Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has bolstered its international arbitration bench in New York with the hire of a senior partner from Hughes Hubbard. 

Hagit Elul has joined Orrick after more than 20 years at Hughes Hubbard, which has in turn reshuffled its leadership by appointing three practice heads: for Europe, Africa and the Middle East; China; and investor-state disputes.

Elul, who co-chaired the arbitration group at the New York-based firm with James Boykin, focuses on international arbitration and cross-border litigation matters for life sciences, energy and infrastructure and tech clients in fora around the world. 

Charles Adams, the Geneva-based head of Orrick’s international arbitration practice, said: “Hagit is a highly regarded first-chair counsel in the international arbitration bar and adds to our US-based bench at a time when more parties in life sciences, energy, infrastructure and tech are turning to arbitration as the preferred cross-border dispute resolution mechanism.” 

Elul handles high-stakes arbitration and litigation involving pharmaceutical, IP, energy, construction and commercial contracts for clients based mainly in Asia, Europe and Latin America. 

At Hughes Hubbard she secured successful results in bet-the-company disputes for clients including Las Vegas-based casino operator Global Gaming and Tokyo Electric Power, Japan’s largest nuclear power operator.

“Orrick, with its strength in global energy and infrastructure and the life sciences talent the firm has recently attracted, presents a very exciting platform on which to grow my practice. I am looking forward to collaborating closely with this global team,” Elul said. 

She is the 11th partner to join Orrick’s litigation platform since the start of last year, the firm said, nine of whom are focused on life sciences. 

News of her hire comes just a few weeks after Orrick announced it was absorbing Washington-DC financial services and litigation firm Buckley in a move the top 40 San Francisco-based firm described as a watershed moment for its financial services and fintech capabilities.

Meanwhile, at Hughes Hubbard, Boykin, who is based in Washington DC and whose practice includes state-to-state and investor-state arbitration as well as commercial disputes, has taken sole charge of the group, working with three new practice heads.

Sébastien Bonnard, who joined last September from Brown Rudnick's Paris office shortly before its closure, is leading the Europe, Africa and Middle East practice, Christine Kang, who is based in New York, has taken charge of the China practice, and Washington DC-based Remy Gerbay assumes leadership of the investor-state disputes practice. 

Hughes Hubbard sits just outside the US top 100 when measured by turnover and has international offices in Paris, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. It is ranked by legal directory Chambers and Partners' USA guide for its US 'heavyweight arbitration group, with impressive skill in commercial, investor-state and state-to-state disputes'.

The Global Legal Post will be publishing Law Over Borders comparative guides to arbitration and commercial litigation later this year. For further details email associate publisher [email protected]