Emilie GONIN

Emilie is a leading barrister specialising in commercial and international disputes including international commercial arbitration, commercial litigation, investment treaty arbitration and public international law.

She is ranked in the legal directories, which describe her as a “brilliant lawyer, thorough in her analysis, precise in her drafting and clear in her thoughts”, “a massive intellect”, “an excellent and committed junior who is a great team player and a joy to work with” and a barrister whose “enthusiasm is matched with a razor-sharp mind”.

Emilie represents parties in complex and high value disputes before arbitral tribunals and the English Court both as sole and junior counsel. She has experience of disputes in a wide range of sectors including hospitality, mining, oil and gas, telecommunications, financial services, real estate, aviation, shipping taxation and commodity trading.

She has considerable experience in international commercial arbitration having represented parties in several dozen arbitrations under all major procedural rules (ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, Swiss Rules, SCC, LMAA and HKIAC). Emilie is also vastly experienced in investment treaty arbitration, which she lectures at Sciences Po Paris. She has acted as counsel in over a dozen such cases representing both states and investors, primarily under the ICSID and UNCITRAL Rules, and is recognised in the directories as “exceptionally competent in investor-state arbitrations.”

Emilie further has a broad commercial litigation practice and is particularly thought after for her expertise in (i) arbitration related court proceedings, including challenges to arbitral awards (s. 68 and s. 69), anti-suit injunctions, s. 44 applications and enforcement of arbitral awards, (ii) matters raising issues of public international law, including sovereign immunity and (iii) conflict of laws, including service out of the jurisdiction.

Emilie also has significant expertise of appearing before international courts on the basis of her experience in public international law. These include the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Emilie regularly sits as arbitrator. She has been appointed in almost a dozen arbitrations where she has sat as sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator as well as presiding arbitrator under various arbitration rules, including the ICC Rules, the Swiss Rules and the UNCITRAL Rules.

Emilie’s instructions involve a wide range of regions including Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. Given her bilingualism in French and her qualification as Avocate à la Cour at the Paris Bar, she is in demand in cases with francophone and/or civil law elements and has experience of advocacy in French before arbitral tribunals and international courts; directories note that she “can work equally well in English and French” and “works seamlessly across French and English”. She is also fluent in Italian and German.