Please kindly find below select profiles from our esteemed speakers. Please see here for the most recent speakers’ list.
Keynote Speakers
Mr. Hewitt Pate (Chevron, Vice President and General Counsel)
R. Hewitt Pate, 54, is vice president and general counsel for Chevron Corporation, a position he has held since 2009. As Chevron’s chief legal officer, Pate directs the company’s worldwide legal affairs and serves on the company’s Executive Committee.
Pate, a long-time partner at Hunton & Williams in Washington, D.C., headed the firm’s Global Competition practice prior to joining Chevron. From 2003 to 2005, Pate served as the assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was a deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division, responsible for energy, transportation and other regulatory matters, from 2001 to 2003. In 1999, Pate served as Ewald Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Virginia.
Earlier in his career, Pate was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, for retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. and for Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III.
He is a member of the Washington, D.C., and Virginia bars, the American Law Institute, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Pate joined Chevron in 2009 in the position he currently holds. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and English from the University of North Carolina in 1984 and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia in 1987.
Mr. Jan Paulsson (Three Crowns, Founding Partner, Washington D.C.)
Jan Paulsson, a founding partner of Three Crowns LLP, has practiced exclusively as an advocate and arbitrator in international cases since 1975. A member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the ICSID list of arbitrators, and the Court of Arbitration of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, he has also served as President of the London Court of International Arbitration, President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration, and a Vice-President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration (Paris). Jan is a graduate of Harvard College, Yale Law School (where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal), and the University of Paris (Sorbonne).
Cross-Cultural Advocacy Panel
Mr. Laurent Gouiffès (Hogan Lovells, Partner, Paris)
Head of the International Arbitration practice group at Hogan Lovells in Paris, Laurent Gouiffès has over 20 years’ experience representing major industrial groups and States in high profile, complex international arbitrations and mediations.
He has extensive experience of arbitration under the rules of the ICC, LCIA, ICSID and UNCITRAL and has also acted in a number of disputes brought under the Energy Charter Treaty.
With a key focus on energy-related, technological and investment disputes, Laurent regularly acts on behalf of clients in the oil and gas, mining, electricity, nuclear, aerospace and telecommunications industries as well as on behalf of States. Laurent also acts as arbitrator in cases before the ICC, LCIA and Chamber of Arbitration of Milan. He is dual qualified in France and England.
Laurent also regularly speaks and publishes on topical issues in arbitration, energy and public/private international law, including giving lectures on energy arbitration at LSE in London and Sciences Po in Paris.
Mr. Alastair Henderson (Herbert Smith Freehills, Managing Partner, Singapore)
Alastair heads Herbert Smith Freehills’ disputes and arbitration practice in Southeast Asia. He is also the firm’s Southeast Asia managing partner. He has lived and worked in the region since 1999.
Alastair is ‘one of the leading names on the Asia-Pacific arbitration scene, offering clients extensive knowledge of South-East Asian matters from his Singapore base. Sources particularly appreciate his “in-depth experience and good judgment” ‘ (Chambers Asia). He represents clients before tribunals all over the world and he serves regularly as an arbitrator in major centres. He handles cases for governments and public bodies, international banks, multinational corporations and leading regional companies, across many sectors and industries including construction, infrastructure, power, energy and natural resources projects and their financing and shareholder structures; industrial and manufacturing sectors; telecoms and information technology matters; international contract and joint venture disputes; cross-border trading and investment cases; and specialist areas of international law.
Ms. Sophie Lamb (Latham & Watkins, Partner, London)
Sophie J. Lamb QC is a litigation partner in the London office of Latham & Watkins and global Co-chair of the firm’s International Arbitration Practice.
Ms. Lamb is widely acknowledged as one of the leading arbitration practitioners of her generation and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in February 2018. She is a trusted advisor to boards of public companies, to investors and to sovereign nations, routinely engaged in the most complex, high value and/or reputationally significant disputes of the moment. Her cases have featured in The Lawyer’s top 20 cases of the year and she is listed as one of the UK’s most influential and inspirational lawyers in their Hot 100 list for her successes “in billion dollar, high profile, politically sensitive and often market-shaping arbitration cases and related court trials.”
Commended for her exceptional client service and outstanding advocacy, Ms. Lamb regularly appears as advocate in all arbitral fora, before international tribunals and in the English courts.
