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Simpson Thacher represents Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG), Team Alinghi, and America's Cup Management, the current holder of the 32nd America's Cup and its racing team and management company, respectively, and Ernesto Bertarelli, the owner of Team Alinghi, in a series of litigations concerning the 33rd America's Cup. The America's Cup is the most famous and most prestigious trophy in sailing.

Team New Zealand (TNZ), another competitor for the America's Cup, brought two actions against the Firm's clients in these matters, one in New York Supreme Court alleging breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty, and the other in the Southern District of New York alleging antitrust violations under the Sherman and Clayton Act. Both complaints related to SNG's acceptance of Club Nautico Espanol de Vela (CNEV) as the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America's Cup and their promulgation of allegedly unfair rules of competition. The allegations in the complaints relate to another litigation in which the Firm represents SNG against Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), a San Francisco yacht club that races in the America's Cup through Team BMW Oracle Racing, owned by Oracle founder Larry Ellison. In that case, Simpson Thacher was retained after the client received an adverse ruling from the New York Supreme Court disqualifying CNEV as Challenger of Record. The Firm successfully appealed to the Appellate Division, which issued a 3-2 decision in July reinstating CNEV as the Challenger of Record. The case is currently pending before the New York Court of Appeals and will likely be argued early next year. Just this week, SNG and nearly a dozen challenging yacht clubs from around the world signed a joint request urging GGCY to withdraw its appeal so that it could join the discussions and planning for the 33rd America's Cup.

In the TNZ cases, the Firm successfully removed the breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty cases to federal court where they were assigned to Judge Pauley. Over the summer, Judge Pauley rejected TNZ's request for immediate discovery and the Firm brought a motion to dismiss the cases under the Federal Arbitration Act in favor of arbitration based on a broad arbitration provision in the rules governing the next America's Cup. That motion was argued in September and favorably received by Judge Pauley. While awaiting a written decision, TNZ chose to voluntarily dismiss both its cases with prejudice without requiring any concessions from the Firm's clients. The Simpson Thacher team handling the TNZ matters was led by Jonathan Youngwood. Other members of the team included George Wang, Laura Murphy, Ihsan Dogramaci, Thomas Welling, Donald Conklin and paralegal Stephanie Crosskey. Summer associate Chris Lee also provided valuable assistance.