Co-Director Profiles
Mr. Luke Sobota
Luke is a founding partner of Three Crowns and is active in investor-state, inter-state, and commercial arbitrations. He previously worked in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he advised and prepared formal legal opinions for executive branch officials on a range of constitutional, international, and administrative law issues. His monograph on General Principles of Law and International Due Process was recently published by Oxford University Press. Luke teaches a course on investment disputes at American University and a course on the forensics of international arbitration at the University of Miami. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, after which he clerked for the late Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, William H. Rehnquist.
Mr. Hugh Carlson
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. 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.
Speaker Profiles (Alphabetical Order by Last Name)
Ms. Suzana Blades (ConocoPhillips)
Suzana Blades is Assistant General Counsel – Commercial Litigation and Arbitration at the ConocoPhillips Company in Houston. Suzana manages a team of five lawyers that handles U.S. commercial litigation, including oil & gas and environmental disputes, litigation in foreign courts (for example, in China and Australia), and investment and international commercial arbitrations around the world, including ICSID arbitrations against Ecuador and Venezuela, and international commercial arbitrations involving parties from Algeria, Angola, Canada, Senegal, Indonesia etc. Prior to joining ConocoPhillips, Suzana worked as a Senior Negotiator at the Hess Corporation in Houston and as an associate in the international arbitration group of Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. She has published articles on a variety of topics related to international arbitration and co-taught a course on advocacy in international arbitration at Georgetown University Law Center. Suzana was one of the co-chairs of the ITA-IEL-ICC conference held in Houston in January 2017. Suzana is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, New York University School of Law and State University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
Ms. Elizabeth Devaney (Occidental Petroleum Corporation)
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)
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.
Judge Charles N. Brower (20 Essex Street, Judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice, and Judge of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal)
Judge Charles N. Brower serves as Judge ad hoc, International Court of Justice; Judge, Iran-United States Claims Tribunal; Member, 20 Essex Street Chambers; and Distinguished Visiting Research Professor, George Washington Law School. He previously served as Judge Ad Hoc, Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Acting Legal Adviser, United States Department of State; Deputy Special Counsellor to the President of the United States; and partner at White & Case LLP. He has received the American Society of International Law’s Manley O. Hudson Medal, the American Bar Association Section of International Law’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Global Arbitration Review’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ms. Elizabeth Devaney (Occidental Petroleum Corporation)
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.
Mr. Kabir Duggal (Baker McKenzie)
Kabir Duggal is a senior associate in the Baker McKenzie’s International Arbitration Practice Group in New York focusing on international investment law. He also acts as a Consultant for the United Nations Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS). Mr. Duggal is a Lecturer-in-Law at the Columbia Law School, teaching “International Investment Law and Arbitration.” He has published several articles and books and is regularly invited to speak at conferences globally. He is the Managing Editor for Columbia Law School’s “The American Review of International Arbitration” and is an editor for investmentclaims.com hosted by Oxford University Press. He also serves on ICSID Review’s Peer Review Board and is an Associate Editor for Brill-Nijhoff publisher’s international law and arbitration section.
Mr. Duggal has been awarded the inaugural “Diversity Fellowship” by the American Bar Association, Section of International Law and serves on HIALSA’s Advisory Board. Mr. Duggal also sits as an arbitrator and mediator. He has been listed as a Rising Star in international arbitration by Who’s Who Legal.
Mr. Oscar Garibaldi (Garibaldi Arbitrator)
Oscar M. Garibaldi is an independent arbitrator. He has extensive experience sitting as president and co-arbitrator in investment and commercial cases. For 34 years, he practiced law at Covington & Burling LLP, chiefly representing clients in international arbitration cases, until his retirement from that firm in 2013. He is trained in the civil-law and common-law systems, and his academic specialty is public international law, a subject he taught at Cornell Law School and the University of Virginia Law School. He has published extensively on international law and arbitration, and is ranked by Chambers, The Legal 500, and other publications of the same kind.
Mr. Laurent Gouiffès (Hogan Lovells)
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)
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. Kelly Herrera (ConocoPhillips)
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.
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).
