Matthias Kuscher

Practice Areas

Arbitration and Litigation

Career

Matthias specialises in international disputes, international commercial and investment arbitration, and multi-jurisdictional litigation. He acts as lead counsel in high-stakes international arbitrations in the energy, infrastructure, construction and intellectual property sectors under the ICC, UNCITRAL, DIS, VIAC, PCA, NAI, ICSID, SCC and Swiss Rules. He also regularly sits as an arbitrator. Matthias is a seasoned advocate and appears regularly before courts and tribunals around the world. Over the last few years, he has first- or second-chaired more than 50 merits hearings, presenting opening and closing submissions on a wide range of subject matters and cross-examining dozens of fact and expert witnesses (including CEOs of multinational companies, auditors, forensic accountants, economists, commodity traders, physicists, engineers, mathematicians, law professors, and a former judge at the European Court of Justice). Prior to joining De Brauw, Matthias was Legal Counsel to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague and established the PCA’s first overseas mission as the inaugural PCA Representative and Legal Officer in the Republic of Mauritius, and acted as Tribunal Secretary in arbitrations between States or State-owned entities and private parties. He was also the Counsel in charge of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth team at the International Court of Arbitration (ICC) in Paris, supervising hundreds of arbitrations and scrutinising over 100 arbitral awards.

Personal

- Matthias has taught at the Universities of Cambridge, Heidelberg, Cracow, and the LSE

- Matthias was awarded the Vinerian Scholarship Proxime Accessit at Oxford, the William Senior Prize at Cambridge, the Bedingfield Scholarship at Gray’s Inn, and has received over a dozen other university and college awards

Experience

Matthias' current and recent work includes representing:

A European food delivery company in an ICC emergency arbitration and an ICC arbitration in Amsterdam under Dutch law against another European food delivery company arising out of a relationship agreement.

A European energy company in parallel UNCITRAL arbitrations in Zurich under Dutch law against another European energy company arising out of a major long-term gas supply contract.

An international insurance group in an NAI arbitration in Amsterdam under Dutch law against a Swiss bank.

A European engineering company in an ICC arbitration in Geneva under Swiss law against a global confectionary producer.

A Dutch investor in an ICSID arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty against the Republic of Croatia.

The former majority shareholders of Yukos in setting aside proceedings in respect of three UNCITRAL arbitral awards worth USD 50 billion against the Russian Federation under the ECT.

One of the leading global steel companies in ICC, SCC and VIAC arbitrations in Zurich, Stockholm and Vienna under Swiss, German and Austrian law against several European and Asian construction and engineering companies.

A global special chemicals company in an ICC arbitration in Barcelona under Spanish law against a Spanish chemicals company.

Two European software companies in an NAI summary arbitration in Amsterdam under Dutch law against another European software company arising out of a complex M&A transaction.