Leading expertise in
international arbitration
Drawing on 35 years of practice at the highest level, Matthieu de Boisséson is a central figure in international arbitration.
He holds the agrégation in modern literature (France's highest competitive examination for teachers), is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris (Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris) and holds a master's degree in business law from Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas. He practised as a member of the Paris Bar until 2013.
He has handled complex arbitration and litigation while at highly prestigious international law firms. In particular, he was a partner at Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier from 1995 to 2013, before joining Linklaters, where he was Co-Head of International Arbitration Worldwide from 2013 to 2016.
Since 2016, he has been a partner at Boisséson Arbitration, alongside Katherine Spyrides and Niran de Silva KC, where he devotes his practice exclusively to international arbitration, acting as an arbitrator.
Matthieu de Boisséson has built a distinguished practice as both counsel and arbitrator, having appeared as counsel and sat as arbitrator in many countries, in particular in Paris, London, Geneva, São Paulo and Hong Kong.
- As counsel: he has acted in some 300 arbitrations. Several of these matters involved sums in the billions, or tens of billions, of dollars, including in the oil and gas sector, in international construction, in advising major defence groups and in disputes arising from mergers and acquisitions.
- As arbitrator: he has received around 110 appointments as sole arbitrator, presiding arbitrator or co-arbitrator. Often praised for his independence of mind, intellectual rigour and fairness, he has sat in institutional arbitrations (under the auspices of the ICC, the LCIA, the PCA and ICSID) as well as in ad hoc arbitrations (including under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules).
His main areas of practice cover a variety of key sectors :
- Energy, telecommunications, turnkey plants and joint ventures, large-scale retail, defence, advertising, the pharmaceutical industry and others.
Matthieu de Boisséson is a member of, or affiliated with, many leading arbitral institutions, including the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the LCIA, the CPR in New York, the CAM-CCBC in São Paulo and the Club of Arbitrators of the Milan Chamber of Arbitration. He is also a permanent member of the FIA Contract Recognition Board, an arbitral body sitting in Geneva that is specifically tasked with resolving contractual disputes relating to Formula 1.
Matthieu de Boisséson has been invited to teach and lecture at several universities, including Paris Nanterre and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, and to address courts such as the Superior Court of Justice in Brasília.
He has thus had a lasting influence on legal scholarship, through a great many articles published since the 1990s in French and international journals, numerous contributions to Mélanges (collections of essays published in honour of leading jurists) and lectures around the world.
Le droit français de l'arbitrage interne et international
He is the author of a classic treatise, Le droit français de l'arbitrage interne et international [French Domestic and International Arbitration Law], whose third edition, running to 1,006 pages, was published by LGDJ in 2023, co-authored with Jessica Madesclair and Clément Fouchard. Beyond its presentation of French law, the treatise offers an in-depth analysis of the fundamental concepts of arbitration and, in particular, a sometimes critical assessment of the current state and prospects of international arbitration. The preface was written by Professor Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler of the University of Geneva, who describes the book as a "true magnum opus... Magnum opus by virtue of the number and variety of the subjects it covers, but above all by virtue of its intrinsic quality. Added to all this, it casts new light on a body of law which, for more than a century, has had a decisive influence on the development of international arbitration throughout the world." (translated from the French)