SPEAKERS

He is Professor of Private International Law at the School of Law of Aristotle University Thessaloniki, where he is teaching since 1991 Private International Law and International Business Law. He holds a PhD of the Paris-Sorbonne I University (1984).

He is attorney-at-law practicing since 1981 at the Court of Appeal and since 1990 at the Greek Supreme Court. Managing Partner of E. Vassilakakis and Associates Lawyers. His main fields of activity are Private International Law, International Business Law, Arbitration, Company and Commercial Law, Torts.

Appointed as Judge at the Special Supreme Court of Greece for the period 2010-2011. Enrolled as arbitrator at the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation(ICAC), the International Arbitration Court at the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC) , the Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania, etc.

Member of the Advisory Board of the Spanish Yearbook of International Law and of the Czech (and Central European) Yearbook of Arbitration and of the Greek journals on arbitration.

Foreign languages: English, French, German, Spanish.

A French qualified lawyer and professor of law, Christophe Seraglini is a partner in the international arbitration group of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Paris. He is the author of a leading arbitration textbook in France (Droit de l'arbitrage interne et international, with J Ortscheidt).

Christophe has extensive experience as counsel and as an arbitrator in complex and sensitive cases, particularly in the energy, industrial, telecommunications, and technology sectors. He also has experience in handling international investment disputes, both in the role of counsel and arbitrator.

As a law professor, Christophe teaches arbitration, private international law and international contract law in several universities including Paris II Panthéon-Assas and Sciences Po. He is also is the director of the LLM in domestic and international contract Law at Paris Sud University.

Christophe speaks fluent French and English.

Anna is a member of the Athens Bar since 1987. After her Law studies in Greece, she also studied Public and Private International Law and Strategics at “The Graduate Institute of International Studies” in Geneva (Diploma cum laude). Her Phd, sponsored by the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, is on the “Formation of the Arbitration Agreement in International Transactions”. Previously partner in one of the most prestigious Athens based Law Firms, Anna runs, as from 2006, her own “boutique” Law Firm specializing exclusively on arbitration.

Anna has, as counsel, co-arbitrator, chairperson or expert witness, significant experience in energy (gas price revisions, gas market competition), construction (roadways, gas pipelines, electric power units, compression station, airports' maintenance, etc.), gaming and wagering (greyhound races, casinos administration- mergers and acquisitions, internet betting, VLGs), sports (NBA, FIBA) media, telecom, shareholders' agreements, defence (electronic war, submarines, off-sets) litter administration and Bilateral Investment Treaties cases either in ad hoc or under ICC, LCIA, CAS, UNCITRAL, PCA, SCC Rules arbitrations.

Eleni focuses her practice on complex multi-jurisdictional commercial disputes, regularly representing and advising foreign corporate clients, institutions and individuals on a wide range of contentious matters. She has particular expertise on commercial agency and distribution law and has litigated successfully high-profile cases pertaining to clientele compensation and undue termination of commercial contracts. She regularly represents clients in matters related to arbitration and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, and advises clients on jurisdictional and conflict of law issues. Eleni has a strong track record in complex, high value commercial disputes with international elements ranging from private wealth, insolvency, and complex product liability cases to secured transactions. She has also extensive experience in drafting and negotiating commercial contracts of all types, and regularly counsels clients on a wide array of commercial and civil law aspects related to secured transactions, indemnity claims and issues arising from contractual breach.

Eleni's private clients practice involves a wide array of issues ranging from inheritance matters to family governance, prenuptial agreements and real estate transactions; she has significant experience in advising high net- worth individuals on wills and cross-border succession planning. She regularly deals with a wide range of legal issues on residential and commercial property, advising a diverse range of clients in connection with sales and purchases, the structuring and execution of secured lending transactions and landlord and tenant issues. Eleni has also advised on grant-making, charity restructuring, charity registration, and on day-to-day issues related to the operation of non-for-profit organizations.

She was admitted to the Athens Bar in 2007 and to the New York Bar in 2009. She joined Zepos & Yannopoulos, Athens in 2007.

Eleni is admitted before the Supreme Court.

