Valeriya Tsekhanska
President

Valeriya is an LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School from Ukraine.  She is a dual-qualified lawyer admitted to the Ukrainian Bar and the Roll of Solicitors of England & Wales (pending), a former diplomat, and a certified financial advisor.

Immediately prior to joining HLS, Valeriya was a visiting foreign consultant with the international arbitration group of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in London, where she acted as counsel in complex investment arbitrations under most institutional rules as well as ad hoc.  Before that, Valeriya had trained at White&Case LLP, Cleary Gottlieb LLP, DLA Piper and Bredin Prat in Paris.

Prior to going into Biglaw, Valeriya served at the embassies of Ukraine in Paris and Berlin as well as at the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations in New York, where she represented Ukraine in the 2^nd economic and financial committee during the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly.

Valeriya holds a Master’s degree in Global Business Law and Governance from SciencesPo Paris and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, a Certificate in Global Business Law and Governance from Columbia Law School, an M2 degree in Finance and Asset Management from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a B.A. degree in Transatlantic Relations from SciencesPo Paris.

Email: vtsekhanska@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Leonie Liebenwein
VP Secretary

Leonie Liebenwein is an LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School from Vienna, Austria. In the past five years before coming to HLS, Leonie has worked as an undergraduate, as well as a graduate research and teaching assistant at the department of Civil Procedure Law at the University of Vienna. Her research mainly focuses on international commercial arbitration. After graduating from her first law degree, Leonie started her Ph.D. studies in the same area of law. In her thesis, she analyzes the question of the applicable law to the extension of arbitration agreements to non-signatories from a comparative law perspective. She also participated in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court and co-coached the team of the University of Vienna for three consecutive award-winning years. During her time in academia, Leonie was also an academic staff member of a leading Austrian business law journal, where she was inter alia responsible for preparing case summaries of Austrian supreme court decisions regarding arbitration matters for publication.

Email: lliebenwein@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Ewa Tokarewicz
VP of Media & Communication

Ewa Tokarewicz is an LL.M. candidate from Poland. Ewa graduated with honors from the Faculty of Law at the University of Warsaw in 2021 and is currently a Ph.D. student at Jagiellonian University, working on her dissertation on the international protection of digital assets in investment law. International investment arbitration remains one of her main interests – during her studies, she was a member and then a coach of the University of Warsaw’s FDI Moot Team. Currently, she is a member of the 2023 FDI Moot Case Committee.

Before joining HLS she lived in Paris where she was completing an internship at the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, supporting the Arbitration Case Management Teams. Prior to that, she worked in the Dispute Resolution and Arbitration department of DWF LLP and the Banking Litigation department of Allen & Overy LLP. In her spare time, Ewa likes playing tennis and gardening.

Email: etokarewicz@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Patricija Rukstelyte
VP of Internal & Campus Events

Patricija is an LL.M. Candidate at Harvard Law School from Lithuania. She holds a Master’s degree in Commercial Law from Vilnius University (Lithuania). During her time in law school Patricija completed an exchange program at the Ghent University (Belgium) and received a Best Memorial-Runner Up Award at the Oxford Price Media Law Moot Court organized by University of Oxford. Before joining Harvard Law School, Patricija was a Baltic-American Freedom Foundation scholar in New York City, where she worked in a mediation center and mediated small claim cases in Manhattan Civil Court. Later on, Patricija worked at law firms TGS Baltic (Vilnius), as well as Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes (Paris) where she focused her practice on international commercial and investment arbitration under a variety of governing laws and arbitration rules.

Email: prukstelyte@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Karol Piwoński
VP of Internal & Campus Events

Karol is an LL.M. candidate from Poland. He graduated as valedictorian, summa cum laude, from the University of Warsaw in 2022. He also studied at the University of Manchester (UK) as an exchange student. He gained experience in the dispute resolution departments of Allen & Overy and Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka, a leading Polish law firm. He also interned with Dentons and PwC. He competed in several moot courts, including Foreign Direct Investment International Arbitration Moot in 2021, where his team ranked 5th in the Global Rounds, and Central and Eastern European Moot in EU law, where he received an individual prize for noted speaker. At Harvard, he serves on the Harvard International Law Journal as Line Editor. He is also involved in the Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project as a team member.