She has acted as an adviser and/or advocate in more than 100 international arbitrations across a range of industry sectors including automotive, banking and financial services, energy and natural resources, insurance, pharmaceuticals, private equity and telecommunications. She is also widely recognized for her experience in international investment and inter-state disputes.
Ms. Claudia Salomon (Latham & Watkins, Partner, New York)
Claudia T. Salomon is a partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins and global Co-chair of the firm’s International Arbitration Practice. She is recognized as a leading international arbitration attorney by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal, Latinvex and Best Lawyers.
She has experience handling significant investor treaty arbitration and international commercial arbitration cases under all of the major arbitral rules, in venues around the globe, under common law and civil law. She also regularly serves as an arbitrator.
Ms. Salomon is the US member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and serves as the Co-chair of the ICC Taskforce on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration. She is the co-editor of Choice of Venue in International Arbitration, published by Oxford University Press. She is admitted to practice in New York and England & Wales and is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Mr. Claus von Wobeser (Von Wobeser y Sierra, Managing Partner, Mexico)
Claus von Wobeser, is Managing Partner and Head of the Dispute Resolution practice of Von Wobeser y Sierra. He has acted in more than 150 international arbitration proceedings, either as arbitrator or counsel, as per the rules of the ICC, ICDR, LCIA, HKIAC, UNCITRAL, NAFTA, ICSID and ICSID Additional Facility, among others. Also, he frequently participates as expert in arbitration proceedings and as an expert on Mexican law before U.S. and English courts. Additionally, his experience includes having acted as ad hoc judge of the Inter-American Human Rights Court and as conciliator in ICSID proceedings. Mr. von Wobeser has served as Vice President of the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC, as Co-Chair to the IBA Arbitration Committee and as President of the Arbitration Commission of the Mexican Chapter of ICC. Currently, he is member of the Panel of Arbitrators of ICSID, Member of the London Court of Arbitration, Vice President of the Latin American Arbitration Association, among other designations. His studies include a Law Degree (JD equivalent) from Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City and a Doctorate of Law in International and European Law Studies from Université de Droit, d’Economie et de Sciences Sociales in Paris.
Moderator: Mr. Jonathan Lim (WilmerHale, Senior Associate, London)
Jonathan Lim is a Senior Associate with WilmerHale in London. He has represented governments and private corporations in commercial and investment arbitrations under all major arbitration rules sited across Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. He has also advised governments in Africa and Asia on a range of public international law issues and the drafting of arbitration legislation. In addition to his practice as counsel, Jonathan has a developing practice as an arbitrator, with appointments as sole and party-appointed arbitrator in proceedings seated in Europe and Asia.
Jonathan is Co-Chair of the Asia-Pacific Forum on International Arbitration, and serves on the various committees in Singapore and the UK. He is one of the youngest lawyers listed in Who’s Who Legal 2018 as a Future Leader in International Arbitration (a list of leading under-45 practitioners from around the world), and has been described as “a very smart all-round lawyer with a strong work ethic,” “able to digest and master a large amount of material very quickly,” and “always available to provide creative and practical solutions.” Jonathan co-teaches a course on international arbitration at the National University of Singapore each January.
Evidence in International Commercial Arbitration Panel
Mr. Doak Bishop (King & Spalding, Partner, Houston)
Partner in King & Spalding’s Houston Office. Co-Chair of Firm’s International Arbitration Practice Group. B.A. degree with high honors and departmental distinction from Southern Methodist University (1973), and J.D. degree with honors from the University of Texas Law School (1976), Research Editor of the Texas Law Review. Forty-one years of legal practice, with a focus on international arbitration and foreign investment disputes. Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Executive Committee of the American Society of International Law; Board of Trustees of the Center for American and International Law; Chair of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration (2012-2015); Member, U.S. delegation to the NAFTA Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes; Advisor to the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law (3rd) of International Commercial Arbitration; Adjunct Professor, SMU Law School (1999) (International Commercial Arbitration), University of Houston Law School (2002) (Foreign Investment Disputes), University of Texas Law School (2014) (Foreign Investment Disputes), and University of Oklahoma Law School (2012, 2013, 2015) (Foreign Investment Disputes); Co-Chair, International Litigation Committee of ABA’s Litigation Section (1998-2000); Chair, Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas (1998-1999). Arbitrator in about 80 arbitrations, including ICSID, LCIA, ICC, AAA/ICDR, NAFTA, and BIT arbitrations. Editor, The Art of Advocacy in International Arbitration (2nd ed. Juris Publishing 2010); co-author of Foreign Investment Disputes: Cases, Materials and Commentaries (Kluwers, 2nd ed. 2014); Editor, Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Against Sovereigns (Juris 2009); co-author of Annulment Under the ICSID Convention (Oxford Press 2012).
