Government Financing: how to assist in reducing poverty and potential pitfalls

Nicole Pierce

Senior Lecturer in International Trade Law and Private International Law at the Faculty of Business and Law (BAL) at De Montfort University. Prior to joining De Montfort she delivered undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) at Queen Mary University of London and Northumbria University. She has also worked in the private sector as an Attorney-at-Law and the public sector at the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce (MIIC) in Jamaica. Dr. Pierce is an expert in law reform and implementation having acted extensively in the Caribbean region (CARICOM and OECS) with particular focus on harmonization of commercial laws.

Stephen Karangizi

Mr Stephen Karangizi has been the Director and CEO of the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) since October 2011. He has over 38 years of experience as a lawyer in International Commercial and Trade Law.

Before joining the ALSF, he was Deputy Secretary General (Programmes) of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) from 2008 to 2011. He was also the Legal Advisor for COMESA from 1997 to 2008. He has also as served as a Legal Advisor for the Governments of Antigua and Barbuda (West Indies), Uganda and Zimbabwe after starting off in private legal practice. Mr. Karangizi was also Chairman of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in 2004 - 2008 at a time of the review of the UNCITRAL Model Laws on Arbitration and Public Procurement.

Some of his achievements included establishment of several intergovernmental organizations such as the first political risk insurance institution the African Trade Insurance Agency, the COMESA Court of Justice and the COMESA Competition Commission. He also led the legal team for African regional groups in multilateral negotiations of international trade arrangements. He also appeared as Counsel for COMESA in several cases before the COMESA Court of Justice.

He holds Bachelor of Law Degree with Honors (LL.B Hons) (Makerere University (1981)), a Masters in Laws (LL.M) Degree (University of Zimbabwe), a Diploma in Legal Practice (LDC – Uganda) and a Post-Graduate Degree for Legal Practice (Zimbabwe). He is enrolled as a Legal Practitioner of the High Court of Zimbabwe and as an Advocate of the High Court of Uganda.

Professor Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal

Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal is a Professor in Banking and Finance Law at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) at Queen Mary University of London. Prior to joining CCLS he was a Senior Lecturer in Financial Law and the Academic Director at the Centre for Financial and Management Studies (SOAS), University of London and the School of Law, University of Warwick. He taught in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in various Schools of Law and Business Schools in the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, France and Argentina as well as in professional training courses in Africa, Asia and Europe. He has acted as a Sovereign Debt Expert for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Senior Insolvency Expert for the World Bank / IFC and as a consultant to several multilateral institutions in Washington DC and Europe, Central Banks and Sovereign States as well as in several international transactions with Law Firms. He specialises in international finance and insolvency law. He is the author/editor of seven books and has extensively published in peer-reviewed journals. He sits in the editorial/advisory board of several law journals in the UK and US and is a member of national and international institutions and associations specialised in comparative commercial and insolvency law.

Vikram Raghavan

Vikram Raghavan is Lead Counsel at the World Bank in Washington, DC. He is the Bank's legal advisor for conflict, refugees, and macroeconomics. His legal work covers a wide range of subjects: the Bank’s mandate and authorized purposes, loan conditionality, post-conflict reconstruction, refugees and displacement, humanitarian crises and disasters, international humanitarian law, military coups, UN sanctions, contractual disputes, expropriation, arrears, graduation, and sovereign debt.

He is the author of Communications Law in India (LexisNexis 2006), which has been cited by the Indian Supreme Court. Last year, he edited and introduced George Gadbois’s Supreme Court of India: The Beginnings (Oxford 2017). This classic text lay unpublished for fifty years until Vikram discovered the manuscript in the late author’s library. He also co-edited Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia (Oxford 2013). Presently, Vikram is writing a narrative non-fiction history of how India became a republic.

Michael Strauss

Michael Strauss was appointed General Counsel at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) effective January 2020. In that role, Mr Strauss serves on the Executive Committee and various other committees of the Bank.

Mr Strauss joined EBRD from private practice as a Partner at the Washington-based law firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP. Prior to this, he represented the United States on the Board of the Asian Development Bank and served as a Senior Advisor covering international finance at the US Treasury. He has worked as a legal counsel in both the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, primarily focused on sovereign debt, institutional governance, and development in Francophone Africa. He began his legal career in capital markets, mergers & acquisitions, and privatizations in the London and Paris offices of the law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP.

Mr Strauss is a US national. He has a JD from Stanford Law School, a Master’s from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy (where he has also taught law as an adjunct professor), and a BA from Williams College. He is admitted to the Bar in New York and Washington, DC.