Historic $2.16 Billion Award in Favor of the Dow Chemical Company in Major International Arbitration Matter

COMPASS LEXECON EXPERT TESTIFIES

As widely reported in the domestic and international press, a three judge panel of the International Court of Arbitration recently awarded the Dow Chemical Company $2.16 billion in a dispute with Petrochemical Industries Company (Kuwait)("PIC"). Dow was successfully represented in the arbitration by Henry Weisburg, Jonathan Greenblatt, and Christopher Ryan and others of the law firm of Shearman & Sterling LLP. The award is reportedly one of the largest, if not the largest, arbitration award ever in a commercial dispute.

Compass Lexecon's President, Professor Daniel R. Fischel testified as an expert witness at the hearing as did others from our corporate parent FTI Consulting. Professor Fischel's testimony follows his testimony in five other recent major trial/arbitrations in the past year where tribunals ruled for Compass Lexecon's clients. These and other cases are described in our recent 2011 Newsletter.

The Dow arbitration proceeding arose from Kuwait's failure to close the K-Dow transaction in which Kuwait was to have contributed approximately $9 billion to Dow for a 50 percent stake in a petrochemical joint venture to be named K-Dow. Kuwait withdrew from the joint venture on December 28, 2008, a few days ahead of the planned January 2, 2009 closing. Dow expected to use a portion of the proceeds to finance its acquisition of Rohm & Haas, and after Kuwait's withdrawal from the K-Dow transaction, only managed to close the Rohm & Haas transaction on disadvantageous terms. Dow launched legal action against Kuwait in January 2009 challenging its right to withdraw from the K-Dow joint venture and claiming billions of dollars in damages.

Rajiv Gokhale, Mike Keable, Kevin Hartt and others from Compass Lexecon's Chicago office were also heavily involved in the case and provided valuable support.