Mr. Nigel Blackaby (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Partner, Washington D.C.)
Nigel is a partner at the Washington D.C. office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and global head of the firm’s international arbitration group. He has acted as counsel and arbitrator in over 100 ad hoc and institutional arbitrations in the English and Spanish languages (including over 30 investment arbitrations for investors and states). He has particular expertise in Latin America and energy and mining disputes.
Nigel is an Adjunct Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law in Washington DC, co-author of Redfern and Hunter on International Arbitration (6th edition, OUP, 2015), Guide to ICSID Arbitration (2nd edition, Kluwer, 2010) and International Arbitration in Latin America (Kluwer, 2003). He is a member of the Court of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre and a Board member of the Energy Advisor of the Inter-American Dialogue. Who’s Who Legal recently named Nigel as one of three United States-based practitioners in the world’s top 35 arbitration specialists.
A graduate of the University of Exeter (UK) and the Université d’Aix-Marseille III (France), Nigel speaks (and has conducted arbitrations in) English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
Ms. Jean Kalicki (Kalicki Arbitration)
Jean Kalicki is an independent arbitrator in New York and Washington, DC, specializing in investor-State, international and complex commercial disputes. Until April 2016, she was a Partner at Arnold & Porter LLP. Over 25 years, she has conducted arbitrations involving six continents and many industries, addressing public international law and the laws of dozens of countries. Ms. Kalicki is a Vice President of the LCIA and a member of the ICCA Governing Board, the ICC Commission and the Board of SICANA, Inc. (ICC North America), and the ICDR’s International Board. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the College of Commercial Arbitrators; taught arbitration and advocacy for many years as an adjunct professor at Georgetown and American University law schools; was co-editor of RESHAPING THE INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT SYSTEM: JOURNEYS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY (Brill Nijhoff and TDM-OGEMID 2015); and serves on the Editorial Boards of the ICSID Review and Global Arbitration Review. Ms. Kalicki was recently named Global Arbitration Review’s “Best Prepared/Most Responsive arbitrator” for 2017, and one of Law360’s “Five Most Influential Female International Arbitrators” for 2016. She was also selected as Best Lawyers‘ “Lawyer of the Year” for International Arbitration-Governmental for both Washington, DC (2016) and New York (2017).
Ms. Anne Marie Whitesell (Georgetown University Law Center Professor; Former ICC International Court of Arbitration Secretary General)
Anne Marie Whitesell is Professor, LL.M. Program and Faculty Director, Program on International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution at Georgetown University Law Center. Ms. Whitesell was Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration from 2001 to 2007. She also previously taught at the Université de Paris I, the Institut de Droit Comparé and Georgetown. Ms. Whitesell has practised with law firms in both the United States and in France, and has acted as arbitrator and counsel in numerous international arbitration cases. She serves as a member of various boards and committees related to dispute resolution and is the Director of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Center of the International Law Institute.
Ms. Whitesell received her A.B. from Smith College, her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and her Doctorate in Law from the Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is admitted to the New York State Bar, the District of Columbia Bar and the US District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Mr. Howard Zelbo (Cleary Gottlieb, Partner, New York)
Howard Zelbo is a partner in the New York office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Howard’s practice focuses on international arbitration and complex commercial litigation. He has acted as the lead attorney in numerous arbitrations and has represented a number of corporations and sovereigns globally, with significant experience in Latin America.
Howard’s notable international arbitration experience includes, representing a company in an ICSID arbitration against Peru under a port concession agreement; a consortium of major Latin American oil and gas corporations in a dispute with an oil trading company, involving an ICC arbitration in New York and injunction proceedings in the UK; Citigroup in its widely publicized battle for corporate control over Brasil Telecom, which included ICC arbitrations in London and in Paris; and Western Digital’s subsidiary, SanDisk, in a high-stakes arbitration against Toshiba regarding transfer consent rights in joint ventures worth billions of dollars.
