In 2022, Suzanne Spears founded Paxus LLP, a boutique law firm based in London specialising in public international law, international arbitration, and business and human rights. Suzanne has practiced in these areas for more than two decades in London and New York, including as a partner in the International Arbitration group at Allen & Overy (now A&O Shearman), where she also led the Business and Human Rights practice.
Suzanne’s prior professional experience includes serving with international affairs organisations, such as the Office in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, and the Council on Foreign Relations, where much of her work focused on the role of multinational corporations in armed conflict and peace processes.
Suzanne now acts as counsel, arbitrator, and CEDR-accredited mediator in international disputes. She is currently advising investors whose businesses have been disrupted due to armed conflict, military coups or occupations, and a State that is dealing with threats by illegal armed groups to strategic assets owned by foreign investors.
As adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School, Suzanne also teaches International Arbitration on the US university’s London campus. Her recent publications include Financing a Just Transition Based on Respect for Human Rights (Paxus LLP, 2025) and ‘Reconciling Human Rights and Investor Rights: The Case of Climate Change’ in Investment Arbitration and Climate Change (Kluwer, A. Magnusson & A. Ipp eds 2024).