The ROAP EMEA Finals brought to a close our advanced remote oral advocacy and cross-examination courses, by featuring the most persuasive and skilled participants on each course. The recording is available here.

The outcome of the finals was determined by a panel of world-class arbitrators consisting of Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler (President), to whom the ROAP EMEA 2021 edition was dedicated, Samaa Haridi and Ndanga Kamau.

The winners were: Amelia Keene and expert Joseph Kirby for the cross-examination course, and Craig Gaver Sandhu and Rebecca James for the oral submissions course. The other finalists were: Gillian Forsyth and expert Jyrki Kolsi for the cross-examination course, and Katherine Jonckheere and Oladimeji Ojo for the oral submissions course.

You will find short bios of our finalists and tribunal members below.

TRIBUNAL FOR ROAP EMEA 2021 FINALS

Prof. Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler is the immediate past President and now Honorary President of ICCA, the International Council for Commercial Arbitration. She practices international commercial, investment and sports arbitration and has acted in over 220 international arbitrations, mainly as arbitrator. Gabrielle appears on numerous institutional arbitration panels (including ICC, ICSID, AAA, LCIA, SIAC, CIETAC) and conducts arbitrations under the rules of all major institutions. She is regularly ranked among the top ten arbitrators worldwide; a study of investment arbitration released in 2016 concluded that she was the “most influential arbitrator in the world”. In 2021, she received Who’s Who Legal Switzerland‘s Award for Arbitration Lawyer of the Year, and the Chambers Europe Outstanding Contribution Award. A Professor Emerita at Geneva University Law School, Gabrielle is also the founder, former director and a current faculty member of the Geneva LLM in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS), a joint program of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and Geneva Law School. She is also a visiting professor at National University of Singapore, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Georgetown University and the President of the Council of the Center for International Dispute Settlement (CIDS). Gabrielle teaches courses on international commercial and investment arbitration and heads research projects in the area of arbitration. She is Honorary President of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA) and was ASA President from 2001 to 2005. Gabrielle is also a founder of the FIAA (Foundation for International Arbitration Advocacy) and the President of its Advisory Board, as well as a former member of the ICC Court, LCIA Court, and AAA Board. She was and is a member of the Swiss delegation to UNCITRAL, including within Working Group II on transparency (until 2014), and presently Working Group III on the reform of investor-state arbitration, for which she has co-authored two CIDS reports.

Samaa Haridi is a civil and common law-trained, trilingual lawyer with over 20 years of experience representing clients from all over the world in international commercial and investment arbitration, under the rules of all major arbitral institutions. Samaa also leads Hogan Lovells’ Middle East practice. Samaa has been singled out by clients for being “spectacular” and “really, really phenomenal” (Chambers USA 2020). Sources also acknowledge her as being a “first-class arbitration lawyer; one of the best in the region” (Who’s Who Legal 2021). She is one of five North American female international arbitration practitioners singled out by Who’s Who Legal as a Global Elite Thought Leader – Arbitration 2021. In addition to her work as counsel, Samaa frequently sits as an arbitrator in international commercial and investment disputes. She is also currently serving as an officer in a number of arbitral organizations, including as Vice President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, Co-Chair of the Arbitration Committee of the International Bar Association, Vice President of the LCIA Arab Users’ Council, and Advisory Committee Member of the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA). Samaa is a member of the New York, California, and England & Wales bars.

Ndanga Kamau is an international lawyer based in The Hague, Netherlands. Her practice focuses on international dispute settlement, public international law, and private international law. She sits as arbitrator in institutional and ad hoc arbitrations. She also advises and represents clients in investor-state dispute settlement, international commercial arbitration, public international law, investment and trade facilitation, international negotiations, risk mitigation, dispute prevention, and dispute avoidance. She works in a wide variety of sectors and industries and has considerable expertise in matters related to Africa. Her clients include private entities, states and state entities, and international organisations. Ndanga has substantial international experience. Prior to setting up her practice, she worked in international law firms, an international arbitration institution, government, and international organisations. She has lived and worked in Cape Town, Geneva, Houston, London, Mauritius, Nairobi, and The Hague. She regularly speaks about international dispute settlement, public international law, and private international law, at forums around the world. She also lectures on these topics at various universities. She has had speaking engagements in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. Ndanga also writes on topics related to her areas of specialisation. Ndanga is a Vice President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and was the inaugural President of the ICC Africa Commission (2018-2021). She is a member of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on Rule of Law and International Investment Law, a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public Law and International Law, an observer delegate at UNCITRAL WG III on investor state dispute settlement reform, a Co-Chair of the Africa Group of the IBA Arbitration Committee, a PRIME Foundation Expert in Dispute Resolution, and Director of Programmes of the African Association of International Law (AAIL) / Association africaine de droit international (AADI). Ndanga is listed on the CIETAC Panel of Arbitrators and the KIAC Panel of International Arbitrators.

