Flavio Peter, left, and Arie Eernisse, right

Peter & Kim has launched a new office in Zurich led by relocated partner Flavio Peter – and has also hired Arie Eernisse from Shin & Kim as a senior foreign attorney in Seoul.

Peter & Kim announced the opening of its new office last week, with Peter moving from the firm’s Geneva office. Peter tells GAR that he and Geneva-based partners Wolfgang Peter and Konstantin Christie "will refocus our presence in the German-speaking region.”

A Swiss national, Flavio Peter has represented a mining conglomerate in an ICC dispute worth hundreds of millions of euros concerning the building of a smelting facility. He has also acted in a long-running dispute related to the supply of gas in Europe and Middle East.

He joined the firm’s Geneva office in 2021 and was made partner the following year. Before that he spent a decade working as counsel and arbitrator at Swiss firm Wenger & Vieli. He also teaches at the University of Zurich.

White & Case's head of arbitration in Paris Michael Polkinghorne, who is currently co-counselling with Peter & Kim's Swiss offices, says: "This looks like yet another good move for the firm; they are clearly going places and Flavio is a fine lawyer and colleague. And they really work well as a team wherever the lawyer."

Peter & Kim says it is looking to expand its Zurich team, which currently also includes senior associate Rodica Turtoi and associate Clio Mordivoglia.

The firm also announced Eernisse’s hire last week.

Eernisse joins Peter & Kim after nearly a decade in Shin & Kim’s Seoul office, where he helped a subsidiary of South Korea’s state-run power company pursue a US$400 million investment treaty claim against India, and acted for a South Korean subcontractor in a claim against six Singaporean and Bangladeshi power generation companies over a project to build a diesel power plant.

Eernisse was previously a law clerk at the US Court of International Trade in New York. He is licensed in New York and England & Wales and speaks Korean and Chinese.

Earlier this year, Peter & Kim hired sports and entertainment disputes practitioner Alexis Schoeb as a partner based in Sydney and Geneva.

Shin & Kim was contacted. Last month, the firm hired Young Suk Park as its new head of international disputes in Seoul from South Korean boutique KL Partners.

Toby Fisher, GAR Author | News Reporter (toby.fisher@globalarbitrationreview.com)

Link: GAR (30 Oct 2023), https://globalarbitrationreview.com/article/peter-kim-opens-in-zurich-and-hires-in-seoul?utm_source=Another%2Bemergency%2BICC%2Bcase%2Bover%2BCongo%2Blithium%2Bproject&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GAR%2BAlerts