Global Law firm Shearman & Sterling announces the appointment of Matthew Skinner as an International Arbitration partner, based in London.

Matthew has an extensive commercial arbitration practice, spanning joint venture, construction, licensing and post-M&A disputes across a range of industry sectors including oil and gas, energy, pharmaceuticals, mining and manufacturing. He has wide-ranging experience representing clients in legally complex disputes.

“Matthew’s extensive experience in international disputes adds to our English law capabilities and augments our robust global international arbitration team” said David Beveridge, Senior Partner at Shearman & Sterling. “Matthew’s hire is part of the continued expansion of our disputes offering and the ongoing execution of the firm’s strategy to grow our core practices in key geographies, aligning with market opportunities.”

Commenting on Matthew’s appointment, Alex Bevan, Global International Arbitration Practice Group Leader added: “We are very excited to have Matt join our global International Arbitration team. He has deep experience representing clients on complex bet-the-company disputes and has top rate advocacy skills. He will be an integral part of growing the team in London alongside Garreth Wong, as well as continuing the development of our Asia team alongside Nils Eliasson and Emmanuel Jacomy. Matt’s joining forms part of our firm’s strategic plan to expand our global disputes offering in key jurisdictions.”

Matthew Skinner added: “I am very excited to be joining Alex, Garreth and the rest of Shearman & Sterling’s Global International Arbitration team. This renowned group includes leading arbitration practitioners, who share my goals and ambition and I am looking forward to working with them to support our clients on the most complex and interesting international disputes.”

Shearman & Sterling has continued to expand core practice areas with 26 lateral hires globally (including Matthew) since January 2021. Matthew’s hire is part of the ongoing expansion of the its London office following the appointment of partners Gary Hamp, Sanjeev Dhuna and Rahul Chatterji in Leveraged Finance, Phil Cheveley and Maegen Morrison in M&A and Alex Wood, Sam Brodie and Helena Potts in Restructuring. The firm also added International Arbitration partner Garreth Wong in 2020. Matthew’s appointment also reflects the ongoing expansion of Shearman & Sterling’s global disputes offering, which recently grew to include partners Saul Perloff in Austin and Thad Behrens and Dan Gold in Dallas.

Matthew Skinner joins Shearman & Sterling from Jones Day.