Orrick Litigation Team in Paris Scores Victory for Italy’s ENEL

Orrick’s Paris litigation team obtained a major victory for Italian energy company ENEL in a long battle involving Albanian judgments against the company.

For more than six years, ENEL has been fighting to prevent an Albanian power company from enforcing in France Albanian court decisions rendered against ENEL, and has been coordinating the defense against the same in several European countries and in the US. The stakes were high, as these Albanian decisions order ENEL to pay ABA more than €430 million for alleged breaches of a partnership agreement entered into for the construction of an hydroelectric plant in Albania.

Following multiple exchanges of submissions between the parties over the years, the Paris First Instance Civil Court recently refused to recognize the Albanian decisions and to enforce them within the French territory.

The Orrick team included Jean-Pierre Martel, Diane Lamarche and Joy Araman.