Moderator: Mr. Adrián Magallanes (Von Wobeser y Sierra, Partner, Mexico)
Adrián is partner of the litigation and arbitration practice at Von Wobeser y Sierra. He is admitted to practice in Mexico and New York and has been a member of Von Wobeser y Sierra since 2002. He has been counsel in ad hoc and institutional arbitrations under ICC, LCIA, ICSID, AAA- ICDR, UNCITRAL, CAM, CANACO in the commercial, infra-structure, energy, oil & gas, and investor-state areas. He has also acted as arbitrator in commercial cases.
He appears before Mexican Courts – including the Mexican Supreme Court – in various types of litigation proceedings, particularly in commercial and administrative law related disputes. His experience also includes several class actions cases, transnational litigations with parallel proceedings in different jurisdictions, and constitutional law trials (Amparos).
In addition to his experience in Mexico, Adrián worked in the dispute resolution practice groups of Arnold & Porter LLP (Washington, D.C.) and King & Wood Mallesons (Beijing, PRC).
He is a graduate of the Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City (summa cum laude) and holds an LL.M. degree from New York University, where he received the “Arthur T. Vanderbilt Scholar Award” for academic merit and a full tuition scholarship. He also has post-graduate studies in arbitration from the Faculty of Law of McGill University, in Montreal.
Adrián is the Chairman of the Arbitration Commission of the Mexican Bar Association, and former Executive and Global Advisory Board Member of the ICDR Y&I. He is professor of International Litigation at the Escuela Libre de Derecho and teaches in the post-graduate arbitration program organized by this law school and the ICC International Court of Arbitration.
In-House Counsel’s Perspective on International Arbitration Panel
Ms. Elizabeth Devaney (Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Senior Corporate Counsel–Litigation)
Elizabeth Devaney is Senior Corporate Counsel – Litigation for Occidental Petroleum Corp., where she handles a variety of complex commercial litigation and manages Oxy’s international arbitration matters. Prior to joining Oxy, Liz worked at Vinson & Elkins and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan where she handled a variety of litigation matters spanning numerous industries and matter types. She is also Vice-Chair of Young ITA. She also served as a clerk to the Honorable Judge John M. Rogers of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Ms. Elisabeth Eljuri (Sierra Oil & Gas, Vice President, Chief Negotiator, and Chief Legal Officer)
Elisabeth is a member of the executive team of Sierra Oil & Gas, Mexico’s first independent oil company. As a VP, she also holds the position of Chief Negotiator and Chief Legal Counsel, combining a commercial and legal role. She is a senior energy negotiator and lawyer with significant experience in the upstream and midstream business in Latin America. Until end of 2015, Elisabeth was Head of Latin America of the global firm Norton Rose Fulbright and practiced law since the early nineties.
In Latin America, Elisabeth focused most of her career on corporate and transactional work involving high-end sophisticated transactions for major energy companies as well as international dispute work related to energy, projects and infrastructure. On the dispute side, she acted as co-counsel in international arbitrations, including ICC and ICSID procedures. She has spoken and published extensively in the area of energy and resources investment disputes and investment treaty law as well as political risk management in such industries.
Elisabeth was President worldwide of the Houston-based Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and is co-chair and an instructor of the prestigious International Oil and Gas Law, Contracts and Negotiation Course. Elisabeth received her law degree from Universidad Católica in 1991 and an LLM from Harvard Law School in 1992. She is admitted to practice law in New York and Venezuela.
