President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Judge Robert Spano, will join Gibson Dunn in London following the end of his term this 31 October 2022. Judge Spano is an acknowledged expert in the field of digital rights, having been involved extra-judicially in extensive policy work in relation to challenges in the areas of disinformation, online content moderation and freedom of expression, and decided some of the landmark judgments in the field. He will join the firm as Of Counsel on 1 January 2023, advising clients on multi-national disputes, particularly in the fields of digital rights, public international law and investor-state arbitration, on business and human rights, ESG (environment, social and governance), and on government affairs and public policy. Commenting on the hire, Philip Rocher, head of the London Dispute Resolution Group at Gibson Dunn, said: “Judge Spano has overseen transformational change at the Court, and has presided over a period of multiple generational human rights challenges for Europe. His role has involved extensive diplomatic and policy engagement with the governments of individual signatory states within the Council of Europe, and with the EU institutions, in particular the European Commission. We are looking forward to having him apply that drive and energy to our clients’ most significant global disputes and regulatory challenges.” Robert’s arrival is part of a period of expansion at Gibson Dunn in London over the past 12 months, with the hires of technology partners Alison Beal and Joel Harrison, private equity partners Isabel Berger, Alice Brogi, Robert Dixon, Federico Fruhbeck, Till Lefranc, and Wim De Vlieger, and capital markets partner Hugo Hernandez-Mancha. Download PDF