Daniel Schimmel

Practice Areas

Daniel Schimmel is the Chair of Foley Hoag’s International Commercial Arbitration Practice Group. He leads the International Litigation & Arbitration practice of the firm’s New York office.

Daniel has served as Chair, Sole Arbitrator, Co-Arbitrator, Emergency Arbitrator, Appellate Arbitrator, and counsel in more than 100 international and domestic arbitrations. He has co-drafted awards that courts in the U.S., France, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, and the Swiss Tribunal Federal have confirmed, or enforced. He is the Chair (elect) of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, NY Branch.

He also represents clients, including major French and other European clients, in international commercial litigation in the United States and international corruption investigations. This includes securing a victory for the Republic of France, the French Ministère des Armées, and Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Northern District of California. It also involves securing a unanimous jury verdict for French telecommunications company Orange SA in federal court as well as enforcement actions regarding arbitral awards. Daniel has represented major groups, such as Air France, Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, Alcatel-Lucent, Caceis, and Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in international disputes. The French Minister of Justice has appointed Daniel as a member of a working group to reform French arbitration law.

Since 2017, Daniel has been consistently ranked in Chambers and Partners or Chambers USA. According to Chambers, "Daniel is an engaged, creative and meticulous lawyer." "He's an excellent arbitrator who is thoroughly prepared, highly intelligent and extremely incisive in his questioning." "Daniel is a pleasure to work with, he's very smart, well prepared, practical and fair-minded - he's everything you'd want in an arbitrator." Daniel is also highly recommended by Lexology, formerly WWL: Arbitration.

Daniel co-authored an e-book with Judge Antoine Garapon, Le Procès Civil en Version Originale, Cultures Judiciaires Comparées (France, Chine et Etats-Unis), published by LexisNexis, which received the award for best law book of the year 2015 from Cercle Montesquieu in France. He is also the author of numerous articles on American litigation and international arbitration published in Le Monde, Dalloz Avocats, le Code Monétaire et Financier, and the New York Law Journal. He is regularly interviewed on French National Radio on legal topics.

Daniel is listed on the ICDR International Panel of Arbitrators, AAA’s Roster of Arbitrators, CPR’s Panel of Distinguished Neutrals, Singapore International Arbitration Center Panel, and Shanghai Arbitration Commission Panel.

He is a Board member and former member of the Executive Committee of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC), a Senior Arbitration Board Member of the American Review of International Arbitration at Columbia Law School, a member of the International Commercial Disputes Committee and of the Arbitration Committee of the New York City Bar Association, a member of the International Arbitration Club of New York, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (F. CIArb), a Board member of the Chambre Arbitrale de la Grande Distribution, and a member of Paris Place de Droit.

Daniel regularly lectures at NYU Law School, Columbia University, and Georgetown Law School. He also lectures at the French national judge school (Ecole National de la Magistrature).

Daniel formerly represented Lawyers Without Borders at the U.N. and organized and participated in pro bono training programs for the prosecution staff of the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Daniel served as the first law clerk of Judge Jed S. Rakoff (Southern District of New York) and previously worked for the Chief Judge of the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bobigny in France.

He is a graduate of Columbia University Law School (J.D., LL.M.), ESSEC Business School, and the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas Law School.