The ROAP Americas 2023/4 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 outcome of the finals was determined by a panel of world-class arbitrators consisting of Doak Bishop (President) to whom the ROAP Americas 2023/4 edition was dedicated, Isabel Fernández de la Cuesta, and Baiju Vasani.
The winners were: Erin Collins, and Matthew Turk for the cross-examination course, Alice Gyamfi and Isha Jain for the oral submissions course, and the best advocate overall: Alice Gyamfi. The other finalists were: Alex Young and expert Anthony Ferrari for the cross-examination course and Rikki Sten and Jennifer Huang for the oral submissions course.
You will find short bios of our finalists and tribunal members below.
TRIBUNAL FOR ROAP Americas 2023/4 FINALS
Doak Bishop specializes in international arbitration, with a focus on Latin America. A partner in our International Arbitration practice, Doak represents companies in arbitration and litigation of disputes in the oil and gas, energy, construction, environmental and foreign investment sectors. With extensive experience in litigation and international arbitration, Doak has served both as an arbitrator and counsel. He represents clients in disputes concerning oil and gas and energy, foreign investment, construction and environmental matters. Doak has served as Chairman of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration and as a Director of the American Arbitration Association (AAA). He is also a member of the U.S. delegation to the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes. As an arbitrator, Doak has led or participated in more than 70 arbitrations under the auspices of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), AAA, the Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission (IACAC) and the Center for Public Resources (CPR), as well as in ad hoc arbitrations. A frequent author and speaker, Doak is listed by Chambers USA in Tier 1 as a top seven U.S. arbitration counsel, and by Chambers Global in Tier 1 of the top 11 international arbitration counsel globally. He is also listed as a top 20 arbitration specialist by Cross-Border Quarterly, published in the UK.
Isabel Fernández de la Cuesta has 20 years of experience in the field of international arbitration. As independent arbitrator, Isabel has served in different capacities in a variety of commercial disputes. She brings her two decades of experience as counsel in a leading international arbitration law firm to her independent arbitrator practice. She is efficient and detail oriented. She understands the importance of being prepared and learning the case in depth. As counsel, Isabel’s practice covers every stage of an international dispute, from drafting arbitration agreements and providing pre-dispute advice, to representing parties in arbitration proceedings and counseling clients through the final phases of award recognition, enforcement, and set-aside. Isabel has significant experience negotiating settlement agreements for international disputes.
Baiju Vasani is a renowned leader in ISDS, international commercial arbitration, and public international law as both counsel and arbitrator. Before he joined the Bar in November 2022, Baiju spent 20 years in international law firm practice, including 12 as partner, leading large teams of lawyers in dozens of international arbitration disputes worth several tens of billions of dollars in aggregate. His treaty practice has encompassed representation of States and investors under both ICSID and UNCITRAL Rules. Until February 2022, he split his time between Moscow and London leading the Russian Federation’s defence in six major investment treaty arbitrations. He has also advised States on the negotiation and drafting of investment treaties. Prior to that he led the international arbitration practices of major American law firms in London and Washington DC. In those roles, he won several high-profile treaty awards, with particular experience in creating and managing winning global strategies for investors in high-stakes, sensitive disputes involving geopolitical issues or major criminal allegations. His international investment law experience has also been at the forefront of the intersection of international arbitration and public international law, having acted as lead counsel on seminal cases on treaty succession, disputed territories, and the effect of alleged illegality on arbitral jurisdiction. His commercial arbitration record is equally robust. He is often called on to lead cases involving English law or a London seat, but has equally led cases seated elsewhere involving laws ranging from those of India, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, UAE, Brazil, various US states, to Russia and the FSU, among others. Baiju also regularly sits as arbitrator in treaty and commercial arbitrations, and welcomes such appointments through Chambers. Finally, Baiju is a Senior Fellow of International Law at SOAS, University of London, where he teaches international arbitration to postgraduates from around the world. He also has an active pro bono practice using international dispute resolution techniques to further the global rule of law, and is passionate about bringing diversity into the international arbitration field.
FINALISTS
Erin Collins focuses her practice on commercial and investment treaty arbitrations, as well as arbitration-related proceedings in U.S. federal courts and New York state courts. Erin has represented international companies and sovereign states in connection with arbitral proceedings held under the auspices of major institutional and ad hoc rules, including the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the American Arbitration/International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA/ICDR), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC), the Cairo Regional Center for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA), and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Rules. Her experience includes advising clients in renewable energy, oil & gas, construction, pharmaceutical, media, mining and real estate sectors.
Anthony Ferrari 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.
Alice Gryamfi 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.
Jennifer Huang is a member of Mayer Brown’s Intellectual Property (IP) group who splits her practice between IP and International Arbitration. She has wide-ranging experience across litigation and arbitration, including trial and appellate litigation before U.S. state and federal courts, international commercial arbitration, and investor-state disputes. She regularly serves as counsel in arbitral proceedings held under the rules of the ICC, LCIA, ICDR, Swiss Arbitration Centre, CAM-CCBC, and UNCITRAL. Jennifer’s IP practice focuses on copyright and trademark infringement disputes, particularly those with an international component. She represents clients spanning a diverse range of sectors, from entertainment to food and beverage, telecommunications, construction, commercial aviation, aerospace, energy, insurance, and finance. Jennifer is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and a published author in the field of music cognition. As part of her active pro bono practice, she has counseled Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on various issues and successfully represented asylum seekers in both affirmative and defensive proceedings. During law school, she represented musicians under the Recording Artists Project and worked at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Jennifer practiced international litigation and arbitration at another prominent global law firm. Jennifer currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration. Her past board service has been for the Harvard Club of New York City, where she also served on the Executive Committee, and for the Harvard Club of New York Historical Foundation. In addition to her native English, Jennifer speaks fluent French, Italian, and Shanghainese, and has working knowledge of Spanish and Mandarin.
Isha Jain is a special legal consultant based in the Washington, DC office. She has experience in international commercial and investor-State arbitrations across a range of industries, including energy, construction, and intellectual property. Isha holds an LLM from Harvard Law School, where she was awarded the Roger Fisher and Frank E.A. Sander Prize for the best student paper on a topic related to dispute resolution. She also holds an LLB from the National Law School of India University. In the 2018 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot, she won the Stephen M. Schwebel award for best oralist in the world championship round. Isha is published in leading international law journals, including the Leiden Journal of International Law and Arbitration International.
Rikki Stern 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.
Matt Turk, forthcoming.
Alex Young is a senior associate in the Litigation/Controversy Department and is a member of the International Arbitration Practice Group. Mr. Young focuses on international commercial and investment treaty arbitration and has represented clients in, among others, the mining, energy, pulp and paper, and transportation sectors. Prior to joining WilmerHale, Mr. Young worked at a multinational law firm where he practiced both international arbitration and international trade. Mr. Young has also served as a law clerk at the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the US Court of International Trade.
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Find out more about the ROAP programme here.
