Matthew Bate
Matthew is an experienced trial lawyer who represents and counsels clients in international arbitration matters worldwide. His practice focuses on the resolution of complex, high-value disputes arising out of major infrastructure projects, joint ventures, shareholder agreements, M&A transactions, and other cross-border commercial activity across a wide variety of sectors, including energy, mining, construction, civil engineering, transportation, and technology and telecommunications. Fluent in three languages, his experience spans a wide array of geographies including Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Key Matters
Some of the experience represented below may have been handled at a previous firm.
Matthew’s significant representations include the following:
International Commercial Arbitration
- lead counsel to a subsidiary of one of the world’s leading online food delivery groups in a multi-billion Euro arbitration under DIFC-LCIA Rules (Dubai seat, English governing law) and ancillary litigation arising out of a shareholders’ agreement;
- acting for a global asset manager in a US$250M ICC arbitration (London seat, English governing law) and ancillary litigation in New York arising out of an alleged breach of a non-competition clause in the parties’ shareholders agreement relating to a Turkish retail investment;
- acting for a UK private equity firm in LCIA arbitration (London seat, English governing law) arising out of the enforcement of a put option in relation to shares in a UK heritage consumer brand;
- acting for a Dutch finance company in a multi-billion-dollar ICC arbitration (Geneva seat, Swiss governing law) to resolve a multi-billion-dollar disputes over corporate control of key telecommunications assets in Poland;
- acting for one of the world’s leading power plant manufacturers in parallel ICC arbitrations (Zurich seats, Swiss governing law) arising out of two projects in Germany and Poland with a combined dispute value of over €150M;
- acting for a Turkish joint venture in a €85M ICC arbitration (Paris seat, Swiss governing law) arising out of the supply of a tunnel boring machine for use on a high-speed rail project in Turkey as part of the “One Belt One Road” initiative;
- acting for a U.S.-based technology company in a US$50M ICC arbitration (Singapore seat, New York governing law) arising out of an agreement to license the company’s proprietary technology for manufacturing polysilicon to one of Asia’s leading producers of solar panels and semiconductors; and
- acting for an oil and gas consortium in a multi-billion-dollar SCC arbitration (Stockholm seat, English governing law) arising out of an alleged breach of a shareholders agreement with a global energy major; and
- acting for a leading Swiss watch brand owner in an AAA/ICDR arbitration (New York seat, New York governing law) to resolve a contract dispute with its U.S. distributor.
Investor-State Arbitration
- acting for a publicly-listed junior mining company in an ICSID arbitration against the Republic of Panama under the U.S.-Panama Bilateral Investment Treaty arising out of the company’s investment in a mineral concession in Western Panama;
- acting for the Republic of Poland in multi-billion-Euro UNCITRAL arbitration under the Netherlands-Poland Bilateral Investment Treaty arising out of the privatization of Poland’s largest state-owned insurance company;
- acting for a private equity firm in a UNCITRAL arbitration under the BLEU Czech-Republic Bilateral Investment Treaty arising out the client’s investment in a network of Czech television stations;
- advising one of the world’s largest publicly listed mining companies on potential investment treaty claims against a sub-Saharan African State arising out of the company’s investment in a copper and cobalt mine; and
- advising an energy company in relation to investment treaty claims against a Central Asian State arising out of the construction of oil and gas infrastructure and the purchase of related gas receivables pursuant to a Soviet-era international treaty.