Winning the case in FOSFA arbitration

Our lawyers represented a large renewable energy producer in a trade dispute against another commodities trader in FOSFA arbitration in London. The client was seeking compensation for damages for the non-performance of contractual obligations to deliver goods from Ukraine.

The firm had to rely on English law entirely since the underlying contract was governed by this law. We also had to prove that the subsequent refusal of the client to perform its obligations was caused and directly related to the prior non-performance of the defendant. After the initiation of arbitration proceedings in London the firm also succeeded in applying interim measures against the defendant in Lithuania to secure performance of the possible arbitration award.

Partner Ramūnas Audzevičius comments: “In the field of international trade English law is a popular choice among various international traders. It provides reliability and rules suitable for modern commercial relations. On the one hand, it provides possibilities for Lithuanian traders which would otherwise be unavailable if Lithuanian law was applicable. On the other hand – domestic advisors of such traders can’t be expected to be familiar with the peculiarities of a foreign legal system and often advise their clients to rely on domestic law thus depriving access to internationally accepted trade rules. As this case demonstrated our law firm managed to get best of the both worlds, i.e. successful application of English law in relations between two Lithuanian companies without a need to employ foreign advisors.”