Please meet our talented and diverse group of participants in ROAP Americas 2023/4, both practising attorneys and testifying experts (their short bios, where available, are linked and set out below, and some of them are also pictured below in no particular order): Ángela Bazigos, David Blackman, Alexander Carn, Erin Collins, Vivasvat (Viva) Dadwal, Anthony Ferrari, Kristina Fridman, Alice Gyamfi, Joshua Hamlet, Maria Andreina Hernandez, Jennifer Huang, Isha Jain, Juan Pablo Labbé, Luc Mitchell, Caio Pazinato, Frances Potgieter, Jessica Rado, Benjamin Silva, Rikki Stern, William (Will) Sulivan, Chandler Tannery, Matt Turk and Alex Young.

BLACKMAN David: David’s practice focuses on complex international arbitration and litigation matters for clients across a variety of industries, including financial services, insurance, energy, construction, and life sciences. He also has experience representing clients in connection with criminal and regulatory investigations. David is an active member of the international arbitration community and in international arbitration thought leadership. David served as Secretary to the Task Force of the IBA Arbitration Committee Subcommittee on Rules and Guidelines in connection with the 2020 Revisions to the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration and is currently Secretary to the Working Group of the Subcommittee in connection with the review and revision of the IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration. He also writes and speaks on various topics in international arbitration. David earned his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar and served as Executive Editor of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law as well as President of both the Columbia International Arbitration Association and Columbia Society of International Law. He also holds a B.A., with honors, from Columbia University. Prior to joining Chaffetz Lindsey in 2022, David was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York.

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CARN Alexander: he is an English-qualified junior international disputes associate based in the London office of Covington & Burling LLP. Alex has acted in arbitrations across the consumer technology, life-sciences, energy, and luxury goods sectors under the ICC and SIAC rules, as well as ad hoc proceedings under the UNCITRAL rules. A former British Army officer, Alex has an undergraduate degree from the University of Edinburgh, a graduate diploma in law from City, University of London and an LLM from Cornell University.

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FERRARI Anthony: he is a Senior Manager within the Valuations and Modelling practice at EY’s Montreal office. With more than 10 years of experience in accounting and finance, he has focused entirely on valuations and damage quantifications for the past seven years. Anthony has led or taken part in many damage/loss quantification engagements involving among others, shareholder disputes, breach of contracts, post-transaction litigations and matrimonial cases. Anthony has been received as an expert witness before the Quebec Superior Court and before a private arbitration matter in Ontario.

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FRIDMAN Kristina: she is an international arbitration and litigation associate at Skadden.  She has experience representing clients in commercial and investment arbitration involving ICC, SCC, JAMS, AAA, ICSID, and UNCITRAL rules, and in complex litigation in New York courts.  She graduated from Colombia Law School in 2017, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar and received the Parker School Certificate for her studies in foreign and comparative law, and from American University in 2011, magna cum laude, with a B.A. in Political Science and minor in Russian Language. 

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GYAMFI Alice Adu: she is an associate in the international arbitration practice group of DLA Piper’s New York office. She specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration and investigations. Ms. Gyamfi has represented sovereign states, individuals and multinational companies in arbitrations under leading institutional and ad hoc rules such as the ICC, ICSID, AAA/ICDR and UNCITRAL Rules and has a particular emphasis on the Middle East and Africa. Ms. Gyamfi holds a law degree from Penn State Law and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School, both with honors. Prior to joining the firm, she was a research assistant to Catherine Rogers, working to develop the Restatement of The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor–State Arbitration. Ms. Gyamfi is admitted to practice in New York and Washington, DC.

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HERNANDEZ  Maria Andreina: she is an associate in the international arbitration practice group of DLA Piper’s New York office. She specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration and investigations. Ms. Gyamfi has represented sovereign states, individuals and multinational companies in arbitrations under leading institutional and ad hoc rules such as the ICC, ICSID, AAA/ICDR and UNCITRAL Rules and has a particular emphasis on the Middle East and Africa. Ms. Gyamfi holds a law degree from Penn State Law and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School, both with honors. Prior to joining the firm, she was a research assistant to Catherine Rogers, working to develop the Restatement of The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor–State Arbitration. Ms. Gyamfi is admitted to practice in New York and Washington, DC.

