Cleary Gottlieb has been named the international arbitration team of the year at the 2020 Legal Business Awards. 

The firm was lauded for securing one of the largest commercial arbitration awards ever made in 2019. 

“Cleary’s technical excellence and understanding, its absolute and unswerving commitment to Vale’s cause, and its refusal to take a step back when confronted with BSGR’s numerous attempts to derail the arbitration process, commented Thiago Mucury Cardoso, Legal counsel at Vale. "Cleary displayed a remarkable can-do ability to find solutions to every obstacle or problem that our opponents raised. Every time we turned to Cleary, it delivered for us", he said.

“Cleary successfully concluded a four-and-a-half-year battle for Brazilian mining group Vale concerning allegations of fraud and bribery against its mining partner in Guinea, BSG Resources (BSGR). The matter was resolved with a remarkable $2 billion victory for Vale after related legal proceedings took place in the U.S., UK, and Switzerland", explained Legal Business.

Other nominations for this awards:

- Addleshaw Goodard.

- Crowell & Moring.

- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

- Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.