Kathryn, a partner in the Paris office, acts for corporate clients and States in all types of disputes. She is particularly sought after in high value disputes that raise complex issues of fact and law.
Clients have commended Kathryn’s “grasp of the technical detail, and her ability to identify and articulate game changing arguments”. She is recommended by Chambers, Who’s Who Legal, and The Legal 500.
Kathryn also sits as arbitrator, and was recently appointed to the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators, and will serve a six-year term. She has lectured and published extensively on questions of international arbitration and public international law, including most recently on the subject of emissions trading schemes.
Prior to entering private practice, Kathryn was a Legal Advisor to the Prime Minister of East Timor (Timor-Leste), based in East Timor, coordinating East Timor’s negotiations with Australia over maritime boundaries and the drafting of a new regime for petroleum investments. Kathryn has also worked with the International Development Law Organization in Kabul, Afghanistan, and with Columbia Law School and the Carter Center in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kathryn, who speaks English and French, is admitted in Paris, New York, and Ontario. She holds an A.B from Harvard, LLB and BCL degrees from McGill, and an LLM from Columbia (where she was a James Kent Scholar).
Bar and court admissions
Languages
English
French
“An excellent and very dynamic player in the market”
Who’s Who Legal
Representing three ENI subsidiaries in an ICSID arbitration against the Federal Republic of Nigeria arising out the State’s refusal to grant an oil mining license to allow production to proceed in Nigeria’s deep offshore. The case involves allegations of corruption. $2.5 billion is at stake
Representing the Kingdom of Bahrain in a €180 million claim by French company CNIM relating to a renewable energy sector investment that raised issues of project finance and environmental legislation, as well as in related proceedings before the French courts.
Representing an Emirati-Algerian energy generation company in a $100 million ICC claim against an Algerian State-owned company
Representing Areva and Siemens in an ICC dispute against a Finnish utility company, TVO, to the OL3 nuclear power plant in Finland – the first third-generation nuclear plant to be built in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster. The dispute involved claims and counterclaims totalling in excess of €5.5 billion and presented extraordinarily complex design, regulatory, delay, and quantification issues. The dispute settled on favourable terms
Representing a consortium of oil majors in a multibillion-dollar dispute with a Central Asian State over a complex formula for the sharing of petroleum under a production sharing contract
“Extremely responsive, very personable and she has a wonderful ability to cut through the complexities of a difficult case to make it more digestible”
Chambers France
“An exceptional advocate who is excellent in public international law matters”
Who's Who Legal
- Columbia University School of Law, LL.M., James Kent Scholar
- McGill University, LL.B./B.C.L.
- Harvard University, A.B.