Lecturer Bios
Martin Gusy, Esq.
Martin Gusy is a dual-licensed common law-civil law disputes attorney and leads the firm’s international arbitration practice. He has over 20 years of experience serving as legal counsel to commercial parties as well as sovereigns in more than 100 high-stakes, cross-border disputes and transactions, including international arbitration dispute resolution, international commercial arbitration, investor-state/investment arbitration, US litigation and corporate matters.
Martin regularly serves as sole arbitrator, president of the tribunal and party-appointed arbitrator in more than two dozen ICC, AAA/ICDR, UNCITRAL and ad hoc arbitrations. He has been a member of the AAA/ICDR International Roster of Arbitrators and Mediators since 2010 and served as a mediator in an international commercial dispute involving a sovereign. He is the co-author of the second edition of A Guide to the ICDR International Arbitration Rules (2019), a leading industry text published by Oxford University Press, as well as the co-author of the AIPN research paper, “A Global Review of Joint Operating Agreement Disputes” (2020).
He is recognized by his peers for his international legal experience and broad substantive experience, including technology, manufacturing and engineering joint ventures, energy, oil and gas, mining, banking and finance, construction, distribution and franchising, insurance, IP protection and IP licensing. He has prior work experiences in Frankfurt, Singapore, Paris, Houston and São Paulo, and regularly advises clients from Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.
He has counseled dozens of parties in international arbitrations under rules including ICC, ICSID, AAA/ICDR, JAMS, LCIA, UNCITRAL, DIS, VIAC and SIAC International Arbitration Rules. Martin is active in various professional associations, including serving on the Executive Committee of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC) and on AAA/ICDR committees. He has helped draft institutional arbitration rules and is regularly asked to speak at industry events or teach on international arbitration.
Grant Hanessian, Esq.
Grant Hanessian is an independent arbitrator and neutral in New York, specializing in international, investor-state, and complex commercial disputes.
For more than three decades, Mr. Hanessian has acted as counsel and arbitrator in a wide range of commercial and treaty disputes arising under the laws of many common and civil law countries and public international law. Prior to June 2020, he was a partner at Baker McKenzie, where he practiced for 33 years and served as global co-head of the firm’s International Arbitration Practice, head of its International Arbitration Practice in North America and head of its New York office Litigation Department.
Mr. Hanessian is currently the U.S. member of the International Chamber of Commerce's International Court of Arbitration in Paris, chairman of the Arbitration Committee of the U.S. Council for International Business (U.S. national committee of the ICC), and a member of the ICC's Commission on Arbitration and its Task Forces on the Arbitration Involving States or State Entities and on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration (leader of Investment Arbitration and Banking & Finance workstream).
He is a member of the American Arbitration Association—International Centre for Dispute Resolution's International Advisory Committee and its Advisory Committee on Brazil, Vice President (for the U.S.) of the London Court of Arbitration's North American Users’ Council, a member of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre's User's Council, the International Arbitration Club of New York, the Arbitration Committee of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, the New York City Bar Association's Committee on International Commercial Disputes, Club Español del Arbitraje, the Panel of Recognized International Market Experts in Finance (P.R.I.M.E.) Arbitration Rules Drafting Committee and is a founding board member of the New York International Arbitration Center.
Mr. Hanessian is editor of ICDR Awards and Commentaries Vol. I (Juris Pub. 2012) and Vol. II (forthcoming Juris Pub. 2020) and co-editor of International Arbitration Checklists (Juris Pub., 3rd ed., 2016), Gulf War Claims Reporter (ILI/Kluwer, 1998), Baker & McKenzie's International Litigation & Arbitration Newsletter, and Baker & McKenzie's International Arbitration Yearbook.
Mr. Hanessian is annually recommended by Chambers Global and USA Guides (described as "very knowledgeable and strategic in his offering of critical advice," an "elite lawyer" who is "very experienced, hugely knowledgeable and effective," a "powerful advocate for clients"), Legal 500 (described as “a great practitioner” with a “strong commercial profile”), PLC Which Lawyer, The International Who's Who of Commercial Arbitration and Expert Guide to Leading Practitioners in International Arbitration (ranked among "Best of the Best" in international commercial arbitration).
Education: LL.M. degree in International Law. Columbia University, J.D. degree, New York University
B.A. degree, University of Pennsylvania.