Ms. Kelly Herrera (ConocoPhillips, Senior Counsel)
Kelly Herrera is Senior Counsel – Arbitration and Commercial Litigation at the ConocoPhillips Company in Houston. Kelly has managed a wide variety of disputes for ConocoPhillips since April 2012. Kelly regularly advises her internal business clients on strategy related to both litigation and arbitration, and she is also lead counsel for third-party claims in crisis management and emergency response. She has also handled international arbitrations during her time at ConocoPhillips, including investor-state and commercial disputes. Prior to joining ConocoPhillips, Kelly spent 7 years as outside counsel litigating commercial disputes in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Jose Martin (Chevron, Managing Counsel)
Jose Luis Martin is Managing Counsel for Enterprise Litigation at Chevron Corporation where his focus is on the Company’s Major and Significant litigation. Mr. Martin managed the company’s long standing Ecuador dispute, including the Bilateral Investment Treaty arbitrations against the Republic of Ecuador, the Federal racketeering and fraud trial against those who procured a baseless multi-billion dollar judgment against Chevron, the defense of the related recognition and enforcement actions in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Ecuador, and a variety of related proceedings across the globe. Mr. Martin joined Chevron in 2010 as Senior Counsel, where he managed a variety of litigation matters in the Upstream and Gas Group. Prior to joining Chevron, he was a partner in the intellectual property group at Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP in Palo Alto. His focus was on patent, trade secret and business litigation.
Mr. Martin earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Moderator: Mr. Hugh Carlson (Three Crowns, Director of Practice & Senior Associate, Washington D.C.)
Hugh Carlson is Director of Practice and a senior associate at Three Crowns LLP, a specialist firm in international arbitration, where he serves in a leadership role and practices international commercial and investment arbitration. He has represented clients under most major arbitral rules systems. His recent experience includes acting for ConocoPhillips in multiple ICSID and ICC arbitrations arising in part from the expropriation of the company’s hydrocarbon assets in Venezuela.
Prior to joining Three Crowns, Hugh practiced international arbitration in the Washington, D.C. office of a large international law firm, where he represented multinational corporations and sovereign States.
Hugh is an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law and co-directs the International Arbitration Workshop at Harvard Law School. He was selected as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and is a member of the CPR Cybersecurity Task Force.
Transforming Institutions in Investor-State Dispute Settlement Panel
Ms. Claudia Annacker (Cleary Gottlieb, Partner, Paris)
Claudia Annacker is a partner based in the Paris office of Cleary Gottlieb. Her practice focuses on international dispute settlement, in particular investor-State arbitration and other public international law matters. She has represented States and investors in more than 25 investment treaty arbitrations, including the Hellenic Republic in an ICSID arbitration concluding in 2016 with an award dismissing all claims for lack of jurisdiction over sovereign bonds.
She received a Ph.D. and venia legendi et docendi (habilitation) in public international law from the University of Vienna. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Vienna where she teaches seminars in international dispute settlement and international responsibility, and has also been a visiting professor at the University of Paris X (Nanterre). She currently serves as a member of the SIAC Court of Arbitration and acted as chair of the SIAC Subcommittee that drafted the 2017 SIAC Investment Arbitration Rules.
Mr. José Angelo Estrella Faria (United Nations Office of Legal Affairs International Trade Law Division (UNCITRAL Secretariat), Senior Legal Officer)
José Angelo Estrella Faria is a Senior Legal Officer and Head of the technical Assistance Section of the International Trade Law Division, United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (Vienna), which functions as substantive secretariat for the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
From 1 October 2008 to 31 July 2017 he was the Secretary-General of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) and, as such, in charge of supervising all the staff and projects of UNIDROIT, an independent intergovernmental organization devoted to the unification and harmonization of private law worldwide.
Before his appointment to UNIDROIT, Mr. Faria had worked at the secretariat of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) from 1996 to 2008. As secretary to the relevant intergovernmental working groups, he was responsible for UNCITRAL work on privately financed infrastructure projects and electronic commerce. He also supervised the work of Working Group III (Transport Law) between 2005 and 2008.
Mr. Faria served at the General Legal Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs, in New York (1992-1996). He had worked before as an attorney in Brazil, specialising in commercial and trade law matters.
He has published various articles and books on legal harmonisation, commercial law and international law. Mr. Faria graduated from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and holds a Masters on European Law from the Europa Institut der Universität des Saarlandes (Saarbrücken, Germany). He has lectured at various universities and is a honorary professor of the University of International Business and Economics, China. He is a member of the Curatorium of the Xiamen Academy f International Law, of the American Law Institute, of the European law Institute and an Associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law.