Konstantinos is specialised in the area of Dispute Resolution. He has represented clients in a wide variety of commercial and civil disputes, including those arising from breach of regulations governing a range of industries, including banking, pharmaceutical, medicinal products and transport. Konstantinos has a particular expertise in disputes relating to corporate governance, minority shareholder rights and infringement of shareholder agreements as well as litigation resulting from internal restructurings, liquidations and insolvency. Konstantinos has advised and represented clients in indemnity cases based on contractual or tort basis and has assisted clients in negotiating settlements. He has extensive experience in credit recovery and has acted in a number of arbitrations, mainly resulting from breach of commercial transactions. He has represented clients before the Greek Supreme Court in civil and criminal matters.

Konstantinos also has a significant experience in advising on white collar crime and AML issues and assisting compliance officers in their duties; he has been in particular acting on behalf of companies and individuals in the field of breach of banking and stock exchange regulations as well as fraud cases. Recently Konstantinos and his team acted as legal advisors in forensic procedures undertaken in Greece.

Konstantinos served as an independent non-executive director of Emporiki Bank - Credit Agricole Group from September 2008 to January 2013. During his term he served in the Audit Committee and the Risk Management Supervisory Body, whilst presiding over the Disciplinary Council of the Bank.

Stavros Brekoulakis is a Professor in International Arbitration at Queen Mary University London and a Member of 3 Verulam Buildings at Gray's Inn. He holds several public appointments including being member of LCIA Court, the ICC Commission, Co-Chair of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third Party Funding, while his academic work includes the leading publications on Third Parties in International Arbitration, Arbitrability, ICCA-Queen Mary Report on Third Party Funding and Guide to Construction Arbitration and numerous publications in leading legal journals and reviews.

Stavros is a widely acknowledged authority in international arbitration, regularly named as a Thought Leader by Who's Who Legal being described as “standing out as a first-rate arbitrator and academic; an expert in construction and commercial disputes who is regularly engaged in matters arising out of major infrastructure projects around the world” and as “very thorough and professional” and “held in the highest regard”. He has been shortlisted for the “Best Prepared and Most Responsive Arbitrator” Award of the Global Arbitration Review in 2016 and 2017. Stavros has been appointed in more than 35 arbitrations, as chairman, sole arbitrator and co-arbitrator with a particular expertise in arbitrations concerning major construction and complex infrastructure, energy and natural resources projects.

Marily Paralika heads the International Arbitration practice at Fieldfisher Paris.

She has 15 years' experience in International Arbitration and acts as counsel in international arbitration proceedings governed by the ICC, ICSID, LCIA, SCC arbitration rules, as well as ad hoc proceedings. Marily represents parties in the construction, engineering, energy and infrastructure sectors, both in commercial arbitrations and investor-state disputes, and assists with every step of the arbitral process, including pre-arbitral strategic advice. She has handled arbitrations arising out of international commercial contracts, including long-term gas supply agreements and concession contracts, but also matters arising out of M&A and shareholders' agreements. She also acts as an arbitrator in international arbitration proceedings. Marily is the author of articles and publications in her field of expertise. She is a regular speaker at conferences on international arbitration and teaches at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens.

Marily is a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of ArbitralWomen. Prior to joining Fieldfisher Paris, Marily was a senior associate in the international arbitration group of White & Case in Paris, and a Deputy Counsel with the Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration in, where she supervised numerous arbitration proceedings involving parties from all over the world.

Vladimir Pavić is Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, where he teaches Private International Law, Arbitration, Competition Law and Investment Protection.

He currently serves as Vice-President of the Belgrade Arbitration Center and is a member of the State Council of the Republic of Serbia for Private International Law. He served as VicePresident of the Permanent Court of Arbitration attached to the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. He acted as arbitrator, counsel and expert witness in a number of ad hoc arbitrations and arbitrations organized under various institutional rules, and is listed since 2013 in the Global Arbitration Review’s The International Who’s Who Legal for Arbitration, as well as on the lists of arbitrators of institutional arbitrations attached to chambers of commerce in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Georgia. He has advised and acted in a number of cross-border litigations in both civil and common law jurisdictions and has taught as a visiting professor at graduate and postgraduate level at a number of universities.

He holds his LL.B from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Law (1994), and his LL.M. (1996) and S.J.D. (1998) from the Central European University, Budapest. He was a FCO Chevening/Soros Visiting Student at the Lincoln College, Oxford University (1996-7) and a researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, Den Haag (1996).

