Kathryn Khamsi

Kathryn Khamsi is a partner in the Paris office of Three Crowns.  She holds degrees in common law and civil law, is admitted in Paris, New York and Ontario, and practices in English and French.

Kathryn acts for corporate clients and States in all types of disputes, including commercial and investor-State.  She is particularly sought after in high value disputes that raise complex issues of fact and law.  Recent highlights include acting for a Gulf State in a claim relating to a failed energy sector investment that raises issues of project finance and environmental legislation; acting for French State-owned company Areva in its multi-billion euro dispute relating to the OL3 nuclear power plant; and acting for a consortium of oil majors in a dispute with a State over a complex formula for the sharing of petroleum under a production sharing contract.

Clients have commended Kathryn’s “grasp of the technical detail, and her ability to identify and articulate game changing arguments”.  She is recommended by Who’s Who Legal as a leader in the Energy field, as well as by Legal 500 (EMEA). 

Kathryn regularly lectures on energy sector arbitration at Sciences Po law school in Paris, and has published extensively on questions of international arbitration and public international law.

Prior to her career in international arbitration, Kathryn was a Legal Advisor to the Prime Minister of East Timor (Timor-Leste), based in Dili East Timor, coordinating East Timor’s negotiations with Australia over maritime boundaries and the drafting of a new regime for petroleum investments. She also worked with the International Development Law Organization in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Kathryn holds an A.B. from Harvard, LL.B. and BCL degrees from McGill, and an LL.M. from Columbia.