César Rivière

Trained in both civil and common law, César Rivière represents a wide variety of clients in international arbitration and litigation matters, including advising on complex commercial and investment disputes arising out of international business transactions, cross-border affairs and public-private partnerships.

Mr. Rivière’s arbitration and litigation experience includes representing:

• a Brazilian aircraft manufacturer in a AAA/ICDR arbitration against a U.S. aircraft manufacturer involving the termination of a multibillion-dollar merger agreement and the termination of a large joint venture agreement;
• Encana/Ovintiv, a Canadian energy company, in a AAA/ICDR arbitration with Occidental Petroleum concerning the sharing of an ICSID award arising from Ecuador’s 2006 expropriation of Block 15 (an oil project in the Ecuadorian Amazon);
• Dutch affiliates of NextEra in proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to enforce a 2019 ICSID arbitration award of over €290 million against Spain, arising from violations of the Energy Charter Treaty;
• LVMH SE in expedited litigation arising from its $15.8 billion acquisition of Tiffany & Co. in Delaware Chancery Court;
• DuPont de Nemours, Inc. and Corteva, Inc. in a AAA arbitration and related litigation in a dispute originating from the spin-off of Chemours from E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company;
• a professional sports association in an ICC arbitration regarding an international sponsorship and broadcast rights agreement with an East Asian broadcaster;
• a REIT in a AAA-Canon X arbitration in connection with a contract dispute with a North American hotel management company;
• a French company in an ICC arbitration concerning a Brazilian investment;
• a telecom company in an ICC arbitration regarding a cross-border M&A transaction in western Africa; and
• a French company in an ICC arbitration concerning a Malagasy investment.

Mr. Rivière is active in pro bono matters, advising nonprofit organizations on administrative, constitutional and international law issues in proceedings before U.S. courts and agencies, as well as asylum applicants in the U.S. He also has acted as co-counsel with Protect Democracy and Ogg, Murphy & Perkosky, P.C. in a defamation lawsuit challenging disinformation related to the 2020 presidential election.

Prior to joining Skadden, he served in the French government as an intern in the Diplomatic Unit of the French presidential team (2018) and in the Office of the Law of Obligations of the French Ministry of Justice (2016).