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April 2014 – Chaffetz Lindsey has been nominated once again for the Chambers USA Awards for Excellence for International Arbitration Team of the Year and Insurance Team of the Year. The awards, to be announced in May 2014, reflect a firm’s pre-eminence in particular practice areas. The firm has been nominated for three years in a row for the International Arbitration category.
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February 2014 – Chaffetz Lindsey is proud to announce that Steve Schwartz has joined us as a lateral partner and that we have promoted Jennifer Gorskie from counsel to partner.
Steve is a widely respected expert in insurance and reinsurance law with broad trial and arbitration experience. He was most recently a partner at Locke Lord, and previously a partner at Clifford Chance, where he worked closely with what is now the Chaffetz Lindsey insurance and reinsurance team. In addition to his active practice as a trial lawyer, Steve is the author of Reinsurance Law: An Analytic Approach, an industry standard treatise. He also publishes and lectures frequently on legal and market issues. Steve is well known to many of our clients and contacts in the insurance and reinsurance industry, and we are extremely happy to be working together again.
Jennifer is a gifted and dynamic lawyer who has played an important role in the firm’s development. Jennifer joined the firm in early 2011 from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, deepening the firm’s capability in international commercial and investment treaty arbitration and U.S. commercial litigation and arbitration. Fluent in Spanish, Jennifer has extensive experience representing sovereigns and companies based in and investing in Latin America. Since joining us, Jennifer has been a key senior lawyer on some of our largest matters, including several international arbitration matters and a number of large reinsurance cases. Jennifer is an up and coming leader in the arbitration legal community. In addition to speaking and writing regularly on arbitration law and practice, Jennifer serves as a board member and Treasurer of the New York International Arbitration Center.
We’re excited about these two important developments, which will solidify and expand the great client relationships we have been building since we opened our firm in 2009.
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January 2014 – Chaffetz Lindsey has submitted an amicus brief in support of a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States in Walia v. Dewan (4th Cir. Oct. 28, 2013-4th Cir), a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, addressing the “manifest disregard of the law” doctrine. The brief, a joint effort by Chaffetz Lindsey and Professor George Bermann of Columbia Law School, the Chief Reporter for the Restatement (Third) of International Commercial Arbitration, was submitted on behalf of a group of esteemed practitioners and professors of arbitration law. In Walia, the Fourth Circuit vacated an arbitration award issued in a non-domestic arbitration between a US employer and its Canadian employee, based on its finding that the arbitrator had “manifestly disregarded the law” by interpreting the parties’ contract in a manner which the Fourth Circuit viewed as untenable. The Canadian employee petitioned the Supreme Court to reverse the Fourth Circuit decision and, in doing so, resolve the entrenched circuit split over whether manifest disregard is a proper basis for vacatur. The amicus brief urges the Supreme Court to grant certiorari to resolve the deep circuit divide over the proper use of the manifest disregard doctrine and to correct the Fourth Circuit’s overly broad application of the doctrine in this case. The brief stresses the impact manifest disregard has on the United States’ preeminence as a seat for international arbitration.
The team who worked on the brief included David Lindsey, James Hosking, Jennifer Gorskie and Yujing Yue, all of whom are active members of the New York arbitration community. Chaffetz Lindsey is a founding member of the New York International Arbitration Center, which seeks to cement New York City’s role as a leading home for arbitration. Please contact any of them for more information about this case.
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January 2014 – We have been closely following yesterday’s decision by the United States Supreme Court in Daimler AG v. Bauman, which sharply limits the extent to which U.S. courts may exercise personal jurisdiction over foreign corporations in disputes arising from their activities outside the United States. Prior to this ruling, U.S. courts have often applied a more lenient test for personal jurisdiction in such cases. The breadth of the Court’s ruling has surprised many, and its likely effect will be to limit the exposure of foreign corporations with operations in the U.S. to claims arising from their non-U.S. activities.
For further analysis of the decision, please see our case memo.
If you would like further details about this decision, please contact Andreas Frischknecht.
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March 2012 – Global Arbitration Review, one of the world’s leading publications on international arbitration developments, comments on the Firm’s recent promotions of Andreas Frischknecht and Yasmine Lahlou. Andy and Yasmine were promoted to Counsel earlier this year in recognition of their contibution to the firm’s growth. Please click here to read the full article.
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March 2012 – The partners of Chaffetz Lindsey are pleased to announce the promotions of Andreas Frischknecht and Yasmine Lahlou to Counsel. Please click here to learn more about these promotions.
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January 2012 – Chaffetz Lindsey is pleased to announce that Senior Associates Andreas (Andy) Frischknecht and Yasmine Lahlou have been named Counsel to the firm.
Andy has been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and previously practiced at Clifford Chance US LLP and Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP for over six years. Andy’s practice includes a broad range of complex commercial disputes, both in international arbitration and in federal and state court litigation. Andy graduated magna cum laude with a degree in law from the University of Bern, Switzerland and holds an LL.M. degree from New York University Law School. His recent publications include an article discussing privilege and confidentiality considerations in third party funding for an October 2011 Special Issue of Transnational Dispute Management (TDM). Andy has dual Swiss-American citizenship and is a bilingual English and German speaker.
