Dorothee entered the law to become a judge, so her transition to a full-time arbitrator practice is a meaningful step forward in her original life plan: “The time is right for more practitioners of my generation to become professional arbitrators committed to delivering excellence in international arbitration. I cannot wait to combine my hands-on experience with my full independence as a Swiss arbitrator, free of the conflicts of interest inherent in top international firms.”
Dorothee Schramm launches her international arbitrator practice after spending eleven years at Sidley Austin LLP. “As a Sidley partner, I was part of an international common-law led team of the highest caliber. This allowed me to understand fully the different legal cultures of the common law and civil law worlds, while maintaining a strong anchor in Switzerland’s long tradition as a neutral, pragmatic and globally-minded hub for international conflict resolution.”
As former European Head of Sidley’s Global Life Sciences team and member of Sidley’s Technology Committee, Dorothee Schramm will continue to follow her particular interest in technology, engineering and life sciences cases.
Her experience in high-value arbitrations includes both arbitrator and advocacy. Recent examples are:
- Arbitrator in a Swiss-seated arbitration concerning technical defects of ammunition and its compatibility with NATO standards
- Arbitrator in a Dubai International Financial Centre-seated arbitration over a shareholder dispute relating to the construction of a desalination
- Arbitrator in a Paris-seated arbitration focused on the termination of a major drug distribution agreement due to the commercial effects of reference pricing
- Advocate in a Swiss-seated billion-EUR arbitration governed by Bulgarian law about the cancellation of a nuclear power plant project that won the Sidley team The American Lawyer 2017 Award for “Global Dispute of the Year: Commercial Arbitration (Europe)”
- Advocate in a $200+ million dispute involving two New York-seated arbitrations concerning gas pricing and the re-exportation of LNG
- Advocate in a Paris-seated arbitration, involving parallel patent infringement suits, relating to key patent ownership and utilization rights arising from a joint R&D technology project.
David Roney, a co-head of Sidley’s international arbitration team, says that “Dorothee has been a cherished member of our team who played an important role in almost all the largest cases of the Geneva office, and we will continue that friendship. We are excited for her about her plans, and are sure that she will be tremendously successful in her new role.”