GAR Analysis

• No. of pending cases: 18
• Value of all claims: n/a
• No. of appearances in Who's Who: 0
• No. of treaty cases: 1
• No. of arbitration appointments (No. as chair or sole): 9(7)

The arbitration practice at Spanish firm Cuatrecasas grew by two partners this year, after it absorbed boutique law firm Olivencia-Ballester - whose founder, Manuel Olivencia Ruiz, regularly sits as an arbitrator - and hired a former ICC counsel. Olivencia Ruiz was appointed by the government to draft the 2003 Arbitration Law. The firm also hired Cristian Conejero Roos as a partner in Paris. He was counsel at the ICC's International Court of Arbitration with responsibility for Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

The arbitration team sits within one of the largest and best-regarded Spanish contentious practices, which has represented firms including BAT. Some 19 lawyers make up a distinct arbitration group now, of whom seven are partners. Antonio Hierro Hernández-Mora leads the group (he is also the firm's managing partner). He and colleagues have acted as counsel in 24 international merits hearings, handling both the written and oral phases. Firms that have seen them at work as co-counsel include Froriep Renggli and Lenz & Staehelin from Switzerland, McCann FitzGerald in Ireland, and Herbert Smith LLP, and as opponents Linklaters, Baker & McKenzie and Uría Menéndez. In the investment arbitration sphere, the group is representing investors requesting arbitration against Russia under an investment treaty. In the past it has been an adviser to Portugal and Argentina in similar cases.