Dr Dorothee Schramm FCIArb
Swiss neutrality and pragmatism. Global outlook and experience.
Dorothee Schramm is an independent arbitrator with 20+ years of arbitration experience who has been deciding complex commercial disputes around the world since 2011. A Swiss lawyer by qualification and former partner at Sidley Austin LLP, she has extensive experience with “translating” between the civil law and common law systems, having been part of a common law team for over a decade. Dorothee Schramm is one of few arbitrators who have hands-on advocacy experience in billion-dollar cases but are fully independent with few conflicts of interest.
While Dorothee Schramm’s experience spans many industries, she has particular interest in technology, engineering, energy and life sciences. As former Head of Europe of Sidley’s Global Life Sciences team and member of Sidley’s Technology Committee, her insights into the life sciences and technology industries go far beyond contract disputes.
Dorothee Schramm is recognized as a thought leader both globally and within Switzerland, and she helps further the development of international arbitration as a member of the Executive Committee of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA) and as the Vice-President of the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Centre (SVAMC). Dorothee Schramm is also a CEDR Accredited Mediator and accepts mandates as mock arbitrator.
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Experience
Education and Career
- J. earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard and his law degree from the University of California (where he also earned a master’s degree in political science). After clerking for two federal judges in the United States, including a D.C. Circuit clerkship, he joined the litigation team at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York.
After leaving Cleary, J. J. did public interest work at the renowned Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
He then moved to Europe, becoming a member of the International Arbitration Group at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He was resident in Freshfields’ Amsterdam, Paris, and London offices in a period in which Freshfields was perennially ranked as the #1 international arbitration practice in the world by Global Arbitration Review and other industry publications.
- J. is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has frequently published articles and spoken at conferences concerning international arbitration.
His C.V. is here.
As arbitrator
J. has served as sole arbitrator, chair/presiding arbitrator of tribunals, and as co-arbitrator. He has also served as tribunal secretary, although he is no longer seeking secretary appointments.
J.’s arbitrator cases have been under various institutional rules and have spanned industries including shipping, sale of goods, energy, finance, and construction, including:
- A dispute under LCIA rules concerning international crude oil purchases
- A dispute under ICC rules arising from the sale of medical equipment
- A post-M&A dispute under LCIA Rules between a company and a financial adviser
J. is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
As advocate
Over his ten years as a U.S.-based lawyer and more than two decades based in Europe, J. J. has appeared as counsel in more than fifty arbitrations, under the rules of the ICC, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, LCIA, ICSID (including the Additional Facility rules), UNCITRAL, and others.
He has considerable expertise in treaty-based arbitration, having represented seven states on various continents over his career as well as numerous investor-claimants.
J. has argued cases arising under the laws of common law jurisdictions (such as New York and England & Wales), civil law jurisdictions (such as France, Japan, and Switzerland), and Middle Eastern jurisdictions (such as Qatar and the UAE), as well as cases governed by public international law. He has also handled arbitration-related litigation, such as enforcement and setting-aside proceedings.
His cases have come from a wide variety of industries, the most frequent being energy, mining, and construction.
Recent experience has included:
- A Paris-seated dispute under ICC rules arising from a loan agreement involving an international development organization
- An ICSID case on behalf of a European state arising from changes to an incentive program for renewable energy projects
- An ICSID case on behalf of an investor in a mining project arising from administrative and legislative actions by a Central Asian state
Representative Types of Disputes
Dorothee Schramm has resolved a large variety of commercial disputes that raised complex legal, technical, quantification and business issues. Her experience includes the following common types of disputes:
Types of disputes
- Breach of contract disputes
- Construction disputes
- Disputes over alleged competition law violations
- Disputes over contract terminations
- Disputes over copyright infringements
- Disputes over corruption and/or money laundering allegations
- Disputes over cost overruns
- Disputes over delays
- Disputes over drug pricing
- Disputes over exclusivity rights
- Disputes over GMP violations
- Disputes over legal fees
- Disputes over patents and other IP
- Disputes over the quantification of damages
- Disputes over supply disruptions
- Disputes over technical defects
- Gas pricing disputes
- Payment disputes
- Post-M&A disputes
- Shareholder disputes