Claudia Cavicchioli

Claudia has extensive experience in complex domestic and international dispute resolution, including litigation and international arbitration, with a particular focus on the energy, mining and technology sectors.

Claudia regularly acts as counsel for clients around the world in cross-border litigation matters, as well as in international commercial and investment arbitration proceedings under all the major institutional rules, including those of the ICC, ICSID, UNCITRAL and OHADA.

Claudia was seconded to Apple, where she acted as Legal Counsel in charge of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal (2018-2019). Claudia is also part of the Linklaters ESG team.

Work Highlights 

Claudia has acted for our clients in many high-profile disputes, including:

Commercial Litigation:

•  acting for a technology worldwide leader in the context of a very strategic dispute against one of its resellers. Claudia obtained from the French Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice two landmark decisions, largely commented, with respect to jurisdiction clauses;
• acting for one of the foremost mining company in a multi-billion cross-border matter involving criminal, regulatory and commercial issues in a francophone African State;
• defending an international bank against a €250 million mis-selling claim;
• acting for a leading company in the gas industry in the context of a dispute relating to an incident that occurred in saline cavity used for natural gas storage.

International Arbitration:

• acting for a multinational mining company in two ICC emergency arbitrations and in two subsequent parallel ICC arbitrations on the merits, brought against a mining state-controlled entity in Africa;
• acting for an African State in an ICSID arbitration brought by an oil & gas company over two offshore blocks;
• acting for a European satellite company in an ICC arbitration brought by a competitor regarding the right to use certain frequencies at a given orbital position;
• acting for a leading industrial group specialised in automated logistics systems in a post-M&A ICC arbitration against the world’s leading manufacturer of motion and control technologies.

Claudia has over a decade of experience teaching International Arbitration, Private International Law and Business Law and Contracts at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Université Rennes II and Université Paris-Saclay.

Claudia is a member of the French Committee on Private International Law (Coité française de droit international privé), the European Association of Private International Law, the International Law Association and ArbitralWomen.

Claudia holds a PhD in Private International Law with highest honours from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, with her thesis on "Forum Shopping in International Litigation".

She holds Master’s degrees in:

• Private International Law and International Business Law from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
• English and American Business Law from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
• French and Italian Business Law from Università degli Studi di Firenze.

She also holds joint degrees in French and Italian Business Law from both Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Università degli Studi di Firenze.

Claudia attended The Hague Academy of Private International Law, on a merit-based scholarship.

Claudia won several awards, including the “Rayonnement International” award from the Paris Bar and the International Bar Association for her co-authored article on “Disclosing evidence in Cross-Border Litigation: How to Deal with French Rules?”, the “Best Law Student” award from Freshfields and the “Best Student of the Faculty of Law” award from Università degli Studi di Firenze.

Claudia is fluent in English, French and Italian.

A selection of published works includes:

Le forum shopping dans le contentieux international, IRJS Editions, 2024 (award for the publication of the PhD thesis).

La directive relative aux actions représentatives et sa transposition en droit français, Option Droit & Affaires, 10 January 2024.

La confidentialité des correspondances internationales des avocats et juristes en entreprise – la question du droit applicable, Journal du Droit International (Clunet), n° 4, 2020.