Email: kpiwonski@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Nicolas Cabellero Hernandez
VP of Conference

Nicolas is an LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School from Bogota, Colombia. He is both a lawyer and a historian graduated from Universidad Javeriana. Before joining HLS, Nicolas worked for over two years in the judicial branch, as a law clerk in the Colombian Council of State —highest court in Administrative Law matters— solving disputes relating to the procurement of public utilities and complex infrastructure. He also worked for the Colombian Constitutional Court where he drafted opinions relating to the constitutionality of laws enacted by Congress. In the private sector, Nicolas was an associate of the Dispute Resolution practice in Posse Herrera Ruiz, where he served as counsel in international arbitrations under the ICC Rules. In addition, he was an associate to the Public Law and Dispute Resolution practices at Esguerra Asesores Juridicos. He was a professor of International Arbitration at Universidad Javeriana for over three years. Nicolas is a board member of Colombia Very Young Arbitration Practitioners (COLVYAP).

Email: ncaballerohern@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Aarushi Nargas
VP of Conference

Aarushi Nargas is an LL.M candidate from India. Aarushi graduated at the top of her class from National Law University Jodhpur in 2018, after which she worked at the projects practice of a law firm in India. While in law school, she developed an interest in international law and arbitration through participation in the Philip C Jessup Moot Court Competition. Pursuing this interest further, Aarushi worked as a research assistant for Dr. Aniruddha Rajput, Member of the International Law Commission. In 2020, she undertook an internship at the judicial chambers of UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague for a period of six months. Subsequently, she clerked at the Supreme Court of India for two years where she worked on matters concerning arbitration law and commercial laws. At Harvard, Aarushi is focussed on deepening her understanding of international law and arbitration.

Email: anargas@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Adriana Lozano-Cazares
VP of Outreach & Partnerships 

Email:alozanocazares@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Daniel Hodgkinson
VP of Masterclass Workshop

Dan is a Harvard Law School LL.M. candidate from the United Kingdom. He holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Durham University and an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge, which he attended as a 3 Verulam Buildings LLM Scholar. During his studies, Dan developed an interest in international commercial litigation, arbitration, and international human rights law. He has drafted submissions to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Before attending Harvard, Dan worked in the Commercial and Common Law team at the Law Commission of England and Wales. His work focused on the Commission’s ongoing review of the English Arbitration Act 1996 and on law reform projects relating to blockchain, cryptoassets, and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs). Dan also coordinated the Commission’s 14th Programme of Law Reform.

After graduating from Harvard, Dan intends to return to the UK to practise as a barrister.

Email: dhodgkinson@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Mohamed Bouzagou Ouali
VP of Masterclass Workshop

Mohamed Bouzagou is an LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School, which he attends as a “la Caixa” Fellow. He is a Spanish lawyer specialized in international arbitration, both commercial and investment. He is also a coordinator of MAD VYAP – Madrid Very Young Arbitration Practitioners. Previously, he worked for a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and for different law firms in Frankfurt, Vienna, Geneva, Paris, Madrid, London, Barcelona and Brussels.

He studied a Double Degree in Law and Global Governance at ESADE Law School (Barcelona, Spain) and participated in two semester exchange programs at Columbia Law School (New York, USA) and Peking University (Beijing, China). He completed the Double Master’s Degree in International Business Law and Legal Practice at ESADE Law School.

Mohamed wrote his Master’s thesis on “Allegations of Corruption in International Investment Arbitration: Evidence”, and co-authored the chapter on arbitration agreements in “Memento Arbitraje 2020-2021” published by Francis Lefebvre.

Email: mbouzagououali@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Aashna Chawla
VP of Masterclass Workshop

Aashna is an LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School from New Delhi, India, specializing in international arbitration, as well as complex commercial litigation. Aashna studied law at Amity Law School, Delhi. She is admitted to the bar in India. During her studies, she was the primary research assistant for the Fourth Edition of the treaties titled “Commentary on the Law of Arbitration” by Indu Malhotra. Following graduation, she worked at the Indian Supreme Court as a Research Assistant cum Law Clerk for two years. After her clerkship, for two years, she acted as a counsel in the chambers of Mr. Ciccu Mukopadhaya in arbitrations under a variety of jurisdictions and arbitration rules.

Email: achawla@llm23.law.harvard.edu

Reem Hussein
VP – Treasurer