Florian Haugeneder is a partner at KNOETZL, a law firm specialized in arbitration, litigation, alternative dispute resolution, business crime, and corporate crisis management. Before co-founding KNOETZL in 2016, Florian was the head of the arbitration practice of an international law firm.

Florian has extensive experience as counsel and arbitrator under the rules of the major arbitral institutions, including the ICC, ICSID, SCC, and VIAC, as well as in international and domestic ad-hoc arbitration such as UNCITRAL. He has successfully represented clients in some of the largest and most complex disputes in the CEE and SEE regions. A special focus of his practice is the international law on the protection of foreign investments under bilateral and multilateral investment protection treaties.

Florian's practice specializes in engineering and construction, energy, joint ventures, as well as commercial and corporate disputes. His experience includes numerous M&A projects, hotel management contracts, the construction and operation of a major fiber-optic cable infrastructure, a large IT outsourcing project, various thermal and hydro power plants, gas transportation and storage, banking and finance disputes, road and railway construction and rehabilitation and a sewer system. Florian has advised on a large number of FIDIC contracts.

Florian is the President of the Austrian Arbitration Association (ArbAut) and he lectures at the University of Vienna and frequently speaks and publishes on international arbitration and investment protection. Who's Who Legal has recognized him as a leading arbitration expert.

Born in 1960 in London, Gregory studied law at the Athens University Law School and holds an LL.M. from University College London, in Intellectual Property, Competition Law, Company Law and International Economic Law.

Gregory has served as in-house counsel for Mobil Oil Hellas S.A. and as General Legal Counsel of Toyota Hellas S.A.

He has served in various posts including as Chairman of the Computer Law Committee of the Greek Computer Society; Committee Member drafting the Rules and Regulations of the Athens Derivatives Exchange; Adjunct Faculty at the American College of Greece, as well as Member of the Board of Directors of EKO Chemicals and Refinery SA, ERGOSE S.A., and DEP-EKY S.A. and private companies (Levi Strauss Hellas, SAS Institute et al)

Gregory is a member of the Athens Bar Association and an advocate before the Supreme Court.

Alexander G. Fessas is the Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

As Secretary General, he is responsible for the operational management and coordination of the ICC Court's Secretariat and other dispute resolution services in Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Sao Paolo and Singapore.

He joined the Secretariat in late 2011 and held consecutive positions in three case management teams, of which two as counsel. Prior to his appointment as Secretary General, he was the Secretariat's Managing Counsel over a three-year term.

He read law at the University of Athens, Greece having specialized in international commercial transactions and conflict of laws.

Prior to joining the ICC Court, he practised as counsel out of Athens where he established a sole practice in 2008. He was previously an associate at an Athens-based law firm. During the same period, he was also the editor-in-chief of the Revue hellénique de droit international.

He is admitted to the Athens Bar and speaks English, French and Greek.

Antonias Dimolitsa has extensive experience in arbitration. She has served as President, Sole Arbitrator, Co-arbitrator and Counsel in numerous international arbitration proceedings, under the Rules of the ICC, LCIA, CEPANI, UNCITRAL, as well as in ad hoc arbitrations. She has been President twice of ad hoc Committees in ICSID Annulment Proceedings.

Her areas of specialization include private international law, agency and distribution, construction, energy, EU law, foreign investment, international sales of goods, joint ventures.

She is the author of numerous articles on international arbitration and a frequent speaker in international conferences on international commercial contracts and arbitration.

For twelve years (1988-2000), she was member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. She was member of the ICC working group on the revision (1998) of the Arbitration Rules and as Vice-President of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and member of the DSC Committee she also participated in the 2012 revision of the ICC Rules. She was Vice-President of the IBA Arbitration Committee and member of the IBA Subcommittee on the revision of the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (2010). She was Vice-President of the ICC Institute of Word Business Law (2011-2020).

Ms Dimolitsa is Council Member of the Greek Arbitration Association, Member of the Club of Arbitrators of the Milan Chamber of National and International Arbitration, and Athens Correspondent of the International Arbitration Institute (IAI). She is also Greece's designee to the ICSID panel of arbitrators.

