Anna Tatishvili in action. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Clients of Kirkland & Ellis can expect their lawyers to understand their business, whether it's banking, private equity, pharmaceutical patents, or even—it turns out—tennis.

Kirkland international dispute resolution lawyer Javier Rubinstein, a Chicagoan who normally spends his time handling high-profile international commercial and investment arbitrations, recently took on a pro bono case for Georgian-American tennis pro Anna Tatishvili, who was stripped of her 2019 French Open first round qualification prize money for not playing well enough.

Rubinstein—an amateur player himself—handled Tatishvili's June appeal to the Grand Slam board. On Thursday he won a reversal of the decision, paving the way for Tatishvili to recover her prize money and securing the board director's acknowledgment that she had competed professionally “from the first to the very last point.”

The American Lawyer checked in with Rubinstein on Friday afternoon about his interest in the case, how Kirkland got involved and what else he is working on outside of the tennis world. The exchange has been edited for clarity and length.

How did you come across the Tatishvili case? 

Javier Rubinstein of Kirkland & Ellis

Rubinstein: I participate in sports-related arbitration as part of my international arbitration practice, including at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. I particularly enjoy working on tennis cases because I am a huge tennis fan, enjoy playing and am generally very passionate about the sport. 

I have handled a number of tennis cases in the past. The other cases were mostly were doping related and never made headlines because I was successful in defending each of them, which meant that the identities of the players would remain confidential. I came to represent Anna after she contacted me based on a referral through my tennis contacts in Europe.

Do you play competitively?

I play recreational tennis in Chicago and in California. I've played in various tennis leagues over the years.

Should we be on the lookout for an emerging Tennis Practice at Kirkland?

I certainly hope so!

What other notable matters outside of tennis have you been working on lately?

My practice focuses on international commercial and investment treaty arbitration. Most of the matters that I handle are confidential. However, one public matter that I am currently handling is an investment treaty arbitration brought by 54 Mexican investors against the Kingdom of Spain for violation of the Mexico-Spain Bilateral Investment Treaty.

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