Kate Jackson-McGill KC is head of Skadden’s Europe International Litigation and Arbitration Group. Her practice focuses on complex, cross-border litigation and commercial and investment treaty arbitration (ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, SIAC, LMAA, ICSID, PCA), with extensive experience in arbitrations seated in and under the governing laws of both common and civil law jurisdictions, as well as public international law. She also regularly acts for clients before the English court and in offshore litigation.
Jackson-McGill represents clients at all stages of international and cross-border disputes. She has particular experience in solving complex, multijurisdictional and multifaceted disputes where all stages of litigation and/or arbitration (from interim relief to trial and final award/judgment) are just one of a number of tools deployed to achieve her client’s objectives. Her experience spans sectors, including crypto, technology, energy, telecommunications, mining, pharmaceutical, automotive and construction. She also sits as arbitrator on single- and three-member tribunals.
Lawdragon Honors
| Honor | Year | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Litigators | 2026 | Global Disputes & Arbitration |
| The 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Litigators | 2025 | Global Disputes & Arbitration |
| The 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Litigators | 2024 | Global Disputes & Arbitration |
| Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Litigators | 2023 | Global Disputes & Arbitration |
Jackson-McGill recently served as secretary to the International Bar Association’s Arbitration Committee and on the ICC Task Force considering dispute resolution in the context of climate change and the Paris Agreement, and is a former member of the ICC U.K. Appointments Committee. She also sits on the Executive Committee of the Foundation for International Arbitration Advocacy and was co-chair of the 2022 Institute for Transnational Arbitration Workshop. She is a former YIAG (LCIA) co-chair.
Since joining Skadden, Jackson-McGill has represented:
- an international energy company and its trading arm in securing the settlement of an LCIA arbitration with an Indian natural gas company two weeks before the scheduled hearing of contract claims brought in relation to an LNG sale and purchase agreement
- Salvadoran company and a British Virgin Islands company in a multijurisdictional dispute over a bitcoin mining joint venture
- a cryptocurrency exchange in connection with a Singapore-seated, SIAC arbitration regarding the disputed acquisition of an India-based cryptocurrency exchange
- an international mining company in a dispute over its licensing rights in a gold mine in a West African jurisdiction
Public International Law Cases
- The Islamic Republic of Pakistan in:
- an ICSID investment treaty arbitration relating to the Reko Diq copper and gold mining project, brought by the Australia-based company Tethyan Copper Company (TCC), a joint venture between Barrick Gold and Antofagasta
- an investment treaty claim, brought by a Turkey-based company, arising from Pakistan’s power rental programme (in excess of $2 billion in damages claimed). The claim settled without any payment by Pakistan
- an ICC commercial arbitration
- The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (of southern Sudan) in its dispute with the Government of Sudan at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, regarding the delimitation of the Abyei region of central Sudan