Sarah is Co-Head of International Arbitration at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP, a role covering the U.K., Central and Eastern Europe, the UAE, Singapore, Turkey, China, Brazil and Mexico. She is a seasoned international arbitration lawyer specialising in both international commercial arbitration and investor state disputes, representing clients before all key arbitral institutions including the LCIA, DIFC-LCIA, ICC, ICDR, SIAC, HKAIC, SCC, ICSID, and in arbitrations conducted under the UNCITRAL Rules, and foreign investment laws. She is dual-qualified in England & Wales and the U.S. (Texas and Washington D.C.), is a Solicitor-Advocate of the Higher Courts of England and Wales, and works in both English and Spanish.

In addition to advocating for her clients' interests before international tribunals, Sarah advises clients on investment (re)structuring, and on strategies, options, and tactics for minimising the prospects of full-blown disputes. She is an adroit counsellor on managing and sharing the risks of arbitration through third-party funding, ATE insurance, and conditional-fee and damages-based agreements, and enforcing arbitral awards. She has particular experience in energy, oil and gas, mining, and other large scale project disputes in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, and Latin America and has represented many of the leading global energy and construction companies. Sarah regularly sits as party-nominated, sole, and presiding arbitrator.

Gregory focuses on complex international and domestic arbitration. He has actively participated in numerous intricate arbitration cases, in the capacity of counsel as well as arbitrator, including ad hoc international arbitrations and international commercial/construction arbitrations, conducted according to the rules of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), UNCITRAL, LCIA and the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA).

Gregory is also heavily involved in demanding litigations, energy law, public tenders, concessions, privatisations and commercial contracts.

He is Head Partner of the Arbitration, Litigation and Mediation Department and Co-Head of the Projects & Privatisation and Real Estate Department of Koutalidis Law Firm.

Gregory has acted as head of the Procurement and Contracts Department of the Public Power Corporation of Greece for several years, where he still serves as senior counsel.

He is a graduate of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, a member of the Piraeus Bar Association and qualified to appear before the Supreme Court of Greece. His professional memberships currently include the Arbitration Council of the German Arbitration Institute (DIS), the International Bar Association (IBA) and ICC Hellas. He is a proficient user of both the English and German language.

Associate Professor of Civil Procedure and Arbitration Law at the Law School of the University of Thrace. Name partner at Calavros Law Firm Filios - Babiniotis - Kloukinas. Licensed to practice before the Supreme Court. Member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Association of Procedural Law and of Hellenic Arbitration Association. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, including appeals and petitions for cassation before the Supreme Court. He has also served as counsel in numerous international and domestic commercial arbitrations and regularly represents clients in arbitration related litigation. His academic interests and writings revolve around appellate proceedings, cassation law, the binding effects of court decisions and arbitral awards and court review of arbitral awards. Educated in Greece (LL.B. University of Athens, SJD University of Thrace) and the US (LL.M. Harvard University).

Since 2007, Antonis is a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens (Section A' Private Law). He has authored five books on various civil law matters and has published numerous studies in Greek, German and English magazines. He has participated as a speaker and organizer in various international legal conferences in Greece and abroad. He is member of the Editing Committee in several legal magazines in Greece and in Germany and has served as a member of various law drafting Committees. He was the nation's representative of the EU Greek Presidency (1st semester of 2014) on matters of Civil Law and the Greek speaker at the International Conference of the International Academy of Comparative Law (Vienna, July 2014). He is a mediator, accredited by CiArb and certified by the Ministry of Justice. He is member of EODID's Advisory Board.

Dr Nayla Comair-Obeid is a founding partner of Obeid Law Firm. She holds a PhD in Business Law with first class honours from Université Paris II - Assas, and is professor of International Arbitration at the Faculty of Law of the Lebanese University and at the Lebanese Judicial Institute. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas in France.

Dr Comair-Obeid is a chartered arbitrator of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb). She also holds positions in major arbitration and professional institutions. Dr Comair-Obeid is vice chair of the Arbitration committee in the International Bar Association (IBA), trustee for the Middle East and Indian Sub-Continent in the CIArb board of trustees and vice chair of the CIArb board of trustees, member of the Council of the Institute of World Business Law of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, member of the legal committee of the board of directors of the Lebanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and former commissioner of the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) in Geneva.

Dr Comair-Obeid has served as counsel, chairman, sole arbitrator, or party-appointed arbitrator in over 80 ad hoc and institutional arbitrations in Arabic, French and English. She also regularly provides expert advice on matters involving the interpretation and application of Middle Eastern legislations. Dr Comair-Obeid is the author of numerous publications on the topics of international arbitration and business law in the Middle East.

