Ivana Cingel

Counsel

Ivana Cingel is a counsel in O’Melveny’s Los Angeles office and a member of the International Dispute Resolution and the Business Trial & Litigation Practice. Ivana’s practice focuses on international commercial arbitration and litigation and complex civil litigation.

Ivana has been involved in international commercial arbitrations before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the German Institution of Arbitration (DIS), domestic commercial arbitrations before the American Arbitration Association and JAMS, appeals before the Second and the Ninth Circuit, and a series of cases in the Southern District of New York.

Ivana’s substantive areas of experience include corporate, international arbitration, foreign sovereign immunity, pharmaceutical, trademark, extradition, and complex procedural matters.

Ivana was previously employed as an associate with an international law firm in New York where she worked on a US Supreme Court case concerning the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the enforceability of judgments of the International Court of Justice in US courts.

Illustrative Professional Experience

• Defended General Mills Inc.’s continued use of the Yoplait trademark in an ICC arbitration against efforts by a French licensor to nullify the parties’ franchise agreement.
• Defended a global engineering and construction firm in an ICC arbitration initiated by a Brazilian power company seeking over US$60 million in damages resulting from the failure of the power plant’s generator. Won a permanent stay of the arbitration from the Southern District of New York on the ground that the power company’s claims were time-barred and thus non-arbitrable.
• Defended a European commercial and investment bank in a Washington state court action involving contract and tort claims and a damages claim of more than US$50 million. Won full dismissal, attorneys’ fees, and affirmance on appeal.
• Defended a global engineering and construction company in a dispute with the Republic of Ecuador over a 30-year water concession for a large municipality. Won a Southern District of New York order blocking Ecuador from drawing down on a letter of credit that served as a performance bond under the parties’ concession contract.
• Defended a US chemical company in an ICC arbitration against its Mexican joint venture partner seeking indemnification for exposure to criminal and civil antitrust liability in the US and Europe. Won, on an application for summary disposition, an award dismissing all financially significant claims.
• Represented a global microprocessor manufacturer in the largest, worldwide monopolization and antitrust action filed in the United States, alleging an unlawful monopoly in the worldwide x86 microprocessor market. The case resulted in a precedent-setting settlement.
• Defended a US pharmaceutical company in a Swiss arbitration under DIS arbitration rules against a German company seeking to terminate the parties’ drug development and license agreement.
• Advised a high-level Japanese executive concerning extradition from Japan in connection with a DOJ Antitrust Division investigation.
• Advised multiple clients on issues of foreign sovereign immunity, enforceability of foreign judgments, and enforceability of international arbitral awards.
• Represented, pro bono, a plaintiff in a civil rights action against a school district alleging that the district discriminated against her on the basis of her ethnicity and faith. The case resulted in a precedent-setting settlement and wide-ranging injunctive relief that led to the district adopting best-in-class anti-harassment policies.

Professional Activities

Law Clerk,  Honorable John T. Noonan Jr., US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Teaching Assistant,  Civil Procedure, Yale Law School
Languages,  Spanish; Bosnian; Croatian; Serbian
Author, "Sovereign Immunity," Litigating International Disputes in Federal Courts, 3 Bus & Com. Litig. Fed. Cts. § 18:49-71 (Robert L. Haig 3d ed. 2011) (forthcoming); "Arbitration of International Disputes," 1 Alt. Disp. Resol. Prac. Guide (Bette J. Roth et al. eds. 2011); "International Commercial Dispute Resolution," The International Lawyer, 45 Int'l Law. ___ (2011) (forthcoming); "International Commercial Dispute Resolution," The International Lawyer, 44 Int'l Law. 113 (2010); "International Commercial Dispute Resolution," The International Lawyer, 43 Int'l Law. 443 (2009); "International Commercial Dispute Resolution," The International Lawyer, 42 Int'l Law. 363 (2008).