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Law360 Names Freshfields Partner Caroline Richard International Arbitration MVP for 2024
Caroline Richard, a Washington DC-based partner has been named an International Arbitration MVP by Law360. The Law360 MVP award recognizes attorneys who had the biggest wins and made the most significant contributions to their practice groups in the past year.
Caroline is a partner in Freshfields’ market-leading international arbitration practice, based in Washington DC. She acts as lead counsel in some of the most significant investor-State disputes, with a focus on Latin America. In recent years, Caroline has secured significant victories for her clients, including serving as a lead attorney in Crystallex’s landmark US$1.4 billion victory against Venezuela, one of the largest-ever ICSID Additional Facility awards, and acting as a lead attorney in Tenaris’ two awards against Venezuela with a combined value of over US$400 million.
In 2024, Caroline secured a US$170 million-plus award for IC Power and Kenon in an ICSID arbitration against the Republic of Peru concerning an investment in the power generation sector – the largest ICSID award ever obtained against Peru. She also led the team that secured a precedent-setting award worth hundreds of millions of dollars for South32 in an ICSID arbitration against Colombia concerning one of the world’s largest ferronickel mines, the first ICSID award to order a state to indemnify an investor for future damages.
Caroline also led the team that secured a victory for Glencore arising from Colombian state conduct found to be arbitrary and discriminatory, in breach of applicable investment treaty standards. This case is notable for holding a State liable for an omission to regulate, specifically a failure to regulate the fair allocation of costs amongst the users of a maritime access channel built by Glencore’s subsidiary. These were the second and third damages awards ever issued against Colombia – all three secured by Caroline. In August 2024, Caroline also won a US$470 million-plus award for Smurfit Holdings in an ICSID arbitration against Venezuela arising out of the seizure of its market-leading paper-packaging business in Venezuela, as well as other arbitrary government measures that destroyed the value of Smurfit’s investments in Venezuela. This was a ground-breaking victory, with precedent setting findings on issues of jurisdiction, liability and moral damages.
This is Caroline’s second time receiving the Law360 MVP award, having previously won it in 2019.
