Keystone Law has added another two partners from Clyde & Co’s arbitration department, following on from last week’s appointment of Clyde & Co’s arbitration practice chair Ben Knowles.
The latest hires are Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel and Ian Hopkinson, who leave the firm after more than 20 years and 19 years, respectively. Szuniewicz-Wenzel was made a partner in 2020, while Hopkinson was promoted to the partnership in 2024.
A Clyde & Co spokesperson said: “International arbitration remains an integral part of Clyde & Co’s global disputes practice and an area where we continue to be exceptionally active across the firm.”
Szuniewicz-Wenzel advises on large-scale, high-value and complex disputes across multiple jurisdictions, acting for states, national energy companies, insurers, traders and multinational corporations. She has also represented Yemen’s government. She specialises in production sharing agreements (PSAs), advising on related disputes in the oil and gas industry.
Her practice covers energy, telecoms, trade, commodities, pharmaceuticals, transport and infrastructure. As an early adopter of virtual arbitrations in the pandemic with Knowles’s team, Keystone’s practice model works well with her recent experience.
Hopkinson, meanwhile, has extensive experience representing and opposing states and state-owned entities, national oil companies and state authorities, particularly in disputes arising from PSAs, infrastructure projects and regulatory frameworks. He regularly appears as an advocate at international arbitration hearings in London and abroad.
He frequently represents trading entities in international sales arbitrations involving oil, minerals, biofuels, steel and other commodities, and has experience in disputes across infrastructure, telecom, pharmaceuticals and IT.
James Knight, Keystone Law’s CEO, said: “Ian and Milena are exceptional additions to our international arbitration team. Their combined experience in high‑value, politically sensitive and multi‑jurisdictional matters strengthens our offering to clients across the globe.”
Szuniewicz‑Wenzel said she was attracted to Keystone by its “dynamic model and strong disputes bench”, which would support her energy and cross‑border arbitration clients, echoing Knowles’s comments on transitioning to a more flexible and conflicts-free platform.
Hopkinson stressed the “flexibility and international reach” Keystone offered him, citing similar reasons, while adding on LinkedIn: “Here’s to more agile times ahead.”
The move leaves Clyde & Co with just two partners named on its website as solely dedicated to international arbitration, LIDW co-chair Loukas Mistelis and Richard Power, both based in London. It also lost experienced aviation arbitration silk Robert Lawson KC, who rejoined Quadrant Chambers earlier this month.
The firm previously confirmed that neither Mistelis or Power will succeed Knowles as chair of the arbitration practice group, having decided to fold Knowles’s leadership responsibilities into wider sectoral practice groups, such as insurance and energy.
The Clyde & Co spokesperson said: “Our arbitration work is delivered through sector‑focused teams covering insurance, energy, construction, commodities, transport and trade, reflecting how our clients want to be advised on complex, high‑value, cross‑border disputes.
“We are consistently instructed on multi‑jurisdictional matters across the world’s leading arbitral institutions and remain one of the most active firms globally in this space.”
The spokesperson noted that Clyde & Co has been described by the LCIA as its “biggest single user by some margin”.
The news follows legal media reports that the firm’s Hamburg office was set to be restructured following a series of partner exits, a year after recruiting locally. However, it expanded in nearby Rotterdam in September last year.
In addition, it opened in Seattle earlier this month following a merger with 32-lawyer insurance firm Forsberg & Umlauf, having previously reported profits of £178m driven by strong North American expansion, with firm revenues reaching £854m last year.
It also promoted three mid-year partners, Melissa Gardner and Autumn Lewis (both Phoenix, Arizona) and Priya Gobal (Singapore) in November 2025, among hires in the UK and Australia.
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