FINALISTS

FORSYTH Gillian: she is a Senior Associate in international arbitration and public international law at Eversheds Sutherland. She advises multi-nationals and governments on a broad range of international disputes, notably with regard to high-profile, sensitive matters such as those relating to the telecoms, oil and gas and defence sectors. Gillian regularly provides advice in relation to commercial contracts and disputes governed by English law, including the appeal and enforcement of arbitral awards. On the non-contentious side, she advises companies interested in investing in jurisdictions subject to economic and political sanctions. Gillian is a dual-qualified English solicitor and French avocat.

GAVER Craig: he is an Associate in Allen & Overy LLP’s Washington, DC office. In addition to international investment, commercial, and construction arbitrations conducted under the ICSID, UNCITRAL, and ICC rules, he has experience with domestic proceedings (including in US federal district courts), internal investigations, and advising clients on a broad array of issues arising under international and domestic law. Mr. Gaverreceived his J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, cum laude, and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School as a James Kent Scholar.

JAMES Rebecca: she is a Managing Associate in Linklaters’ dispute resolution team in London, specialising in international commercial and investment arbitration and international law. She has considerable experience representing clients in investment arbitrations, international commercial arbitrations (arising under most of the major institutional rules and in ad hoc arbitrations) and cross-border litigation in the UK courts, and providing strategic advice on foreign proceedings, across a wide range of sectors and regions. She also has experience advising clients on boundary issues, law of the sea, international trade law and sanctions. Rebecca is dual-qualified in Victoria, Australia and England & Wales, and has co-lectured at Queen Mary University of London in investment arbitration and international law. She has been named as a key lawyer for Linklaters in international arbitration, public international law and commercial litigation by the Legal 500 UK. 

JONCKHEERE Katherine: she is an associate in the London office of Three Crowns, specialising in international commercial and investment arbitration. Her experience includes representing a number of leading oil & gas companies in arbitrations against states in the CIS region, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Originally from Belgium, she qualified as a junior lawyer with the Brussels Bar, following which she obtained her LLM at Stanford Law School and was admitted to the New York Bar. While working in London, she additionally qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales. Prior to joining Three Crowns, Katherine was a legal counsel at SIAC, where she handled the administration of over 100 international commercial arbitrations. 

KEENE Amelia: she is a Senior Associate at Three Crowns’ Paris office with nearly a decade’s experience in international disputes and arbitration. She specialises in public international law. Her experience includes commercial and investment arbitrations under the UNCITRAL, ICC, SCC and ICSID Rules in a range of sectors, including energy, manufacturing, aviation and finance. She has acted as counsel in multiple investor-State disputes, including for Elliott Associates L.P. in its high-profile, public arbitration against the Republic of Korea. She has appeared before the International Court of Justice as counsel for the Kingdom of Bahrain in two parallel, multi-State appeals from decisions of the ICAO Council in cases brought by Qatar; and has also acted as an oral advocate in a number of arbitration proceedings. Amelia was previously an Associate Legal Officer at the ICJ, principally working for Judge James Crawford, where she gained an extensive knowledge of public international law and procedure. She has also worked at a leading New Zealand law firm and clerked for the President of the New Zealand Court of Appeal. She has attended the UNFCCC climate change negotiations and advised States on legal and political issues relating to climate change.

KIRBY Joseph: he is an Associate Director in HKA’s Forensic Accounting and Commercial Damages practice and is based in London. He has a decade of experience in contentious valuations, commercial and corporate reporting valuations and loss of profits assessments. Joseph specialises in the assessment of damages and contentious valuation issues in litigation, international arbitrationand expert determinations. He is experienced in matters involving breaches of contract, shareholder disputes, breach of warranty, unfair prejudice, transaction-related disputes and intellectual property infringements. 

KOLSI Jyrki: he is a Senior Director at Alvarez & Marsal Economics, part of A&M Disputes and Investigations LLP in London. Jyrki has over 15 years of experience as a professional economist. His focus is on using economics and advanced analytics techniques to provide evidence in commercial arbitration and litigation matters, as well as to inform executive level commercial and regulatory decision making. He has worked widely on valuation issues both commercially and in litigation, developed expert evidence on causality and quantification of damages, including complex assessments of counterfactual level of demand, market impacts, analysis of consumer decision making and impacts of macroeconomic risks.  Jyrki has worked across a wide range of sectors and multiple forums, including court proceedings, international arbitration, expert determination, as well as contractual and insurance matters outside of legal proceedings. He has also submitted evidence on competition law and regulatory matters to competition authorities at the national and EU level. Through his commercial advisory work, he has further expertise in pricing, demand forecasting, economic impact assessments and economic modelling to support performance improvement. Jyrki holds an BSc Economics (First Class) and MSc Economics degrees from the University of Warwick. 

OJO Oladimeji is a Senior Associate at Aluko & Oyebode with almost a decade of experience focused on commercial litigation and arbitration. He manages a team of associates known within the market for delivering results, and excellent work product. The team has represented significant multinational interests in a variety of complex, high value, domestic and international disputes, including ad-hoc, institutional and investment arbitration across a range of industries. His professional experience has benefited from time spent as a Visiting Lawyer with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP in New York. He has an LL.M in International Commercial Law with Professional Arbitration Skills from the University of Abderdeen, and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), the ICC’s Young Arbitrators forum, and a Volunteer Counsel at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce International Arbitration Centre (LACIAC).