Matthias Kuscher

Practice Areas

Arbitration

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.

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,

an international energy company in an AIAC/KLRCA arbitration in Kuala Lumpur under Malaysian law against a South East Asian construction company arising out of the construction of a semi-floating oil production system,

a Chinese car manufacturer in an ICC arbitration in Paris under Dutch law against a European wholesaler arising out of a distribution agreement,

an international energy company in an ICC "baseball" arbitration and in an ICC emergency arbitration in Geneva under English law against another international energy company arising out of a long-term LNG supply contract,

an international energy company in an ICC arbitration in Lausanne under French law against another international energy company arising out of a gas transportation agreement,

a global agribusiness and food company in parallel NAI arbitrations in Amsterdam under Dutch law against a multinational agro-industrial conglomerate arising out of a failed JV in Eastern Europe,

an international energy company in three parallel ICC and ad hoc arbitrations in Stockholm and Dusseldorf under Norwegian and German law against an international energy company arising out of a matrix of long-term gas supply contracts,

a multinational pharmaceutical company in a Swiss Chambers arbitration in Zurich under German law against a global healthcare company with respect to HIV diagnosis technology,

a European energy company in an ICC arbitration in Stockholm under Norwegian law against another European energy company arising out of a long-term gas supply contract, and

an international energy company in an ICC arbitration in London under English law against another international energy company arising out of a long-term gas supply contract.