Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel

Full Profile

Milena has represented a wide range of clients including state governments, major integrated trading companies and their shipping arms, and national energy companies. Most recently she has been running a large multi-jurisdictional team handling a variety of claims in the energy, pharmaceutical, transportation and telecoms sectors. Milena has particular expertise in relation to all stages of production sharing agreements used in the energy and oil and gas sector.

Milena has handled a multitude of cases under the rules of the leading international arbitration institutions (including ICSID, ICDR, ICC, LCIA and many of the leading trade institutions) and has particular experience representing clients in the Middle East, where she has spent a considerable amount of time in recent years representing the Government of Yemen. She understands the cultural background to the cases she handles and is not afraid to use innovative solutions to get the right result for the client. Milena takes a commercial approach to her cases, but will drive them hard to a final hearing, if that is in the interests of the client.

Milena has a European bachelors law degree (Queen Mary, UCL and Wurzburg) and a Masters from UCL, and is fluent in English, German and Polish.

Experience

A selection of Milenas expeirence:

• Successfully acted for Yemen for over 15 years on a range of matters
• Successfully defended a Middle Eastern government against accusations of breaches of investment law and telecommunications licenses in a high value case of major political significance
• Led the team who succeeded in securing significant amounts of damages for a Middle Eastern state in relation to the energy sector and oil block issues
• Acted for an insurer in a high value cargo dispute across multiple jurisdictions in Asia, Europe, and South America
• Defended against a high value debt claim brought against a client by a prominent pharmaceutical party
• Represented a major American multinational finance and insurance corporation in ICDR proceedings in which the Claimants were seeking to establish that there was an arbitration agreement in place to resolve all issues between the parties. This matter raised a jurisdictional argument which had never before been considered, favourable overcome for our client
• Advised on the contractual claims and settlement in respect of construction of LNG Terminal
• Represented traders in relation to a number of grain trading disputes
• Advised on all aspects of Production Sharing Agreements (PSA) including: environmental claims, labour claims, auditing claims, tax and customs claims, force majeure and termination claims, handover claims, and end of PSA claims
• Represented a major shipbuilder in relation to appeal of an arbitration award, successfully establishing fraud as the basis for appeal