Force to Contend With: Using force majeure and other clauses to manage contract risk in the US

David Livshiz | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP

David represents clients in a wide array of complex cross-border mandates pending before federal and state courts in the US, as well as in criminal, regulatory, and internal investigations.

David recently argued and won Abdul Latif Jameel Transp. Co. v. FedEx Corp., 939 F.3d 710 (6th Cir. 2019), in which a US Circuit Court of Appeals for the first time found that Section 1782 discovery is available in aid of private arbitration, and for which David was a finalist for American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week.”

David received his JD from New York University School of Law in 2005, where he was a member of the Annual Survey of American Law. In 2002, he graduated with the highest distinction from the University of Michigan. David previously worked as a legal adviser to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Palau to the United Nations and in 2006 clerked for Judge Theodor Meron of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

David is a native Russian speaker.

Linda Martin | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP

Linda is a partner in the firm’s dispute resolution practice and co-head of our global class and collective actions group.

She has extensive experience resolving complex and cross-border commercial disputes across a broad range of industries, practice areas, and in all stages of business dispute resolution, including litigation, arbitration, and mediation. Based in New York, she appears regularly in federal, state, and bankruptcy courts across the United States.

Linda’s clients are global in scope, and she is particularly adept at helping them navigate multinational challenges, especially those arising from the overlapping and sometimes conflicting procedural, factual and regulatory regimes in which they operate. She also works frequently with our transactional and finance teams in advising corporate executives and boards on transaction-related litigation risk and corporate governance matters.

Linda received her B.A. (cum laude) from Harvard University and her J.D. (cum laude) from Duke University School of Law.

Paige von Mehren | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP
Paige is an associate in the firm’s international arbitration group based in New York. She represents clients on international arbitration matters, including international commercial and investment treaty arbitration, as well as arbitration-related litigation in the United States. Paige has also served as tribunal secretary in a New York seated CPR arbitration concerning alleged breaches of an LLC agreement.

Paige speaks English and French. She received her B.A. (magna cum laude) from Tufts University and her J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School.

I. Force Majeure, adequate assurance, frustration – how have US courts and US arbitral panels applied these doctrines | 1:00-1:15
II. Key lessons from an expedited arbitration and current litigation cases | 1:15-1:30
III. Discussion of COVID-19 related changes in economics, which has driven company behaviors | 1:30-1:45
IV. Introducing the appropriate COVID-19 related language into contracts and protecting the company from further risk | 1:45-2:00