Claudia Cavicchioli | Lawyers

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France

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Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations

Testimonial

"I assist my clients in strategic and complex arbitration and litigation matters, providing clear and pragmatic advice on the most effective dispute resolution strategies that align with their business objectives."

Overview

Claudia has developed deep expertise in complex domestic and international dispute resolution, including litigation and international arbitration, with a particular focus on the energy, natural resources, mining, post-M&A 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, LCIA, UNCITRAL and OHADA. She also regularly acts before French courts in set-aside and exequatur proceedings relating to international arbitral awards.

Claudia has also gained substantial in-house experience through two secondments at Apple, where she served as Legal Counsel responsible for several European markets, including France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Claudia has been recognised as “One to Watch” in International Arbitration and Litigation by Best Lawyers since 2024, and was named as a Commercial Litigation Future Leader in the 2025 Lexology Index. Her clients praise her as an “excellent relationship manager and very impressive lawyer” (Legal 500 EMEA 2026 – France – Dispute Resolution: International Arbitration).

Experience

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

Commercial Litigation:

Acting for a leading multinational technology company in a landmark class action brought by a consumer association, on behalf of hundreds of thousands of alleged victims. The matter is widely regarded as a test case for consumer collective redress in France, as it is among the first class actions brought under the newly unified French class action regime.
Acting in a high-profile follow-on damages proceedings before French courts, arising from a French competition Authority decision imposing a fine of over €1 billion.
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, widely commented decisions, with respect to jurisdiction clauses.
Acting for a major mining company in a multi-billion cross-border matter involving criminal, regulatory and commercial issues in a francophone African State.
Defending a major international investment bank against av €250 million mis-selling claim.
Acting for a leading vcompany in the gas industry in the context of a dispute relating to an incident that occurred in a saline cavity used for natural gas storage.

International Arbitration:

Acting for a multinational commodity producer and mining company in ICC emergency arbitrations against a state-controlled mining entity in Africa, in connection with the exploitation of two mining permits and the counterparty's interference in the project, including its attempt to replace our client with third parties. Following the occupation of the sites by military forces and the expulsion of our client's employees — and the concurrent filing of local court proceedings against our client — we successfully obtained two emergency arbitration orders in our client's favour.
Acting for an African State in an ICSID arbitration brought by an oil & gas company in connection with the expiry of two offshore oil exploration and production sharing agreements. Successfully secured a full dismissal of the investors' claims.
Acting for an African State in an $800 million ICC arbitration initiated by a contractor in connection with various infrastructure projects throughout the country, and in related criminal proceedings across multiple jurisdictions involving allegations of bribery and money laundering. Successfully obtained the setting aside of the award on public policy grounds in a landmark decision.
Acting for an African State in a billion-dollar ICSID arbitration brought by a foreign investor under a bilateral investment treaty, arising from allegations of discriminatory treatment and non-enforcement of environmental, mining and investment law. The investor withdrew all of its claims following the first round of written submissions.
Representing a Gulf State in appeal proceedings against the enforcement of an arbitral award arising from the compulsory liquidation of a financial institution whose activities had been affected by alleged money laundering and breaches of international sanctions. The proceedings raise complex issues of international sanctions (UN, US, EU) at the intersection of investment arbitration, financial regulation and public international law.

Beyond the Office

Claudia has over a decade of experience teaching at leading French universities. Her teaching covers International Arbitration (Rennes II University, Paris-Saclay), Private International Law, Business Law, Contract Law and Corporate Law (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris-Saclay).

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

Claudia is a member of the Organising Committee of the Moot Court on Private International Law (Université Paris-Saclay and Linklaters).

Education, Qualifications and Languages

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.

Thought Leadership

Le forum shopping dans le contentieux international, IRJS Editions, 2025 (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.
L’impact du Covid-19 sur les contrats commerciaux, AJ Contrat, avril 2020, pp. 176-182.

Overview

Experience

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

Commercial Litigation:

Acting for a leading multinational technology company in a landmark class action brought by a consumer association, on behalf of hundreds of thousands of alleged victims. The matter is widely regarded as a test case for consumer collective redress in France, as it is among the first class actions brought under the newly unified French class action regime.

Acting in a high-profile follow-on damages proceedings before French courts, arising from a French competition Authority decision imposing a fine of over €1 billion.

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, widely commented decisions, with respect to jurisdiction clauses.

Acting for a major mining company in a multi-billion cross-border matter involving criminal, regulatory and commercial issues in a francophone African State.

Defending a major international investment bank against av €250 million mis-selling claim.

Acting for a leading vcompany in the gas industry in the context of a dispute relating to an incident that occurred in a saline cavity used for natural gas storage.

International Arbitration:

Acting for a multinational commodity producer and mining company in ICC emergency arbitrations against a state-controlled mining entity in Africa, in connection with the exploitation of two mining permits and the counterparty's interference in the project, including its attempt to replace our client with third parties. Following the occupation of the sites by military forces and the expulsion of our client's employees — and the concurrent filing of local court proceedings against our client — we successfully obtained two emergency arbitration orders in our client's favour.

Acting for an African State in an ICSID arbitration brought by an oil & gas company in connection with the expiry of two offshore oil exploration and production sharing agreements. Successfully secured a full dismissal of the investors' claims.

Acting for an African State in an $800 million ICC arbitration initiated by a contractor in connection with various infrastructure projects throughout the country, and in related criminal proceedings across multiple jurisdictions involving allegations of bribery and money laundering. Successfully obtained the setting aside of the award on public policy grounds in a landmark decision.

Acting for an African State in a billion-dollar ICSID arbitration brought by a foreign investor under a bilateral investment treaty, arising from allegations of discriminatory treatment and non-enforcement of environmental, mining and investment law. The investor withdrew all of its claims following the first round of written submissions.

Representing a Gulf State in appeal proceedings against the enforcement of an arbitral award arising from the compulsory liquidation of a financial institution whose activities had been affected by alleged money laundering and breaches of international sanctions. The proceedings raise complex issues of international sanctions (UN, US, EU) at the intersection of investment arbitration, financial regulation and public international law.

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Overview

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Education, Qualifications and Languages

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Thought Leadership

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Overview

Experience

Beyond the Office

Education, Qualifications and Languages

Thought Leadership