in Expert Guides' Guide to the World's Leading Women in Business Law

Recent Highlights

Ms. Kent has recently represented a leading pharmaceutical company in an arbitration seated in Switzerland involving an intellectual property license; a leading global retail company in an arbitration seated in Hong Kong arising out of an M&A transaction; a US company in an investment arbitration against a Latin American state; a leading US financial services company in arbitrations seated in Bermuda under excess coverage policies; a large European telecommunications company in arbitrations seated in Vienna involving the ownership of an Eastern European joint venture company; a major global manufacturing company in an arbitration of an M&A dispute seated in Hong Kong; a leading manufacturing company in an ad hoc arbitration seated in London involving disputes under a manufacturing supply agreement; and a leading manufacturing company in an arbitration seated in Zurich involving an intellectual property license.

Professional Activities

Ms. Kent teaches International Commercial Arbitration at the Duke University School of Law, and she has taught at the Pepperdine University School of Law, London program. She frequently speaks and writes on topics related to international arbitration.

Practices

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Education

JD, magna cum laude, Duke University, 1998, Order of the Coif

BA, Georgetown University, 1995

Bar Admissions

District of Columbia

Maryland