Ghislaine Lawless is an associate in Kirkland & Ellis International LLP’s International Arbitration and Litigation Practice Group in London.
Experience
Representative Matters
Since joining Kirkland, Ghislaine has worked on the following matters:
Representing a multinational pharma company in US$500m Belgian law ICC arbitration arising out of defendant’s allegedly wrongful refusal to submit test data to regulators. Also representing the company in a Swiss law ICC arbitration arising out of defendant’s breaches of an exclusive license agreement.
Advised a French client on a possible claim against the European Commission.
Acted for several sponsors and/or their portfolio companies in relation to breach of warranty actions under sale and purchase agreements in the food industry, the construction industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the aviation industry.
Acted in a Commercial Court claim for breach of warranty under a purchase agreement for a EUR400m non-performing loan portfolio from a Greek bank (Amoeba Issuer DAC v Piraeus Bank, CL-2020-000708).
Acted twice for a venture capital group against various the target investees in relation to alleged breaches of contract.
Acted for the former creditors of Debenhams PLC in the high profile multi-strand litigation brought by Frasers Group PLC arising out of the former’s restructuring, including claims CR-2020-004210, CR-2020-002516 and CR-2020-002549.
Acting for the Galapagos group as claimant in the multi-jurisdictional dispute (NY/UK/Germany/Lux) with its junior creditors in relation to the validity of the company’s US$1 billion restructuring, and in particular successfully contesting parallel actions on the appropriate jurisdiction brought by the defendant side in the English Commercial Court and the New York Courts.
Prior to joining Kirkland, Ghislaine worked on the following matters:
Acted for a respondent in an ad hoc $5 billion arbitration under Nigerian law (Nigerian seat), relating to the oil and gas sector.
Acted for the claimant in an ad hoc domestic arbitration for a UK household name plc in a dispute over the termination of a c.£90 million contract with a joint venture partner. She also acted on the subsequent (rare) High Court appeal under s.69 Arbitration Act 1996 and on other, related litigation.
Acted for the claimant in a $300 million arbitration under Zambian law (English seat), relating to the mining sector.
Acted for a respondent in a $4.7 billion multi-party LCIA arbitration (London seat) arising out of a joint venture in the resources sector.
Acted for the administrators of a FTSE 250 consumer finance company and its subsidiary in a long-running $1.6 billion professional negligence claim against the companies’ auditors.
Acted for a defendant in a shareholder dispute in Hong Kong in relation to the ownership of parent entities of an international airline.
Acted for a claimant in a HKIAC arbitration (Hong Kong seat) for a Chinese client in the property development industry.
Acted in the internal investigation of an European bank in relation to potential financial regulatory issues.
