Suzanne Spears

Practice Areas

Suzanne Spears, founder and principal of Paxus LLP, is recognised globally for her expertise in international law, international arbitration and business and human rights. Prior to founding Paxus, she spent twenty years practicing in these areas with leading global law firms in London and New York. Most recently, she was a Partner in the Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations Group at a Magic Circle firm where she co-headed the Global Business & Human Rights Practice and co-founded the ESG Group.

Suzanne advises and represents governments, international organisations and private clients on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious issues arising under public international law. She regularly acts as counsel before international commercial and Investor-State arbitration tribunals (including under the ICC, UNCITRAL, ICSID, PCA and other rules) and she has experience in transnational tort litigation, State-to-State arbitration and proceedings before the International Court of Justice.

Suzanne also advises clients on dispute prevention, risk management, due diligence, compliance and governance with respect to business and human rights. She is often instructed to advise on highly sensitive issues, such as relationships with host governments, security forces, communities and civil society.

In addition to being a lawyer, Suzanne is a political and social scientist by background and has held positions with the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights.

Suzanne is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame (U.S.A.) Law School, where she teaches International Arbitration.

Suzanne is widely renowned in the BHR field and is regularly invited to speak at major international conferences with focuses on international arbitration, ESG, and human rights.

She also frequently contributes thought leadership on topical issues in Business and Human Rights in both academic journals and the press.

She is widely published in her areas of expertise and her upcoming publications include a book chapter on ‘Reconciling Investor Rights and Human Rights: The Case of Climate Change’ in Investment Arbitration and Climate Change (Kluwer, A. Magnusson & A. Ipp eds).

Languages Spoken

Suzanne is fluent in Spanish, and services a wide range of clients in the Spanish-speaking world including businesses, national governments and non-governmental organisations.