The changing landscape in arbitration: new trends

Dr. Zeina Obeid is a Partner at Obeid & Partners in the UAE and Paris, where she practices in the Arbitration department. She has acted as lead counsel in major international arbitration cases across the Middle East and North Africa region. She also acts as arbitrator and as an administrative secretary in several domestic and international arbitrations, both ad hoc and under international institutional arbitral rules, including those of the ICC, DIAC, LCIA, CRCICA, BCDR-AAA, and DIFC-LCIA. Zeina holds a PhD from the University Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) in France and an LLM from Columbia University in New York. Zeina is qualified to practice law both in Beirut and Paris. She frequently publishes articles on various topics notably in arbitration. In 2017, she published her book “Setting aside arbitral awards in the Arab Countries”, which has been cited as a reference book for practitioners around the MENA region. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and committee member of the UAE branch. She is also member of the International Bar Association (IBA) where she holds the position of Officer in both the IBA Young Lawyer’s Committee (as co-secretary) and the IBA Anti-Corruption Committee (as Middle Eastern representative).

Amir Ardelan Farhadi is an associate in Foley Hoag LLP. Dual trained in common law (United States) and civil law (France), Amir practices both commercial and investment arbitration before most major arbitral institutions around the world. He has acted as counsel in disputes in the mining, oil and gas, telecommunications, and real estate sectors in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. He also represents States in public international law disputes before the International Court of Justice, where he previously clerked for a judge.

Co-founder at ODDS Legal, a legal operations consultancy firm in Lima. LLB from Pontificia Universidad Católica (Peru), LLM Columbia University. Ex Covington & Burling, American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, Bullard Falla Ezcurra, and professor of behavioral law at Universidad del Pacífico (Peru).

I am a Chartered arbitrator and a member of Arbitration Chambers. Based in Singapore, I have worked in multiple jurisdictions, including New York, Hong Kong, and London (and am qualified in New York, Hong Kong and England and Wales). I have served as arbitrator (presiding, sole, co- and emergency arbitrator) in ad hoc and institutional arbitrations involving corporates, states, and state-owned enterprises with several billions USD in dispute. Prior to becoming an independent arbitrator, I worked in private practice where I focused on complex international arbitration and litigation, acting as counsel for corporates, states and state-owned enterprises in a range of disputes in various sectors. I currently service as the Co-Chair of the IBA Arbitration Committee and a Vice President of the ICC Court of Arbitration. From 2010 to 2018, I served as the Secretary General of the HKIAC and then as a council member. I am a member of the Board of Directors of Maxwell Chambers. I regularly teach, speak and write on international arbitration. I am a trustee and honorary senior fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL). I serve as an adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore and am a lecturer at Sciences Po.