Andrew Plump

Andrew has practiced international arbitration and international litigation in Paris since 2002, and has been at Linklaters since 2013. He previously had more than 20 years of litigation experience before courts, agencies and arbitral tribunals in the United States.

Andrew Plump has acted as counsel in numerous institutional and ad hoc international commercial and investment arbitration proceedings, chiefly in high-value disputes concerning international joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions (e.g., post-acquisition disputes, price adjustments, claims under contractual guarantees), aviation and aerospace, defence industries & procurement, construction, energy, media & telecommunications, distribution and general commercial matters. He also sits as an arbitrator in such matters.

Andrew acts as counsel in arbitration-related litigation, including post-award enforcement and nullification actions, and he also acts in cross-border commercial litigation.

Andrew was described by a client as “a powerful advocate, a strong oral litigator, and he never hesitates to be hands on,” in the 2017 edition of the Global Arbitration Review’s GAR 100.

Work highlights

Andrew has acted for clients in many major arbitrations. Those that can be disclosed include:

• Representing Elf Neftegaz, a former subsidiary of one of France’s leading oil and gas companies, in its successful defence against an US$ 22 billion UNCITRAL arbitration claim brought by a private entity and by two Regions of the Russian Federation purporting to be contracting parties to an agreement for oil exploration and production in Russia dating from the early 1990s that never came into effect.
• Acting for a market-leading television broadcasting company in an ICC arbitration against a major Middle Eastern media and broadcasting group in a dispute under a cooperation and services agreement concerning, notably, broadcasting rights, use of trade name and other proprietary rights, and cost allocation for production of television programs.
• Acting as co-counsel for an important mining and manufacturing company in an ICC arbitration against the construction contractor in relation to alleged delays and deficiencies in an EPC turnkey contract for a new phosphate rock terminal in the Middle East.
• Representing Latin American investors in the pre-contentious phase of an ICSID investment dispute in relation to public transportation concessions of a major city, with issues of State-imposed changes to the compensation regime, failure of the State to fulfil its infrastructure investment undertakings, and discrimination in favour of State-owned facilities.
• Acting for a prominent media executive in two ICC arbitrations against a media and broadcast group in respect of alleged breaches of a multi-year services agreement, including defence against compensation claw-back claims.
• Participating in the representation of the claimants in arbitration in two of the most high profile international joint venture disputes of recent years: Casino Group’s dispute with its Brazilian partner in Companhia Brasileira de Distribuiçao (CBD), one of the main operators of retail distribution in Brazil, relative to that partner’s efforts to orchestrate a merger between CBD and the Brazilian assets of their competitor Carrefour; and Groupe Danone’s dispute with its Chinese joint venture partner (Wahaha Group) over the setting up of a parallel set of joint venture companies in China.
• Representing a French pharmaceutical group in an ICC arbitration in defence of claims of incomplete and inaccurate representations as to threats to intellectual property rights in the sale of certain subsidiaries to an Asian pharmaceutical group.
• Defending U.S. and Spanish-based developers of a resort installation in North Africa in ICC arbitration brought by a consortium of banks relative to a lending facility and construction project delays.
• Acting for a military contractor in ICC arbitration in respect of a foreign government customer’s premature termination of a procurement and technology transfer agreement.

Andrew began his legal career as a trial lawyer (criminal prosecutor) in the District Attorney’s Office of Brooklyn, New York. He was thereafter a partner in a law firm in Washington, DC, specializing in commercial litigation and arbitration, government procurement disputes and contentious transportation regulatory matters.

Andrew lectures on arbitration practice at University Paris II (Panthéon-Assas).

Outside of the office, Andrew has been a member of the Board of the American School of Paris since 2008.

Andrew graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton with a degree in English and History and he then obtained his law degree (J.D.) from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

He is admitted to the Bars of New York (U.S.), District of Columbia (U.S.), and Paris (France).

He speaks English and French.