Simona Peter

I am a senior associate in our Dispute Resolution team in London, advising our clients on contentious matters, often with a cross-border element, across a number of key sectors including life sciences and energy & utilities.

I have been involved in a wide range of High Court litigation, damages enquiries and appeals to the Court of Appeal. I have also been involved in a number of arbitrations (ICC, LCIA and ad-hoc), many of which involved legal issues arising out of complex technical contracts. I have experience of a wide range of interim relief applications including disclosure applications (including Norwich Pharmacal applications and Letters of Request), injunctions and anti-suit injunctions as well as the enforcement of English and foreign judgments and arbitral awards (including challenges thereof).

I also regularly advise clients on allegations involving breaches of fiduciary duties, unlawful means conspiracy, allegations of bad faith, conspiracy to defraud and breaches of trust. Furthermore, I have assisted with regulatory enquiries (ICAEW, FRC, TDB and the Charity Commission) and general dispute resolution/avoidance work.

As an engineer, I take a particular interest in complex disputes in life sciences and those that require a deep technical understanding and industry knowledge. Before joining the team at Bird & Bird, I studied at a Higher Technical School for Industrial Engineering in Vienna, Austria. Later, I trained with Bird & Bird and was seconded to our Brussels Competition team before qualifying in 2014.

• Acting for a large international company in relation to a confidential ICC arbitration arising from a development agreement with a technology start-up company. The arbitration is seated in Toronto. The dispute involves allegations of misappropriations of IP, confidential information and trade secrets.
• Acting for Carpatsky Petroleum Corporation who successfully sought to enforce an arbitral award from Stockholm under the New York Convention in London. Ukrnafta claimed that the award was invalid claiming fraud, issue estoppel, varying governing laws, invalidity of arbitration agreement and non-existent parties to agreements.
• I was the lead associate in representing a client in a Damages Enquiry following a determination by the Court that the Defendant owed a fiduciary duty to the Claimant. By virtue of the breaches of fiduciary duty, the Defendant had made secret profits and benefitted from the confidential business investment plans and strategies for the use of ultrasound in late life oil and gas wells to enhance production. The matter involved numerous cross-border applications for evidence and deposition/cross-examination as well as complex evaluation expert evidence.
• I was part of a team that represented a medical device company in a US$400 million claim under a damages enquiry. The counterparty claimed that they had wrongly been held off the market and that the markets were manipulated so that when their products launched they would be less competitive. Issues involved evidence on the prescription and tender market in 17 jurisdictions, expert evidence on pharmaceutical margins and local regulatory issues on medicines and devices.
• Together with a cross-departmental team of partners and associates from our IP and DR teams, I defended a large healthcare company in an action by a biotechnology company. The dispute involved the alleged breach of a Collaboration & License Agreement for the development of pharmaceutical products in the fields of hard and soft tissue repair.
• Acting for an airline in a dispute relating to the failure to return Security Deposits, the unequivocal nature of Redelivery Certificates and the Lessor implying conditions into redelivery. The case also involved allegations of fraud.
• Advising on a multi-million pound claim relating to investments with allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation, false accounting, constructive trusts and false guarantees.
• Acting on a claim involving allegations of fraud which included a wide range of applications including anti-suit injunctions, jurisdiction challenges, world-wide freezing injunctions and contempt of court.
• Acting for a claimant in proceedings for breach of fiduciary duties, director loans, derivative claims and deferred income claims.

• Global Energy Horizons Corp. v Gray
• Smith & Nephew Healthcare Limited & ors v Convatec Limited
• Kuros Biosurgery AG v Baxter Healthcare Corporation & ors
• Compania Sud Americana de Vapores SA v Hin-Pro International Logistics Ltd
• Solland International Ltd v Clifford Harris & Co
• Carpatsky Petroleum Corporation v PJSC Ukrnafta [2020] EWHC 769 (Comm)
• Basis Technologies International Limited v Phillip Derek Sly