Continuous recognition by GAR 100

Motieka & Audzevičius arbitration team was recognized in the 13th edition of the Global Arbitration Review (GAR). GAR 100 is the guide to law firms “approved” for international arbitration.

GAR 100 ranked Motieka & Audzevičius for:

• Spectacular results for Gazprom in a long-running dispute with Lithuania’a energy ministry over a privatised natural gas provider. As co-counsel with Dentons, our firm persuaded an SCC tribunal to throw out a US$2 billion claim that alleged the Russian state entity had unfairly raised gas prices. Lithuania is challenging the award in the Swedish courts.
• In an earlier phase of the dispute, our arbitration team persuaded the Lithuanian Supreme Court to recognise a prior SCC award that had restrained the energy ministry from litigating some of its claims. That part of the case went all the way up to the European Court of Justice, leading to a landmark ruling that anti-suit injunctions issued by arbitral tribunals are compatible with EU law. The ECJ ruling was recognised at the GAR Awards as the most important decision of 2015.
• In another groundbreaking case before that court, our firm successfully enforced a UNCITRAL award in favour of the firm’s Italian winemaker client Luigiterzo Bosca. It was the first time that the Supreme Court had enforced an investor-state arbitration award against Lithuania.
• Our arbitration team represents ICOR group in an SCC dispute that ended up before the Belarusian Supreme Court. While the amounts at stake were small, the firm impressively obtained a declaration from the Supreme Court accepting the concept of the assignment of an arbitration clause.
• Lithuanian specialist printing company Garsų pasaulis instructed Motieka & Audzevičius for ad hoc and UNCITRAL arbitrations against Kyrgyztan, claiming €65 million in damages for discriminatory treatment and expropriation over a contract to produce biometric passports for Kyrgyz citizens.
• The firm is also still acting for two Belorussian companies in four interrelated disputes against a global group of producers of crop protection products at the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s international arbitration court.
• The firm secured a EUR 4 million award for a Lithuanian client in a construction arbitration against a global energy conglomerate at the ICC seating in Stockholm, and is now representing the client before the Svea Court of Appeal in annulment proceedings against the award. The case deals with complex matters regarding Sweden’s public policy and corruption allegations.

The clients comment about our arbitration team:

• Barton Legum of Dentons Europe, who worked with Motieka & Audzevičius on the Gazprom dispute, praises Ramūnas Audzevičius as “a brilliant strategist, very responsive, thoughtful and perfectly fluent in English and in Russian.”
• Andrius Lukoševičius, head of legal at Garsų pasaulis, says Motieka & Audzevičius is “the best choice in the Baltic and Scandinavian region for international disputes”. Having worked closely with Rimantas Daujotas on this and a new international arbitration, Lukoševičius says he trusts him with the company’s “most important matters and is impressed with his strategic advice in very complex matters”.

The annual ranking of the world’s leading international arbitration practices named our law firm among global leaders for the fifth year in a row.