Professor Mark Kantor (Independent Arbitrator)
Mark Kantor is a retired partner of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, an international arbitrator in investment and commercial disputes, Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, Editor-in-Chief of the online journal Transnational Dispute Management and a member of the World Bank Group Sanctions Board. He is on the Council of the American Arbitration Association (former member, Board of Directors), and former Chair of the DC Bar International Investment Committee and the DC Bar International Dispute Resolution Committee. He has authored numerous works, including Reports of Overseas Private Investment Corporation Determinations (eds. Mark Kantor, Michael D. Nolan and Karl P. Sauvant), Valuation for Arbitration: Compensation Standards, Valuation Methods and Expert Evidence (OGEMID Best Book 2008) and “A Code of Conduct for Party-Appointed Experts in International Arbitration – Can One be Found?” 26 Arbitration International 323 (2010) (OGEMID Best International Dispute Resolution Article 2010). More information at www.mark-kantor.com.
Ms. Sophie Lamb (Latham & Watkins)
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.
Mr. Jonathan Lim (WilmerHale)
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.
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.
Ms. Sara McBrearty (King & Spalding)
Sara McBrearty is an associate in King & Spalding’s International Arbitration practice in the firm’s Houston office, with a particular focus on complex disputes in the traditional and renewable energy industries. Sara works with clients at every stage of arbitration, from strategic advice on drafting arbitration agreements and maximizing investment protections to the final phases of award recognition, enforcement and set-aside. She has represented and advised clients in investor-state and commercial arbitrations before the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the American Arbitration Association/International Centre for Dispute Resolution, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, in ad hoc cases under the UNCITRAL Rules, and in ancillary litigation in U.S. federal and state courts. She has experience in disputes involving the governing laws of the U.S., England, The Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, and other jurisdictions. Sara is a member of the Texas State Bar.
Professor William (Rusty) Park (Boston University School of Law)
William (Rusty) Park is Professor of Law at Boston University, teaching in the areas of international tax and finance. After studies at Yale and Columbia, Park practiced in Paris until returning home to Boston, where he served as Director of Boston University’s Center for Banking and Financial Law.
Park is General Editor of Arbitration International and former President of the London Court of International Arbitration. Visiting academic appointments include Cambridge, Dijon, Hong Kong, Auckland and Geneva. A member of the Governing Board of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration and the Council of the American Arbitration Association, Park served as arbitrator on the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Swiss Bank Accounts and the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims. The President of the United States appointed Park to the Panel of Arbitrators for the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute.
Park’s books include Arbitration of International Business Disputes, International Forum Selection, ICC Arbitration (with Craig and Paulsson), International Commercial Arbitration (with Reisman, Craig and Paulsson) and Income Tax Treaty Arbitration (with Tillinghast).
Mr. Charles “Chip” Rosenberg (White & Case)
Charles (Chip) B. Rosenberg is an associate in the Washington, DC office of White & Case LLP, where he represents foreign sovereigns and private parties in complex international arbitrations. He also serves as a Regional Representative of the ICC Young Arbitrators Forum. Chip clerked for The Honorable Charles N. Brower in London, England and at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands. Chip graduated first in his class, summa cum laude, and Order of the Coif from the American University Washington College of Law. He repeatedly has been recognized as a “Rising Star” by Who’s Who Legal and DC Super Lawyers.
Ms. Claudia Salomon (Latham & Watkins)
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. Eugene Silva (Exxon Mobil)
Gene is currently in his ninth year in Exxon Mobil’s Law Department. As Counsel in the International Disputes Group, he oversees significant investor-state and international commercial disputes and advises on related policy and contractual issues. Prior to joining the company, Gene practiced for over eight years with Vinson & Elkins LLP and represented a variety of companies in both commercial and investor-state arbitrations under most major arbitral rules systems (including ICSID, ICC, AAA/ICDR, LCIA, SCC and UNCITRAL) and before various U.S. state and federal courts. Gene is also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center.
Mr. Claus von Wobeser (Von Wobeser y Sierra)
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.
Mr. Pablo Lopez Zadicoff (Compass Lexecon)
Mr. Pablo Lopez Zadicoff is Senior Vice President with Compass Lexecon with 13 years of experience providing economic, financial and regulatory analysis used in dispute resolution mechanisms involving assets from diverse industries located across the world (particularly in non-developed countries). Mr. Lopez Zadicoff has provided expert testimony in front of ICSID and ICC tribunals, and has also served as a strategy advisor to firms in amicable and non-amicable dispute resolution processes.
Mr. López Zadicoff has a Master in Arts in Economics (UNLP) and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business (specialized in finance, marketing and economics). He has also published and presented his research regarding damages quantification in diverse industry forums. He also serves as the staff leader for the International Arbitration Practice in the Washington DC office.
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