As specialists in the somewhat rarefied world of international arbitration, Emmanuel Gaillard and Yas Banifatemi of Shearman & Sterling aren’t often in the public eye.
But there’s no way to shun publicity when you win a $50 billion judgment, as the Paris-based duo revealed they had done on Monday in the long-running arbitration over Russia’s treatment of OAO Yukos Oil Company. Their clients, the men who once controlled Yukos, are happy to trumpet the historic win. So Gaillard and Banifatemi are savoring an unusually high-profile victory, even as they prepare for years of follow-on litigation with the Russian government to enforce the arbitral award.