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LABBE Juan Pablo: he is a Senior Associate at Jana & Gil Dispute Resolution (Santiago de Chile) and focuses his practice in domestic and international arbitration, both commercial and investor-state arbitration, across a range of industries including energy, infrastructure, public concessions, and contractual, among others. He has represented clients in arbitration proceedings governed by major institutional rules including SCC, ICC, ICSID, UNCITRAL and CAM Santiago. Juan Pablo holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and graduated first of his class at Universidad de los Andes (Chile); and teaches civil procedure at Universidad del Desarrollo.

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PAZINATO Caio: he is an associate in the International Arbitration and Litigation practice of Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom LLP in New York.  Trained in both civil and common law, Mr. Pazinato represents a wide variety of clients in international arbitration and litigation matters, including advising on complex disputes arising out of international business transactions and other cross-border affairs.  Prior to joining Skadden, he worked for several years at a major law firm based in Brazil.  Mr. Pazinato has represented and counseled clients in disputes involving numerous industries, including aviation, heavy machinery, renewable energy, construction, pharmaceutical, public relations and private equity.  Mr. Pazinato earned an LL.M. degree in International Economic Law, Business & Policy from Stanford Law School, and Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) and Master of Laws degrees from the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo.  He is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

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POTGIETER Frances: she specializes in litigation support, including the preparation of expert and responsive reports. Frances provides litigation services in matters related to quantification of losses of income and other damages, in cases related to tort, breach of contract, and business interruption loss. Frances is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator. As Associate Partner with Ernst & Young LLP, Frances focusses on litigation support work and valuation related engagements. Frances has more than 20 years of public practice experience, including accounting and valuation/litigation support work. Frances has been accepted as expert witness in the Supreme Court of British Columbia and has testified as an expert in financial analysis, business loss and business valuations. Frances is experienced in a wide variety of industries, including retail, manufacturing, construction, real estate development, mining and metals, and forestry. Frances has presented on various occasions, including at the Peter Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia on the role of an expert and loss quantification, at the British Columbia Expropriation Association on business loss quantification and to the BC members of the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association on best practices on hiring experts.

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SILVA Benjamín: he is a Senior Associate at Jana & Gil Dispute Resolution based in Chile. He holds an LLM degree in International Dispute Resolution from King’s College London (London, UK) and was a Curatorium Scholar of the Hague Academy of International Law for the 2020 Winter Courses in public and private international law 2020 (The Hague, Netherlands). He represents private companies, state-owned entities and sovereign states in different high-profile and complex cases. He has experience under the ICC, ICSID and CAM Santiago rules, and in national and international ad-hoc arbitration tribunals. His practice spans complex civil and commercial disputes, shareholder disputes and lawsuits in the construction, energy and mining sectors, among others. Previously to joining Jana & Gil Dispute Resolution, Benjamin was an international associate and later, an arbitration specialist at Baker Botts London, LLP where he advised Latin American states and state-owned entities in a series of construction disputes.  He is also regularly invited to lecture in graduate and postgraduate programs in Chile concerning issues of international arbitration in general, and construction disputes.

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STERN Rikki: she has regularly acted as counsel for both investors and States in multi-billion dollar international commercial and investment arbitrations. With over a decade of experience, Rikki has represented clients in a wide range of sectors, including energy, telecommunications, mining, water and sewerage, semiconductor design and manufacturing, and banking. Rikki regularly appears as counsel in commercial arbitrations administered by the American Arbitration Association/International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA/ICDR), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), as well as investor-State disputes administered by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). She has also represented athletes in anti-doping appeals administered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Rikki was a New York-qualified attorney resident in London from 2014-2019.

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SUPPORTING ORGANISATIONS

We are grateful for the support of the following organisations in designing and delivering this innovative programme: