Christophe Ayela is a partner at Mayer Brown LLP. A founding partner of Ayela Semerdjian & Associés established in 2006, Mr. Ayela began his career at Gide Loyrette Nouel, prior to joining Stasi where he became a partner in 2000. Since 2005, he has been a mediator authorized by the Centre de Médiation et d’Arbitrage de Paris - CMAP (mediation and arbitration center). In this capacity, he regularly acts on commercial disputes on a national and international level. With a keen interest on "crossexamination" techniques, he was the first in France to publish a book on this technique, which he also teaches at the Ecole de Formation du Barreau de Paris (Paris Bar admission school) and which he regularly uses during criminal and arbitral proceedings. Mr. Ayela is also a CCI and a CMAP mediator. Mr. Ayela joined Mayer Brown in 2009 and in addition to his native French, he speaks English. He received his LLM in international business law from Ottawa University and his Masters from Aix en Provence University.
Ian Crotty is a partner in the Dublin office of Holme Roberts & Owen LLP where he has established the Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Department. He was formerly with the UK firms Fishburns and Beale & Co and played a significant role in developing the practices of those firms in Ireland. Mr. Crotty has an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the construction process and the role of the professional. As an experienced litigator he has developed key relationships with insurers, brokers, and insured professionals in both Ireland and the United Kingdom. Mr. Crotty handles a broad range of both contentious and non-contentious professional indemnity and construction related matters and gives insurance coverage advice. His clients include leading insurers, architects, engineers, solicitors, project managers, accountants, and auditors. Mr. Crotty is a trained advocate. He also has substantial experience as a mediator and is instructed in arbitrations on a regular basis. In addition to professional indemnity litigation, Mr. Crotty handles a variety of cases ranging from debt collection, commercial disputes, IP, and personal injury. Mr. Crotty's cases include a multi-million Euro arbitration payment/performance dispute between a high-profile hotel developer and design and build contractor; construction advice to a major engineering firm throughout the design and construction process of a hotel development; multi-million Euro arbitration and litigation related dispute between a high-profile commercial entity and engineering firm in relation to site contamination and remediation contracts; and construction development advice to a major developer on risk management, health and safety, contract negotiation, and maximization of profit potential. Mr. Crotty graduated from University College Dublin and Law Society of Ireland.
Miguel de Almada, a Portuguese lawyer and partner of the litigation and arbitration team at the law firm Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva & Associados, has extensive dispute resolution experience, having focused his practice mainly in the areas of civil and commercial litigation and arbitration (domestic and international) together with intervention in criminal litigation cases. Mr. de Almada has conducted and participated in several important arbitration and judicial litigation cases and often participates in seminars and conferences in his areas of practice.
Dany Khayat is an attorney in Mayer Brown LLP's International Arbitration–Litigation group in Paris. He was involved in arbitrations under the ICC, ICSID, and UNCITRAL rules as well as ad hoc arbitration proceedings. Mr. Khayat has substantive knowledge in investment treaty arbitration and the protection of foreign investments, having written extensively on ICSID awards and decisions for several years. Mr. Khayat was also involved in arbitration-related proceedings before French courts as well as disputes involving state immunities and seizure of state-owned assets and other contractual and commercial matters heard before French courts. Mr. Khayat appeared in several conferences as a speaker on the topic of investment treaties and investment disputes and lectured in 2006 on arbitration in the Arab countries at the University of Paris I (Panthéon–Sorbonne). Mr. Khayat has been with the firm since 2008. Previously, he was an attorney in the International Arbitration group of a large, international firm in Paris where he worked since 2000. He speaks French, English, and Arabic and has reading knowledge of Spanish. Recent or pending arbitration or court proceedings in which Mr. Khayat was involved include a Middle-Eastern company in the distribution business as claimant in an ICC arbitration with a seat in Paris against another Middle-Eastern company; a leading European electronics company as respondent in an ICC arbitration in Paris against an Asian State as well as related annulment proceedings before French Courts; a wellknown European clothing brand as respondent in an ICC arbitration against its franchisee and distributor in a Latin American country; and the subsidiary of a leading European company in the aeronautics and aerospace industry in an ICC arbitration against its North American supplier. Mr. Khayat graduated from University of Paris II Panthéon–Assas, DEA droit international, with honors, in 1999; University of Paris I Panthéon–Sorbonne, Maîtrise en droit des affaires in 1998; University of Paris II Panthéon–Assas, Institut des hautes études internationales; and Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Diploma, section internationale, in 1995.
