Lucy is co-head of our global international arbitration group. A specialist in international commercial arbitration and particularly in investment treaty disputes, she advises private and public clients and serves as arbitrator in arbitrations under the AAA, ICC, ICSID, LCIA, UNCITRAL and other rules. Lucy is an arbitrator on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission, and served as a co-director of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland (the Holocaust tribunal). She is co-author of the Guide to ICSID Arbitration and The Freshfields Guide to Arbitration and ADR (both published by Kluwer) and a frequent writer and speaker on international arbitration. 

Lucy is one of seven attorneys nationwide to be named a tier one international arbitration practitioner by Chambers USA (2009), and one of 12 Leading Lawyers in international arbitration in Legal 500 United States (2009).

Lucy gave private international law lectures at the Hague Academy of International Law in 2001 and, on the public international law front, serves as President of the American Society of International Law.  She was the first general counsel of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization and, while with the US State Department, the US agent to the Iran-US Claims Tribunal and the deputy assistant legal adviser for international claims and investment disputes.

Her recent experience includes advising: 

  • ConocoPhillips in its multi-billion dollar ICSID case against Venezuela following confiscation of its investments;
  • the government of Turkey in a US$10 billion ICSID arbitration brought under the Energy Charter Treaty by an allegedly Cypriot investor in Turkish power generation projects;
  • an Asian government entity in ICC arbitrations involving breaches of a share purchase agreement in the insurance sector;
  • CMS Energy Gas Transmission in obtaining the landmark first ICSID awards on jurisdiction and merits in the bilateral investment treaty arbitrations filed against Argentina in the wake of recent economic measures;
  • an Italian company in an ICC arbitration with a Venezuelan joint venture concerning construction of a fertilizer plant in Venezuela; and
  • various clients in political risk insurance/guarantee arbitrations and claims.

She received her BA magna cum laude from Brown University in 1974 and her JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1977, where she was a member of the Law Review.

Contact details

lucy.reed@freshfields.com

  • New York, NY office
  • 520 Madison Avenue, 34th floor
    New York, NY 10022
    United States
  • Telephone
  • +1 212 277 4030
  • Fax
  • +1 646 521 5630