Clients turn to Bartlit Beck to represent them in a wide array of international disputes. Whether it's an international arbitration or a complex commercial litigation that requires a sophisticated multi-jurisdictional strategy, Bartlit Beck has the skills and personnel necessary to help clients favorably resolve even the most complex and challenging international disputes.
Bartlit Beck is different than other firms that handle internatonal disputes. Our business model is based on preparing for an international arbitration or trial using lean teams of experienced lawyers who have mastered the case, not on leveraging the hours of large teams of inexperienced associates. We hire just a few lawyers each year, and we insist on hiring only the most qualified candidates.
Since we were founded in 1993 by former Kirkland & Ellis partners, our firm has been at a vanguard of the movement away from hourly billing. We believe that the best outcomes happen when our clients’ incentives are completely aligned with our own – when we are rewarded for results, not hours spent. Unlike other firms, which continue to pay only lip service to alternative fee arrangements, our firm handles 100% of its matters on a non-hourly basis. And we have years of experience doing it. Clients appreciate our firm’s predictable fee structure and know that we are highly motivated to get the best possible result as quickly and cost-efficiently as possible.
Using its unique approach, Bartlit Beck has represented some of the world’s largest multinational companies – companies like Bayer, DuPont, and United Technologies – in high stakes disputes involving a variety of cross-border issues. We also have deep experience representing leading hedge funds, private equity firms, and investors in their international commercial transactions and disputes.
A representative sample of Bartlit Beck's current matters includes:
- A confidential commercial arbitration sited in London, on behalf of multiple U.S. private equity funds, arising out of a $400 million investment in a joint venture in China. Bartlit Beck serves as lead counsel and has worked closely with Chinese co-counsel. The arbitration is ad-hoc under the UNCITRAL rules before a three-member Tribunal.
- A confidential commercial arbitration sited in New York and administered by the ICDR. The dispute arises out of a joint venture agreement between our clients and a French company. The three-member Tribunal will apply New York law.
- Litigation on behalf of American investor George Gillett, a former owner of the Liverpool Football Club in the English Premier League, one of the world’s most valuable sports franchises. The Club was sold to New England Sports Ventures I, the owners of the Boston Red Sox. Proceedings are currently pending in the English High Court of Justice.
- Acting for Sunstar, Inc., a Japanese consumer products manufacturer in ongoing litigation relating to its use of the VO5 trademark in Japan. Bartlit Beck previously won an appeal for Sunstar in the Court of Appeals before Judge Richard Posner, ensuring that Sunstar’s $100 million line of business was protected. Bartlit Beck took over the case from another firm that had lost at trial.