Diretor, PLA Litigation-Funding
Madrid, Spain

Currently Director of PLA which is a Litigation Funding Fund specializing in complex litigation that operates in Spain and Portugal. Previously, Alipio Conde Herrero was Head of Litigation at Bankinter in Spain. He has more than 15 years’ experience before courts in all jurisdictions, specializing in commercial litigation and arbitration. Member of the Madrid Bar Association.

Partner, Ane E. Perez Lawyers
São Paulo, Brazil

Founding partner of Ane E. Perez Law Firm, with 30 years of experience in Administrative Law and Contract Law, and in Arbitration proceedings and Dispute Boards. She is also an Arbitrator and a Member of Dispute Boards, registered with the main Arbitration Chambers in the country. She holds a Master's degree in Constitutional Law from PUC/SP and is currently pursuing a PhD in Administrative Law at PUC/SP.

Partner, Saadeh Rahman
London, UK

Ashique is one of the founding partners of Saadeh Rahman LLP. He advises governments, international organisations and multinational companies on their rights and obligations under public international law and its subsets, including international investment law, international humanitarian law, the law of treaties, jurisdictional immunities, and international environmental law.

For over a decade, Ashique has represented States and foreign investors in their public international law disputes before international courts and tribunals. He has led teams of lawyers in complex, high-value arbitrations under all the major institutional rules, including some of the most high-profile investor-State arbitrations of the recent past.

Ashique regularly teaches courses at leading universities in the United Kingdom and in Europe. He also delivers practical training in public international law and international arbitration to government lawyers throughout the world.

Full Professor, Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon
Lisbon, Portugal

Dário Moura Vicente is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he served as President of the Scientific Council from 2020 to 2022 and has been President of the Research Centre for Private Law since 2023. He is President of the Hispano-Luso-American Institute of International Law and Vice-President of the Luso-German Jurists’ Association.

He has acted as Presiding Arbitrator, Sole Arbitrator, Co-Arbitrator, and Expert in several dozen national and international arbitrations. He has been Vice-President of the Commercial Arbitration Centre (2016–2019) and President of the Portuguese Arbitration Association (2019–2023).

He is a member of the Arbitration and ADR Commission of the ICC, the Arbitration Committee of the International Bar Association, the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), and the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA).

Dário Moura Vicente is the author of more than seventy academic publications in six languages, including Direito Internacional Privado: Ensaios (5 vols., 2002–2024); Direito Comparado (2 vols., 2017–2025); and Comparative Law of Obligations (2021).

Professor, Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon
Lisbon, Portugal

Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, legal expert, and arbitrator. He has an extensive body of published work on topics including the General Theory of Civil Law, Law of Obligations, Company Law, Capital Markets Law and Arbitration Law.

He is a researcher at the Lisbon Research Centre for Private Law (CIDP) and a member of several professional associations, including the Friends of the Hamburg Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, the Deutsch-Lusitanische Juristenvereinigung (Luso-German Jurists’ Association), the Portuguese Arbitration Association (APA), the Brazilian Arbitration Committee (CBar), the Lusophone Association for Arbitration and Mediation (ALAM), the Lusophone Arbitrators Club (CAL), the Latin American Arbitration Association (ALARB), and ICC Portugal. He is also listed as an arbitrator with several arbitration institutions.

Professor, NOVA School of Law
Lisbon, Portugal

Franco Ferrari is the Clarence D. Ashley Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, where he also is the Director of the Intesa Sanpaolo Center for Transnational Litigation, Arbitration, and Commercial Law. Previously, he was a chaired professor of international law at Verona University in Italy (2002-2016), a chaired professor of comparative law at Tilburg University in the Netherlands (1995-1998) and the University of Bologna in Italy (1998-2002). After serving as a member of the Italian delegation to various sessions of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) from 1995 to 2000, he was Legal Officer at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, International Trade Law Branch, from 2000 to 2002.

Ferrari has published more than 380 law review articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries in various languages and more than 50 books in the areas of international commercial law, conflict of laws, comparative law, and international commercial arbitration. Ferrari, who is a recipient of the 2018 Certificate of Merit for High Technical Craftmanship and Utility to Practicing Lawyers and Scholars awarded by the American Society of International Law, is a member of the editorial boards of various peer-reviewed European law journals and was the General Editor of the European International Arbitration Review (2016-2019).

