William O'Brien

Practice Areas

Partner Will O’Brien is first-chair counsel in multifaceted and high-stakes international arbitration and litigation before all major international arbitral institutions globally and US courts.

Private companies and sovereigns alike have turned to Will to resolve matters involving hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of claims for clients in more than 40 countries, throughout Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

Will focuses on complex multi-jurisdictional matters involving sovereign immunity, laws of war, non-signatories, parallel proceedings, enforcement of arbitration awards and judgments, government contracts, treaty issues, money laundering, and fraud or corruption allegations, among other areas. And for more than 20 years, Will has been deeply involved in the development of the law of enforcement of arbitral awards and judgements, handling the leading New York Convention cases on jurisdiction and annulment actions.

Also Co-Head of the firm’s Industrials Sector, he represents multinational companies across a wide variety of areas, including in aviation/aerospace and defense, security, manufacturing, automotive, construction, energy, government, chemicals and plastics, telecom, transportation, and infrastructure.

As an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, he teaches international commercial arbitration with a focus on sovereigns and best practices in international contracting. He also teaches international arbitration at the International Law Institute. Will is a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, the IBA’s Arbitration Committee, and the Steering Committee on international arbitration for the US Council on International Business.

Will also serves as a member of the Eversheds Sutherland Global Board of Directors.