13 Mar 2026
Freshfields appoints Pieter de Ganon as counsel in Tokyo to strengthen dispute resolution team
"Freshfields hires Pieter de Ganon as counsel in Tokyo to its dispute resolution practice; he will work on international arbitration and IP/licensing disputes in technology-intensive sectors."
De Ganon joins Freshfields from Arnold & Porter’s San Francisco office. He brings more than a decade of experience in complex commercial and investor‑State arbitrations, as well as cross‑border litigation and investigations. He represents Japanese, US and multinational corporates and States in high‑stakes disputes, including acting for Toshiba in ICC arbitrations arising from the sale of its US$18bn memory chip business, and for the Republic of Türkiye and the Republic of Bulgaria in separate ICSID arbitrations in the energy sector.
He has particular expertise in IP and licensing disputes across technology‑intensive sectors, including artificial intelligence, biologics, agricultural biotechnology, next‑generation energy storage, advanced materials and semiconductor fabrication. De Ganon is a fluent Japanese speaker and holds a PhD in Japanese economic history from Princeton University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. After two federal clerkships in the Southern District of New York and on the Ninth Circuit, he spent seven years at Morrison & Foerster’s Tokyo and Silicon Valley offices before co‑managing Arnold & Porter’s Japan Practice Group.