Clifford Chance acts in multi-billion Gulf War claim win

Clifford Chance acts in multi-billion Gulf War claim win

Clifford Chance last week acted in the largest single award of compensation ever made by a third party.

The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) in Geneva awarded $14.75 billion (10.6 billion) to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation for the loss of more than two years' oil revenue after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

It represents 99% of the claim.

It takes the amount of compensation paid to Kuwaiti claimants to more than $30 billion.

Clifford Chance helped design the claims verification process that has enabled the UNCC to process and validate 2.6 million claims so far.

The UNCC is funded by a proportion of Iraq's oil sales, and is currently receiving $500 million a month.

Jeremy Carver, head of Clifford Chance's international law group, compared the UNCC's 'thorough, but fast processes' handling claims with the failure in the UK to cope with pensions mis-selling cases.

Neil Rose