Herbert Smith Freehills LLP (New York)

With thousands of lawyers across 25 global locations, Herbert Smith Freehills is a global legal force. The firm’s main practices include corporate; dispute resolution; finance, real estate, and projects; employment, pensions, and incentives; and competition, regulation, and trade, as well as its Alternative Legal Services division.

U.K. & Aussie Roots with a Growing Big Apple Presence

In 2012, U.K. law firm Herbert Smith combined with Australian firm Freehills, creating what is known today as Herbert Smith Freehills. In that same year, the firm opened its New York office. The firm continues to grow its presence in New York. Today, the firm’s midtown-based office has nearly 50 lawyers who mostly focus on commercial litigation, international arbitration, and investigations—much of its work is cross border in nature. The New York office is home to the firm’s Latin America practice and also boasts a cross-border M&A practice.

While the firm is spread across continents, it subscribes to a “one-firm” mentality. Lawyers can take advantage of international secondments, gaining experience in other offices.

Litigation Muscle

Herbert Smith Freehills is known for its litigation strength, with lawyers leveraging the firm’s international reach to handle complex, cross-border matters. In particular, the firm frequently handles commercial litigation, class actions, financial services litigation matters, and products liability matters.

The firm has a strong international arbitration practice, with experience working in more than 100 countries. Many of the firm’s lawyers have served as arbitrators themselves, providing an insider perspective on the process, and have handled arbitrations under civil law, common law, and public international law. The firm has arbitrated cases involving myriad industries, including energy, manufacturing, financial, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, mining, insurance, real estate, and more.

The firm also has a busy pro bono practice, including its New York office’s work on domestic violence maters. The firm was honored for its work with Sanctuary for Families at the Above & Beyond Awards.

Standing Up for Diversity

Herbert Smith Freehills doesn’t merely talk about diversity and inclusion—it has a strategy in place. The firm’s “Leading for Inclusion” strategy is a comprehensive plan to attract talent, serve its diverse client base, innovate by bringing together various perspectives, and creating a path that enables those in the firm to create an inclusive culture. Among the firm’s diversity networks and committees are Ability, Flexibility, Family, Gender Equity, Iris (Inclusion, Respecting Identity and Sexuality), Multiculturalism, and Veterans.

• Acted as counsel for Chevron Corporation to defend the company against an USD 18 billion sham arbitral award issued against Chevron and Saudi Aramco by a corrupt "arbitration centre" in Cairo, Egypt.
• Advised Hecate Grid on the procurement, construction, and maintenance arrangements for a stand-alone utility scale battery project in Santa Ana, California.
• Retained as trial counsel to represent a plaintiff group of five heirs of an Italian senator in dispute with Christie's, Inc. and other defendants concerning allegations that an extremely rare and precious pink diamond was stolen from them.
• Represented a plaintiff group of eight individual photographers in a dispute with the National Football League and Associated Press.
• Advised in an ICSID arbitral tribunal issued an award dismissing ABCI Investments’ claims against our client, the Republic of Tunisia, for over USD 12 billion. Instead, the Tribunal ordered compensation in the purely nominal amount of around USD 300,000 (namely 0.003% of the amounts claimed). The dispute arose from the privatization of the Banque Franco-Tunisienne in the 1980s and ABCI Investment’s participation in the bank.

• Water Deal of the Year - Desalination - Latin America - IJ Global, 2024 - “Codelco Water Supply” project
• Ranked in Tier 3 in Banking and Finance - Legal 500 Latin America, 2024 - International Firms
• Ranked in Tier 3 in Project Finance - Legal 500 Latin America, 2024 - International Firms
• Ranked in Band 3 in International Arbitration - Chambers and Partners Latin America, 2024 - International Counsel
• Ranked in the Top 5 in the world (5th place) - GAR 30, 2024