Louis Flannery KC specialises in arbitration and litigation with a particular emphasis on fraud and conflict of law issues. He is a regular speaker on arbitration and civil fraud at conferences all over the world.

Louis has extensive experience of international commercial arbitration under the major institutional rules (LCIA, ICC, UNCITRAL, SCC, etc) as well as substantial High Court litigation in England. He was named as a leading international arbitration practitioner in "Who's Who Legal: Arbitration Lawyers 2018" and is recognised as a leading individual in commercial arbitration by Legal 500, Chambers and Partners and Global Arbitration Review.

As a practising solicitor advocate, he has undertaken advocacy before international tribunals and courts, including the High Court and Court of Appeal. Louis has acted or advised in relation to commercial disputes for over 30 years and has been involved in many reported decisions in England.

Louis became a KC (King's Counsel) in 2018, one of only a few international arbitration solicitor practitioners to achieve that distinction. He is also co-author of Merkin and Flannery on the Arbitration Act 1996, the leading authority on the English Arbitration Act, and which has already been cited with approval in two Court of Appeal cases since its publication in January 2020.

Antonios graduated from Aristotle University and London School of Economics, and holds a Ph.D. in international maritime arbitration. He practices as a lawyer since 1991, mainly focused on international arbitration, as counsel, co-arbitrator and chairman (esp. in international transactions, insurance, construction, energy and investment disputes). He is a partner and head of Rokas Law Firm's arbitration practice at its 11 offices in 10 countries. Law lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the Democritus University, he teaches, among others, international commercial, investment and energy arbitration at the post-graduate level. He is the secretary-general of the European Court of Arbitration, vice-president of the Greek Association for Arbitration, vice-president of the Piraeus Association for Maritime Arbitration, member of the Executive Committee of the Greek Committee of International Arbitration of ICC Hellas, member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA).

Epaminontas Triantafilou is a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan based in London. His experience spans a wide spectrum of disputes under international treaties and contracts, including government contracts and concessions, joint ventures, shareholder agreements, patent licensing disputes, construction/EPC contracts and financial instrument covenants. He has also advised in arbitrations and investigations involving intellectual property, shipping, media and advertising, and white-collar criminal statutes. He has been involved as counsel in dozens of arbitration proceedings under all major arbitral rules, often involving multiple parties.

Previously, Epaminontas practised international arbitration with a major international law firm in Washington, DC, served as legal counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and was legal assistant to the Hon Charles N Brower, independent arbitrator and judge of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal. He is widely published in international arbitration and public international law, including as co-editor of and contributor in Practising Virtue: Inside International Arbitration (Oxford, 2015). He has been invited to speak on international arbitration issues at numerous conferences around the world.

Epaminontas is chair of the UNCITRAL committee and a member of the executive committee of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration in Dallas, Texas. He served for several years as co-managing editor of the World Arbitration and Mediation Review. He is admitted to practise in New York State and in the District of Columbia, and is a registered foreign lawyer in England and Wales.

Georgios has a broad practice covering inter-State, investment, and commercial disputes. He has represented States, international organizations, and private parties in more than 70 disputes, including the largest maritime delimitation case to date in the International Court of Justice (Peru v Chile), the ground-breaking “Black Economic Empowerment” case before ICSID (Foresti and ors v South Africa), and some of the most critical cases in the European energy industry in the past decade. His recent experience includes successfully leading a team for Mytilineos Holdings in its UNCITRAL investment treaty arbitration with the Republic of Serbia, obtaining a multi-million dollar award.

He was formerly the head of the Paris arbitration team, and public international law group, of a leading international firm and has published extensively on international law and international arbitration, including the well-known monograph Procedural Law in International Arbitration, and is the co-author, with Jan Paulsson, of UNCITRAL Arbitration.

Georgios has represented a Member State at UNCITRAL since 2007; is a visiting professor at the Universities of Bern and Fribourg in Switzerland; and the current rapporteur of the International Law Association International Arbitration Committee. He holds graduate degrees, including a doctorate, from Oxford, as well as degrees from Strasbourg and Athens.

He is recognised by Legal 500 (EMEA) as a “Leading Individual” in International arbitration. Sources also note that he “demonstrates long-standing expertise in public international law, with a broad practice covering investment treaty, commercial and inter-state disputes [and] is recognised for his knowledge of procedures in international arbitration.”