Shearman & Sterling secured a major victory in a commercial arbitration, defeating US$135 million claims brought against a long-standing client. The claims were brought by the client's joint venture partner in relation to a project to construct and operate a food processing plant in Ukraine. The project suffered substantial setbacks and delays during construction, which the Claimant blamed on the firm's client. The adversary's case was advanced in contract and tort, seeking to impose a range of duties under English law holding the firm's client responsible for project management and construction. The essential allegation was that under the joint venture agreement, the firm's client had assumed responsibility for the timely design and completion of the plant. The claims also sought to transform the client's efforts to rescue the stricken project into a basis of claim, arguing that such efforts attracted legal responsibility for timely completion.

Following extensive hearing on threshold legal issues in late 2010, the London-based arbitral tribunal issued an award confirming that the firm's client owed none of the alleged duties relating to the plant’s construction, marking a significant and hard-fought victory.

The Paris-based Shearman & Sterling team was led by partner Todd Wetmore and included associates Alex Uff, Daryl Chew, Rachel Laut, Joseph Campbell and Anne-Marie Lacoste.