Alexandra Underwood

Alexandra Underwood is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution team at Fieldfisher.

Her practice focuses on multijurisdictional commercial litigation and arbitration.

• She works in international arbitrations (e.g. LCIA, ICC, UNCITRAL, ICSID, ad hoc), as well as in English High Court proceedings.

• She has particular expertise in matters involving, fraud, public procurement, investment treaty disputes (telecoms, real estate, aviation), international commercial arbitration and recovering “hidden assets” from complex structures.

Examples of cases

• Co-leading defence of a USD 3 billion+ ICC arbitration seated in Geneva concerning alleged breach of a telecom licence by an African state.

• Advising a private equity house in a €100 million fraud claim against a former CEO, securing injunctive relief from the English High Court (asset freezing) to support proceedings in Italy.

• Acted for five real estate owners in UNCITRAL arbitrations to claim compensation for expropriation of investments by the Russian government.

• Advising an investor in a multi-million USD investment treaty arbitration under ICSID rules (against Ukraine, in the airline industry).

• Acting for a seller of a gaming business (in Romania) in a cross-jurisdictional dispute regarding finance agreements.

• Representing a publicly listed company’s subsidiary to challenge a defective award of a UK government contract (value ~£400m) in procurement litigation.