Davis Dispute Advisory was delighted to participate in the panel “From Award to Recovery: Catch Me If You Can, Yes We Can”, organised by K&L Gates, HKA and the Ukrainian Bar Association during London International Disputes Week (LIDW) 2026.
The panel brought together practitioners with extensive experience in post-award recovery to discuss the practical realities of enforcement in today’s increasingly complex geopolitical environment. Discussions focused on the challenges of converting awards into recoveries, the role of creativity and persistence in enforcement campaigns, and the evolving tools available to award creditors.
The discussion explored the realities of post-award recovery and the challenges facing award creditors seeking to convert arbitral awards into actual recoveries. Drawing on a number of enforcement campaigns involving sovereigns and state-owned entities, Anastasia Davis Bondarenko shared three key lessons for designing effective cross-border enforcement strategies.
First, enforcement practitioners should be careful not to take anything for granted. Some of the most successful recoveries have resulted from challenging assumptions about what assets are immune, which jurisdictions are viable, or what enforcement avenues are realistically available. Historic examples such as the seizure of Argentina’s naval vessel ARA Libertad illustrate how creative enforcement strategies can generate significant pressure even when ultimate recovery from the targeted asset itself may be unlikely.
Second, the true objective of an enforcement campaign is often not asset liquidation, but leverage creation. In practice, enforcement is frequently about changing incentives and increasing the costs of continued non-compliance until settlement becomes the more attractive option. Strategic enforcement actions can create commercial, political or reputational pressure at particularly sensitive moments for a debtor state.
Third, an arbitral award should be viewed as an asset, and enforcement is only one of several ways of realising value from that asset. The continued development of secondary markets for arbitral awards and sovereign claims has created additional pathways for claimants, including sales, monetisation transactions and other structured solutions.
Obtaining an award is rarely the end of the journey. Careful planning and strategic execution remain critical to transforming legal success into actual recovery.
Learn more about the event here and here.