Ferrari also acts as an international arbitrator both in international commercial arbitrations and investment arbitrations.

Executive Director, World Association of PPP Units & Professionals
Geneva, Switzerland

Jean-Christophe BARTH-COULLARÉ is a commercial mediator practicing in Switzerland and internationally. He is accredited with FEDERATION SUISSE MEDIATION and the French-German Chamber of Commerce. His commercial disputes practice includes construction, engineering and infrastructure, corporate, IP, partnership agreements, franchising, small businesses and early-stage ventures. He helps parties design resilient and collaborative contracting frameworks to avoid and swiftly resolve commercial disputes, namely in long-term construction / infrastructure projects. Jean-Christophe is the Executive Director of the World Association of PPP Units & Professionals | WAPPP, the industry organization for Public-Private Partnership professionals (which comprises over 60 Government agencies and 500 members).
• Co-author of the guide "Early Stage Governance - an effective lever for start-ups in Europe" and mentor on board governance to founders.
• Board member at FEDERATION SUISSE MEDIATION & Jury for the Swiss mediation prize for companies and institutions.
• Recipient of the 2024 Weinstein JAMS Foundation International Fellowship.

JC has command of German, French, English, Spanish, and speaks Russian and a bit of Portuguese.

Partner, CS’Associados
Lisbon, Portugal

João Maria Pimentel is a Partner in the Litigation and Arbitration and Restructuring and Insolvency practice areas at CS’Associados. He has over twenty years of courtroom experience and an in-depth understanding of the workings and dynamics of both judicial and arbitral courts, where he represents clients in civil, commercial, and financial disputes.

He also has extensive experience in insolvency proceedings, in the context of both corporate recovery and liquidation. His work includes defending the interests of creditors and investors, as well as assessing the rights and responsibilities of company directors within the framework of their legal obligations.

Partner, Esquível Advogados
Lisbon, Portugal

Coming soon

Partner, Cuatrecasas
Lisbon, Portugal

Coming soon

Partner, LVS Advogados
Lisbon, Portugal

Luís Verde de Sousa is 43 years old, married, and the father of three children. He is a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra and a practicing lawyer, with academic research and legal practice in the field of administrative law, with a particular focus on the formation and execution of public contracts. He holds a master’s degree in legal and political sciences, has published his thesis on negotiation in award procedures, and is the author of several publications in this area. He is a member of the list of arbitrators at the CAAD - Administrative Arbitration Centre, the National Construction Arbitration Centre, and the ACIF-CCIM Arbitration Centre. He has participated as a lawyer in various arbitrations and has served as an arbitrator in several cases involving the execution of public contracts. He has also taught postgraduate courses on public procurement, organized by Portuguese and foreign educational institutions, provided training for public and private entities, and participated in numerous colloquia and conferences on the subject. He is a founding member and the current Director of the Revista de Direito Administrativo (Journal of Administrative Law), and also the President of the Disciplinary Board of the Portuguese Football Federation.

Full Professor, NOVA School of Law, Partner, VdA Vieira de Almeida Sociedade de Advogados
Lisbon, Portugal

Coming soon

Partner, Morais Leitão
Lisbon, Portugal

Mariana Soares David is a partner at Morais Leitão and a member of the litigation and arbitration team. Throughout her career, she has specialized in the prevention and resolution of disputes related to commercial distribution contracts, consumption, producer liability and environmental liability. She has a solid track record of cases resolved through highly complex multi-party negotiations.

In the field of mediation, she is certified as a mediator and master lawyer in mediation by the ICFML and belongs to the exclusive list of mediators certified by the International Mediation Institute. She is on the lists of mediators of the Ministry of Justice and several arbitration centres, including the CAC. She is also a member of the ICC ADR Task Force and the CAC Mediation Commission, as well as being a member of the Concordia Executive Board.