Mr. Michele Potestà (Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler, Senior Associate, Geneva)
Michele Potestà is a senior associate at Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler in Geneva, where he specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration. Over the past ten years, Michele has participated in over 25 international investment and commercial arbitrations as counsel, arbitrator and secretary of the tribunal, under all major arbitral rules, including the ICC, ICSID, ICSID Additional Facility, and UNCITRAL Rules, and in different jurisdictions. Michele’s areas of expertise include energy and natural resources (oil, gas, mining and solar energy), pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, international sales, banking and finance, services, real estate and construction, among others. Michele has also advised sovereign states on their investment treaty programs.
Michele is regularly appointed as arbitrator. He has sat as sole arbitrator and co-arbitrator under various rules, including the rules of the ICC, the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), the Danish Institute of Arbitration, and the Swiss Rules of International Arbitration. He is listed in the panel of arbitrators at the Vienna International Arbitration Centre (VIAC) and the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA).
Michele is also a senior researcher at the Geneva Center for International Dispute Settlement (CIDS) where he co-leads a research project on the reform of ISDS, in cooperation with UNCITRAL. Prior to joining Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler, he was a lecturer at the Geneva Master in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS), where he taught investment and commercial arbitration. He has authored numerous publications on issues of investment and commercial arbitration and is frequently invited to speak at arbitration conferences.
An Italian national, Michele is qualified to practice law in Italy and registered with the Geneva bar (foreign lawyers section). He holds a Ph.D., a bachelor and a master’s degree from the University of Milan. Michele speaks English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish.
Ms. Lisa Sachs (Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Director)
Lisa Sachs is the Director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment. Since joining CCSI in 2008, she established and now oversees the three areas of focus for CCSI: investments in extractive industries, investments in land and agriculture, and investment law and policy. She has developed a robust research portfolio in each of these areas, and has overseen advisory work in Mozambique, Guinea, Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia, Paraguay and Timor-Leste. She teaches a masters seminar at Columbia Law School and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs on Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development, and has helped to build course offerings and executive trainings at Columbia Law School on investment law and policy and sustainable development. She is a co-chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s thematic group on the Good Governance of Extractive and Land Resources and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of International Governance, Public-Private Cooperation and Sustainable Development. From 2014-2016, she was Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Mining & Metals. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University, and earned her Juris Doctor and a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University, where she was a James Kent Scholar and recipient of the Parker School Certificate in International and Comparative Law.
Mr. André von Walter (Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission, Legal Counsel and Negotiator)
André von Walter is a Legal Counsel and negotiator in the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission. His recent work focused on developing the European Union’s approach to investment dispute resolution. He represented the EU in bilateral investment negotiations with Singapore, Canada, Vietnam, Morocco, Japan, Mexico and the United States. He also acted as the EU lead negotiator for the UNCITRAL Transparency Convention and represents the EU in UNCITRAL’s current work on ISDS reform. Prior to his current position, he worked as a political advisor and negotiator for international investment at the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. André von Walter has lectured public international law and international economic law at the University of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for public international law of Bonn University.
Moderator: Mr. Pedro Arcoverde (ICC International Court of Arbitration, Deputy Counsel)
Pedro Arcoverde is a Deputy Counsel at the ICC International Court of Arbitration in New York since July 2017. Before that, he completed internships in Paris with the international arbitration departments of Dechert and Hogan Lovells and with a major French energy company. He joined the ICC in Paris in 2015 as a Deputy Counsel. He has a degree in law from the Federal University of Pernambuco (Recife, Brazil) and a master’s degree cum laude in international economic law from Sciences Po (Paris, France). He has been a teaching assistant at Sciences Po in classes relating to arbitration and international contracts in Latin American and has published articles relating mainly to international commercial arbitration. He is admitted to practice law in Brazil and has been admitted to the Paris Bar exam.
Closing Remarks
Mr. Jonathan I. Blackman (Cleary Gottlieb, Partner, London & New York)
Jonathan I. Blackman’s practice focuses on litigation, including international litigation and arbitration, securities law, banking and insurance law. He has participated in numerous international arbitrations involving both public international law and complex commercial disputes, litigation involving the immunity of foreign states and their agencies under the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, and commercial litigation in a variety of U.S. federal and state courts. Among other matters, he has represented the Russian Federation in both treaty and commercial arbitration, Tatneft in treaty arbitration, Telecom Italia in one of the largest known commercial arbitrations, Goodyear Tire & Rubber in commercial arbitration, and numerous other clients, as well as representing corporate and other arbitration clients in actions in U.S. courts.
