WilmerHale is pleased to announce that two of its London-based partners have been recognized as among the world’s leading lawyers for International Commercial Arbitration in the 2007 edition of Best of the Best—a guide to preeminent practitioners published by the Legal Media Group. Gary Born and Franz Schwarz are two out of only eight lawyers in London selected for this honor and only 32 worldwide. No other firm garnered more recognitions for International Commercial Arbitration in the 2007 edition of Best of the Best. Both Mr. Born and Mr. Schwarz are widely recognized for their contributions to the field, having numerous honors and awards between them.
Gary Born chairs WilmerHale’s 70-lawyer International Arbitration practice. He is uniformly ranked by Euromoney, Chambers, and Legal 500 as a leading practitioner in his field. Mr. Born has participated in more than 500 international arbitrations, including four of the largest ICC arbitrations and several of the most significant ad hoc arbitrations in recent history. He has represented European, US, Asian and other companies in arbitrations under all leading institutional rules and in ad hoc arbitrations in all leading international situses. He has particular experience in joint venture, investor-state, M&A, investment banking and other financial services, project finance, intellectual property and insurance disputes. Mr. Born is also one of the world’s leading authorities on international commercial arbitration and international litigation, and has authored several of the leading commentaries in the field, including, most recently, International Commercial Arbitration (3d ed. forthcoming 2007 Kluwer) and International Civil Litigation in United States Courts (4th ed. 2006 Aspen).
Franz Schwarz, an Austrian qualified lawyer, is a partner in the firm’s International Arbitration practice and resident in the London office. Mr. Schwarz has wide experience with arbitral practice and procedure in both civil and common law systems, both as counsel and arbitrator. Mr. Schwarz focuses on complex multi-jurisdictional disputes, with particular emphasis on joint venture, M&A, financial services, project finance, as well as commercial and corporate disputes, and on the protection of foreign investments under bilateral investment treaties and similar instruments. Mr. Schwarz teaches international arbitration at Zurich University and has written extensively on arbitration law. Recently he co-authored of The Vienna Rules – A Commentary on International Commercial Arbitration in Austria (forthcoming with Kluwer).
WilmerHale features one of the most varied and successful arbitration practices of its kind, recently described by Chambers Global as “renowned the world over as a centre of excellence.” Its 70 members come from a variety of backgrounds in law and academia, both from civil law and common law jurisdictions.
Legal Media Group is a Euromoney Institutional Investor company. Best of the Best is an international guide to the world’s leading lawyers. Researchers for the guide are in touch with over 30,000 in-house counsel and private practice lawyers in more than 90 countries to have them identify the “Best of the Best” in the legal industry.