Finn Madsen is a member of the Swedish Bar Association and has been a partner at Advokatfirman Vinge KB (Malmö office) since 1995. Before joining the firm, he served, among other things, as assistant judge at the Appeals Court and District Court and as general counsel at a Swedish bank. Mr. Madsen is a member of Vinge’s Litigation and Arbitration practice group and possesses extensive experience of Swedish and international arbitration practice, both as a counsel and arbitrator. He has received appointments as arbitrator from the Arbitration Institute at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and from the ICC Court in Paris. He is also a frequent university lecturer and seminar speaker and has written numerous articles on arbitration. Mr. Madsen is the author of Commercial Arbitration in Sweden (3rd Edition) 2007, by Oxford University Press. The book has also been published in Mandarin (2008) by Law Press and in Swedish (2009) by Jure AB.
Andrea Magliani is a dispute resolution partner with Pedersoli e Associati. He has carved out an extensive experience on disputes involving civil law, contracts, bankruptcy, corporate, and commercial law and regularly advises Italian and international financial institutions, private equity houses, and a number of industrial groups on complex litigation matters, either before Civil Courts and Arbitration Panels (both domestic and international). Mr. Magliani graduated from the University of Milan in 1980 and was admitted to the Italian Bar in 1984 and to the role of revisori contabili (statutory auditors) in the late 1990. Mr. Magliani's dispute resolution work is recommended in major international legal directories.
Deborah Ruff is a partner in Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP's Litigation Department and cochair of International Litigation. She is also co-chair of the arbitration group. She is London-based, but works frequently with the other offices of Dewey & LeBoeuf, in particular Moscow, Paris, New York, and Dubai. Ms. Ruff has conducted a wide variety of high value and complex international arbitration cases, both under the various institutional rules and on an ad hoc basis. She regularly represents clients in arbitrations under the rules of the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Chamber of Commerce, and UNCITRAL, as well as, amongst others, the American Arbitration Association. She conducts her own advocacy in arbitration proceedings. She also handles complex, high value and cross border litigation, often including freezing orders and other interlocutory relief. Acting for United States, European, Middle Eastern, CIS, Asian, and African clients, she has recently handled cases in the energy, telecommunications, banking, and construction sectors and shareholder disputes. Her practice has particular experience with energy disputes in the widest sense, including, for example, disputes over the granting of exploration permits, production sharing agreements, other oil and gas joint ventures, the construction and performance of refineries and power plants and offshore rigs, oil futures trading, and oil and gas transport. She has dealt with high value disputes over long-term energy pricing and other contract renegotiations both between private entities and between states and investors. Ms. Ruff has acted for both governments and for private entities in disputes arising out of Bilateral Investment Treaties, both before the International Centre for Investment Disputes and in other forums, dealing with such issues as creeping expropriation, unfair and inequitable treatment, Most Favored Nation (MFN) clauses, and windfall taxation. Whilst some disputes will inevitably fight to the finish, Ms. Ruff has successfully represented clients in numerous settlements of disputes, both through mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Ms. Ruff conducts high stakes, complex international and multijurisdictional litigation for her clients, particularly in the London Commercial Court, but also in the Chancery division. Her work has been recognized in both the arbitration and litigation sections of the Legal 500. She has spoken at a number of international conferences and seminars. Ms. Ruff often works closely with colleagues in the corporate and finance departments on transactional documentation, advising on the structuring of contracts to maximize the possibilities of reliance of Bilateral Investment Treaty and Energy Charter protection, on appropriate dispute resolution mechanisms and other issues such as sovereign immunity. Ms. Ruff joined Dewey & LeBoeuf from Debevoise & Plimpton, where she represented clients in numerous international arbitrations and litigation matters. Before becoming a lawyer, she was a senior analyst with Saudi Aramco, heading a team with responsibility for the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China. She also co-authored a publication on Middle Eastern business, and has been asked to author the UK chapter on ADR in a forthcoming book. Ms. Ruff speaks French and has conversational and reading knowledge of Spanish, Italian, and German. She received her MA from Trinity College, University of Cambridge and her CPE and LPC from The College of Law of England & Wales.
Gerold Zeiler is a partner of Schöenherr Rechtsanwälte since 1998. His practice focuses on International Commercial Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, and International Litigation. He regularly sits as arbitrator and acts as counsel of parties in both ad hoc arbitration proceedings as well as administered arbitration proceedings, including proceedings under the VIAC, ICC, UNCITRAL, and ICSID Rules. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration, a member of the Board of the Austrian Arbitration Association, and listed on the panel of arbitrators of the Vienna International Arbitration Court, the Foreign Trade Court of Arbitration at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, and the Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania. He is fluent in English and German. In addition to his arbitration and litigation practice, Mr. Zeiler is the author of numerous articles and books on international litigation and arbitration, including the first commentary on the new Austrian Arbitration law (Arbitration (Schiedsverfahren) 2006), and a co-editor of the Austrian Arbitration Yearbook.