Yasmine joined Chaffetz Lindsey in July 2009. She previously practiced in Paris for over five years at Castaldi Mourre & Partners and at Clifford Chance US in New York for four years. Yasmine’s practice focuses on international commercial arbitration and litigation. Yasmine obtained a Maîtrise en Droit from Paris X Nanterre University with honors and attended a graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin Law School. Yasmine currently serves as a co-chair of the Middle East Committee of the ABA Section of International Law. She has American, French and Moroccan citizenships, and is fluent in English, French and Italian.
Please click here to learn more about these promotions.
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August 2011 – As reported in the August 2011 issue of the Harris Martin Reinsurance Litigation Report, Chaffetz Lindsey’s client Lexington Insurance Company recently won a complete summary judgment against its reinsurer Clearwater Insurance Company in a dispute over the allocation of a mass tort asbestos settlement. Suffolk County (MA) Superior Court Judge Janet L. Sanders granted summary judgment to Lexington, finding that absent any evidence of bad faith, the “follow the settlements” or “follow the fortunes” doctrine required Clearwater to follow Lexington’s allocation of its loss payment. For the full article, please see here.
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August 2011 – After completing the renovation of its new office space, Chaffetz Lindsey has relocated to 505 Fifth Avenue, as of August 1, 2011. While its old premises at 1350 Avenue of the Americas provided a perfect platform for launching the firm in May 2009, subsequent growth made a move inevitable.
After looking at various options, the firm’s partners decided to stay in Midtown and to relocate to a space that provided room for further expansion. Gregg Espach and Douglas Levine of UGL Services – Equis Operations aided the firm in finding the new space. The office is convenient for New York-based clients and is close to several hotels for international visitors.
505 Fifth Avenue is located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, diagonally across from the New York Public Library and Bryant Park. Information about the building is available here. Please click here for directions to the new office.
All other contact information for the firm remains unchanged.
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December 2009 — Our administrative and paralegal staff has grown since we launched in May 2009 with two staff members. The team now includes Douglas Gibson, Amy Wilkins, Andrew Schlesinger, Sophia Mutungi, and Pamela Schwartz:
Douglas Gibson, our Firm Administrator and Paralegal Manager, is an original member of the Chaffetz Lindsey team. Doug has more than 15 years of law firm experience. He spent 6 years as a case manager at Clifford Chance and prior to that he was with Herrick Feinstein LLP and White and Case LLP. Doug received a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Washington. He received an M.A. from Columbia University in Anthropology.
Amy Wilkins also joined the firm when we opened. Amy joined after more than 8 ½ years at Clifford Chance. She has more than 12 years experience as a legal secretary and paralegal. She received her Associates Degree in Applied Science, Paralegal Technology, from Brookdale Community College.
Andrew Schlesinger joined the firm in May 2009. Andy graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University in 2008, where he received the David B. Truman Alumni Award and earned Honorable Mention in the competition for the Louis Sudler Prize in Arts. Andy graduated with B.A. degrees in both Urban Studies (Economics Specialization) and Creative Writing.
Sophia Mutungi joined Chaffetz Lindsey in December 2009. Sophie grew up in Kenya and moved to the United States in 2000. She graduated from Smith College in May 2009 with a Major in Government (Concentration in International Relations and Comparative Politics) and a Minor in Sociology.
Pamela Schwartz also joined us in December 2009. Pam graduated with a dual major in English and History from New York University in May 2009. She was a paralegal assistant at Morrison & Foerster, LLP just prior to joining Chaffetz Lindsey. She has worked as a Court Observer for the Detainee Working Group of the NYU National Lawyers Guild.
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July 2010 – Chaffetz Lindsey is pleased to announce the addition of two new associates: Boris Ayala and Erin Valentine.
Boris Ayala joins Chaffetz Lindsey from Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, where he worked as a litigation associate since October 2006. Boris has substantial experience representing clients in complex litigation matters. Prior to law school, from 1999 through 2003, he worked in various positions at the United Nations. Boris is fluent in French and Spanish. He is a 2006 graduate of New York University Law School, where he was a Notes Editor of the New York University Law Review. He graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1999.
Erin Valentine was previously an associate with the International Justice Network, where she represented clients in habeas proceedings at both the trial and appellate court level. Erin was a summer associate with Clifford Chance LLP. She graduated in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was a James Wilson Scholar, a Senior Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, and the recipient of the Blank Rome Alvin Ackerman Prize. Erin graduated in 2004 from the University of California – Irvine.
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July 2011 – Chaffetz Lindsey associate Matthew Draper has been appointed a member of the Steering Committee of the Young Arbitrators Forum (YAF), a division of the Arbitration Committee of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB). Matthew and other members of the YAF Steering Committee focus on developing programs for young arbitration professionals (40 years and under) to enhance their arbitration skills, learn from experienced practitioners and explore current issues in international arbitration
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