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Sophie J. Lamb QC

Partner
London
  • 99 Bishopsgate
  • London EC2M 3XF
  • United Kingdom
Profile Experience

Sophie J. Lamb QC is a litigation partner in the London office of Latham & Watkins and Global Co-Chair of the firm's International Arbitration Practice.  

Ms. Lamb is widely acknowledged as one of the leading arbitration practitioners of her generation and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in February 2018. She is a trusted advisor to boards of public companies, to investors, and to sovereign nations, routinely engaged in the most complex, high value and/or reputationally significant disputes of the moment. Her cases have featured in The Lawyer’s top 20 cases of the year and she is listed as one of the UK’s most influential and inspirational lawyers in their Hot 100 list for her successes “in billion dollar, high profile, politically sensitive and often market-shaping arbitration cases and related court trials.”

Commended for her exceptional client service and outstanding advocacy, Ms. Lamb regularly appears as advocate in all arbitral fora, before international tribunals, and in the English courts.

She has acted as an adviser and/or advocate in more than 100 international arbitrations across a range of industry sectors including automotive, banking and financial services, energy and natural resources, insurance, pharmaceuticals, private equity, and telecommunications.‎ She is also widely recognized for her experience in international investment and inter-state disputes.

Ms. Lamb also acts in complex commercial, corporate and international litigation, and appellate cases in the English and overseas courts. A former barrister, she has full rights of audience in the superior English courts and has appeared as advocate at every level, including the UK Supreme Court. Significant work includes partnership and joint venture disputes, banking law, company law, class action defense work, environmental litigation, public law, and human rights law.‎ Ms. Lamb also appears as advocate in arbitration-related court proceedings.

Ms. Lamb also counsels boards and investment committees on wider risk avoidance and investment integrity issues, including ESG matters and compliance with responsible investment standards.

Ms. Lamb’s representative matters include acting for:

  • Royal Dutch Shell and Shell Petroleum Development Company in their successful defense of transnational human rights and environmental litigations identified by The Lawyer as among the most significant cases of 2016
  • A leading mining company on a very high value shareholder rights and environmental issues arising from projects in Latin America
  • A sovereign party in an investor-state dispute concerning a bank rescue program
  • A private equity house in a very high value post-M&A earn-out dispute
  • A national oil company in a range of complex lending, shareholder, and supply disputes valued in the multiple billions of dollars
  • Counseling multinationals and private equity houses on a range of ESG and Investment Integrity issues
  • An international oil and gas company and Murphy Oil in their successful NAFTA arbitration against Canada under the ICSID, Additional Facility Rules over illegal performance requirements*
  • Ust-Kamenogorsk Hydropower Plant, a subsidiary of Samruk Energy, as advocates to the appellant in the UK Supreme Court on a landmark arbitration appeal to determine whether the English Court has jurisdiction to grant an anti-suit injunction in circumstances where no arbitration is intended or in prospect*
  • Mobile TeleSystems in its US$2.5 billion investor-state arbitration against Uzbekistan brought under the Additional Facility of the ICSID, including successfully defending an Article 45(6) application*
  • One of the largest private investment companies in Russia in a multibillion-dollar shareholder dispute, including successfully defending third party disclosure proceedings in London and the US and resisting attempts to injunct in the Caribbean courts a multibillion-dollar public share buyback*
  • A Japanese automotive company as Claimant in consolidated ICC arbitration proceedings against a German automotive company concerning the unwinding of a multibillion cross-shareholding*
  • A number of large corporate investors on tax stabiliation issues including the international law dimension of retrospective taxes and tax treaty override provisions*
  • Metals and minerals entities on price re-openers in long term supply agreements*
  • A life sciences company in a significant patent arbitration against one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies*
  • Telecoms entities in very high value change of control, put option, and IP licensing disputes*
  • A mining group in a multibillion-dollar tax dispute with the Government of an African country*

*Matter handled prior to joining the firm

Qualifications and Education

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