Marek Krasula
Marek Krasula is Regional Director for North America at the ICC International Court of Arbitration (SICANA, Inc.) in New York. He leads the Educational Services team and promotes ICC dispute resolution services throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to his role as Regional Director, Marek headed the North American case management team of the ICC International Court of Arbitration as Counsel where he oversaw hundreds of arbitrations in relation to a broad range of industries.
He has served as a lecturer in international arbitration at the Université de Montréal law faculty and Deputy Counsel in the ICC Secretariat’s Paris office dealing primarily with cases from Eastern Europe. Before joining the ICC, Marek was executive assistant to Mr. Justin P. J. Trudeau, now Prime Minister of Canada, and a consultant at the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. Marek is a member of the Quebec Bar (Canada) and holds an LL.M. from Georgetown University.
Luis M. Martinez, Esq.
Luis M. Martinez, Vice President of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, (ICDR) the international division of the American Arbitration Association, (AAA). Luis M. Martinez is also an Honorary President of the Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission, (IACAC).
Luis M. Martinez is the Vice President of the ICDR and is based in New York. Mr. Martinez serves as an integral part of the ICDR's international strategy team and is responsible for international arbitration and mediation business development for the North-East (from Washington, D.C. to Maine, including New York City) as well as Central and South America.
Mr. Martinez in his capacity as President of the IACAC was responsible for the oversight of its network of arbitral centers throughout the Americas and conducted numerous arbitration and mediation initiatives aimed at developing the ADR culture in the region.
Mr. Martinez joined the AAA in 1996 as the first attorney hired to staff the newly created ICDR and later served as the ICDR's first director. Mr. Martinez worked as the Vice President responsible for the ICDR's international administrative services and prior to that held the position of a staff attorney for the AAA's Office of the General Counsel.
Mr. Martinez received a Bachelor’s Degree from Georgian Court College and a Juris Doctor degree from St. John's University School of Law. He has had numerous articles published on international arbitration and has appeared as a speaker in programs throughout the world. Mr. Martinez is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and the State of New Jersey. He is a dual citizen of Spain and the United States and is fluent in Spanish and has a functional understanding of Portuguese.
Richard L. Mattiaccio, Esq.
Richard L. Mattiaccio, FCIArb, C. Arb Chartered Arbitrator Fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Fellow, College of Commercial Arbitrators National Association of Distinguished Neutrals Adjunct Professor, Fordham Law School.
Richard Mattiaccio is a full-time arbitrator and mediator based in New York. Richard became a full-time neutral at the end of 2020, following four decades of law practice, including thirty-five years of continuous experience as counsel in international and domestic US commercial and IP arbitration, and over thirty years of experience as an arbitrator and mediator. He serves as arbitrator in AAA, ICDR, ICC and CPR cases and in ad hoc international cases. He is a teacher in the field, including as co-director of the Comprehensive Course on International Arbitration given annually in June by Columbia Law School and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and as an Adjunct Professor at Fordham Law School. His recent publications are listed on his arbitrator CV and available at mattiaccio.com.
Richard is a Chartered Arbitrator, the highest designation given by the London-based Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a 17,000-member English charity that trains and certifies arbitrators around the world. Richard is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and a Member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, and he is active in the ADR community in New York. Richard served as co-chair of the first New York Arbitration Week held in 2019. He is the immediate past chair of the New York City Bar Association’s International Commercial Disputes Committee (ICDC).
He was a founding director of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC) and served on NYIAC’s executive committee from NYIAC’s inception until 2019 and as vice-chair in 2018. Beginning in January 2019, Richard began his tenure as chair of the New York Branch of the Chartered Institute. In his law firm practice, Richard was a litigation and arbitration partner at Allegaert Berger & Vogel (2017- 20), Squire Sanders (2007-17), and Pavia & Harcourt (1987-2007).
He dedicated more than half of his career as counsel to representing Italian corporate groups or their local affiliates or branches in banking and finance, fashion, food, life sciences industrial design and construction, and other industries.
Richard spent his formative years as a litigation associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, as a law clerk to a federal court of appeals judge in Washington DC, and as a student at Columbia Law School and Columbia College. He is a Bronx-born dual citizen of the United States and Italy and is bi-lingual in Italian.
Rekha Rangachari, Esq.
Rekha Rangachari is the Executive Director of the New York International Arbitration Center (“NYIAC”). