Dispute Resolution

There are two sides to every dispute and we have proven experience of your perspective. Whatever business you are in, resolving disputes is a fact of life. When facing serious allegations, knowing you have experienced and pragmatic advisers on your side is the first step towards a successful resolution.

With our extensive European footprint, we are particularly adept at putting together large cross-departmental teams to handle multijurisdictional disputes.

Our record of success in even the most complex international disputes reflects our investment in, and commitment to, excellence and innovation. It is this commitment that helps us deliver winning work at a realistic and proportionate cost.

We can assist you in all types of litigation, including contract law, commercial law, corporate law, litigation concerning any form of liability, financial law, construction law, healthcare law, environmental law, insurance law, civil enforcement procedures, criminal business law, criminal tax law, media law and family law.

With extensive experience in dispute resolution, we can support you at every stage of litigation:

• Risk analysis
• Pre-litigation process
• Defining a legal strategy
• Emergency or preventive procedures
• Representation before national courts and arbitral tribunals
• Amicable settlement
• Enforcement of court decisions and arbitral awards

Our cross-jurisdictional arbitration practice comprises over 100 partners and 400 fee-earners conducting multi-billion dollar commercial and investor-state arbitrations. We operate from all the major venues for international arbitration including London, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, as well as across Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America. We represent clients under the rules of the world’s leading arbitral institutions including:

• ICC
• LCIA
• CIETAC
• ICSID
• WIPO
• SIAC
• HKIAC

Many of our partners are regularly appointed as arbitrators, and we speak and write regularly on matters of interest in the arbitration world. In many cases we will conduct advocacy in arbitrations.

Our specialist teams advise on compliance, investigations and claims, from the development and improvement of compliance controls and systems (including embedding those procedures into the corporate culture), through to investigating issues when they go wrong and defending clients before regulators, prosecutors and in civil proceedings arising from the same issues.

Our team spans a number of key practice areas, including financial crime, employment, financial services enforcement, competition, data protection, health and safety, environment, sanctions and professional and clinical risks. Through CMS' extensive global network, we can also provide you with seamless advice on cross-border issues.

Unlike many firms, CMS has its own in-house team to fully support our evidence collection, review and disclosure technology, CMS Evidence. Recently awarded ‘Best eDiscovery Team’, the team is not only one of the largest of any major law firm, but also one of the few that is fully certified to industry standard. By not outsourcing this service, clients save critical time in the early stages of a dispute or investigation, because there is no need to bring external suppliers up to speed.