Member Firm News
13 Jun 2022

MSI members cooperate in cross border arbitration case

MSI Austrian law firm member Alix Frank Rechtsanwälte and Slovakian law firm member G. Lehnert, s.r.o. are currently representing a mutual client in international arbitration proceedings.

In the pending case, the European client concluded a contract with a US entity. The parties agreed on arbitration in accordance with the Vienna Rules of the VIAC, since arbitration is a frequently chosen dispute resolution method in international commercial matters. Furthermore, the importance of the VIAC, the leading arbitration institution in the CEE region is constantly increasing. This is because arbitration has a long standing tradition in Austria as it is known in Arbitration community to be an arbitration-friendly forum. Appointing arbitrators and choosing a procedural language is, generally, up for the disposition of the parties (high flexibility). Arbitration proceedings tend to be swifter than domestic court proceedings since the Austrian Supreme Court is the court of first and last instance for claims challenging an arbitral award. Therefore, arbitration can be very efficient and timesaving. The VIAC provides a cost calculator and one can verify that the costs for arbitrators and administrative services are rather modest compared to other arbitration institutions. Vienna has also been widely accepted because of its geopolitical position in Europe. The VIAC has supervised more than 1,700 proceedings since its establishment and supports the parties and the arbitrators throughout the proceedings. With all the increased activities going on in CEE we expect that the importance of Austria – a leading Regional Centre for Arbitration– which has been widely accepted for the past 50 years will even increase. Alix Frank Rechtsanwälte represent clients in arbitral proceedings in front of the VIAC as well as in ICC proceedings. Franz J Heidinger is a qualified arbitrator in Vienna also with the VIAC. G. Lehnert, s.r.o.has been representing its clients in court proceedings (disputes resolved in front of Slovak courts) and also in arbitral proceedings (VIAC and Arbitration Court of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bratislava) for more than three decades. Ján Ondruš and Vladimír Jakubička are both leading the arbitration and litigation team at G. Lehnert, s.r.o. Alix Frank Rechtsanwälte and G. Lehnert, s.r.o. routinely cooperate in cross border disputes and benefit from each other’s know-how.

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