Orrick Adds International Arbitration Partner in Paris

May.06.2013

Orrick Rambaud Martel announced today that Charles Kaplan has joined the firm as a partner in its international arbitration and dispute resolution practice. Mr. Kaplan joins the firm’s Paris office from Herbert Smith Freehills LLP where he served as Co-Head of the Global Arbitration Practice Group.

"Arbitration has become the dispute resolution method of choice for most international transactions and projects, and many of the largest and most complex arbitrations take place in Paris," said Robert Sills, co-head of Orrick’s International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution Practice Group. "Charles is a highly accomplished international arbitration lawyer with over 25 years of experience representing clients throughout the world and under the rules of most leading international arbitral institutions. His arrival brings additional depth to Orrick’s global arbitration practice and further enhances our Paris practice."

"We couldn’t be happier to welcome someone of Charles’ caliber to build on the firm’s growing international arbitration practice," added Laurent Jaeger, head of Orrick’s Paris International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution Group. "There is a clear need to grow in Paris, one of the world’s leading arbitration markets, with first-class international arbitration practitioners, and Charles fills that need perfectly."

Mr. Kaplan’s practice focuses on arbitrations involving gas pricing disputes, oil production sharing agreements, product development agreements in the aerospace industry, international joint ventures, and construction and engineering projects , among others. In addition, he represents clients in commercial proceedings before the French courts on challenges to, and the enforcement of, arbitration awards, as well as on insurance and reinsurance disputes. Mr. Kaplan has handled civil, as well as common law disputes in a number of jurisdictions in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Mr. Kaplan served as Chairman of Herbert Smith’s Paris Executive Committee and led the firm’s Arbitration Group in Paris. He is a board member of the Arbitration Committee of the Association Française d'Arbitrage, and is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Paris Journal of International Arbitration. Mr. Kaplan originally qualified as an English barrister at the Inns of Court School of Law and received his B.A.in law, with honors, at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University. Since 1992, he has been a French avocat at the Paris Bar.