Professor Emmanuel Gaillard founded and heads Shearman & Sterling’s 100-lawyer International Arbitration practice. He is also Global Head of the Firm’s Disputes Unit. 

He advises and represents companies, States and State-owned entities in commercial and investment treaty arbitrations and is universally regarded as a leading authority and a star practitioner in both these fields. He also acts as arbitrator and expert witness.

Over the course of his career, Professor Emmanuel Gaillard has acted on many of the cases that have marked the history of international arbitration. In addition to the $50 billion award secured for the majority shareholders of the former Yukos Oil Company, he acted on the ICC arbitration brought by The Dow Chemical Company against Petrochemical Industries Company of Kuwait, which led to a $2.47 billion award in favor of Dow Chemical.

Professional directories and publications have noted Professor Gaillard’s “tremendous reputation in the market as a leading arbitration expert”, “standout reputation”, “incredible wealth of knowledge and experience” and “fantastic record in the field”. He is “lauded as an outstanding personality in the arbitration community and is praised for his understanding of multiple perspectives to a case” and “universally recognised as one of the stars of international arbitration”. Who’s Who Legal: Commercial Arbitration 2018 comments that he is “absolutely outstanding” and “a real star in the field”. A previous edition of the same guide had stated that “There is no one in this profession better or even equally formidable. He eclipses everyone”.

A Professor of Law in France and a Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School and Harvard Law School, he has written extensively on all aspects of arbitration law, in French and in English. Co-author of a leading treatise in the field (Fouchard Gaillard Goldman On International Commercial Arbitration), he authored the first published essay on the legal theory of international arbitration. The volume, originally published in French (Aspects Philosophiques du droit de l’arbitrage international), was subsequently published in English (Legal Theory of International Arbitration), as well as in Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and a number of other languages. He co-authored, as expert acting for UNCITRAL, the UNCITRAL Secretariat Guide on the New York Convention, published in five official languages of the United Nations.

Professor Gaillard also served as member of the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators, appointed by France (2006–2018). He chairs the International Arbitration Institute (IAI) and was the first President and one of the co-founders of the International Academy for Arbitration Law (AIDA).