Independent Arbitrator
Madrid, Spain

Mélanie Riofrio Piché is a professional arbitrator specializing in commercial and investment disputes. She conducts proceedings in English, Spanish, and French, and has experience under various arbitral rules, including ICSID, ICC, CAM Madrid, CAM Mexico, among others. Appointed by the Republic of Ecuador, she serves on the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators. Mélanie is also an associate professor at IE Law School.

Partner, Úria Menéndez
Lisbon, Portugal

Coming soon

CAC Vice-President, Full Professor, Commercial Arbitration Centre, Faculty of Law University of Lisbon
Lisbon, Portugal

Paula Costa e Silva, Chartered Arbitrator of CIArb, London, United Kingdom, is a Full Professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, a fully qualified lawyer at the Portuguese and Brazilian Bar Associations, an independent arbitrator and a legal expert. She has acted in more than 100 arbitrations to date. Several commercial, banking & finance and public law/administrative law arbitrations stand out as she typically acts as presiding arbitrator in high economic impact cases (recently, e.g. for the ICC, the LCIA, the Arbitration and Mediation Centre of the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce (CAM-CCBC/São Paulo), the Market Arbitration Chamber (CAM/São Paulo) and the Commercial Arbitration Centre of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CAC), of which she is also Vice-President). She is the author of more than 210 publications and has participated in more than 330 international and national conferences.

Consultant, SRS Legal, Professor, Católica Lisbon School of Law
Lisbon, Portugal

Rita Lynce de Faria is a lecturer at the Lisbon School of Law of the Catholic University of Portugal, where she obtained her law degree and completed her PhD on anticipatory injunctions. Since then, she has been a member of the Catolica Research Centre for the Future of Law, where she researches mainly in the area of Civil Procedure Law and Arbitration. She has held management positions at the Lisbon School of Law and is executive director of the Catholic University of Portugal Arbitration Centre.

At the same time, she is also a consultant at the law firm SRS Legal, where she is a member of the Litigation and Arbitration Department.

Partner, Linklaters
Paris, France

Coming soon

Partner, Miranda
Lisbon, Portugal

Partner and Co-coordinator of the litigation and arbitration practice area at Miranda & Associados. She represents clients in disputes involving various types of contractual issues across several sectors (such as construction, energy, M&A, etc.), as well as investment matters, and also acts as an arbitrator, both in Portugal and abroad, in these areas.

Sofia Martins is currently the President of the Portuguese Arbitration Association (APA) and has been a member of the Association’s Board since 2014. She is also a member of the Arbitration Court and the Arbitration and ADR Commission of the ICC. Since July 2025, she has also been part of the panel of arbitrators of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes at the World Bank.

Between 2012 and 2019, she was a board member of the Arbitration Centre of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and between 2017 and 2022, she served as an officer of the IBA Arbitration Commission, first as treasurer and subsequently as one of the Vice-Presidents. During the same period, she was a co-editor of the IBA International Arbitration Country Guide. Between 2020 and 2023, she was also the President of the Management Committee of the Concórdia Arbitration Centre.

Sofia Martins has been recognized for several years in major international directories, such as Chambers, Legal 500, Leaders League, and Who’s Who Legal/Lexology - Arbitration.

She regularly writes and participates as a speaker in seminars and conferences related to arbitration matters and she lectures as a guest at various law schools in Portugal within postgraduate and master's programs.

She speaks Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French.

Senior Counsel, PLMJ
Lisbon, Portugal

Telma Pires de Lima holds a Law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (2000). She completed a postgraduate course in Legal Practice and Corporate Legal Consultancy at the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon School (2002). She also attended a postgraduate course in Contract and Consumer Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra (2009). In 2015, she completed the 6th Advanced University Course in Arbitration at the Faculty of Law of NOVA University Lisbon.

She has been with PLMJ Advogados SP, RL since 2000, and is currently a Senior Consultant in Dispute Resolution practice.

She has provided legal counsel in construction disputes, corporate litigation, and commercial contract disputes. She represents clients from various sectors, including construction, banking, and energy.

Since 2013, her practice has been focused on arbitration—both domestic and international—and other alternative dispute resolution methods, particularly dispute boards and mediation.

Partner, GBS Disputes
Paris, France

Coming soon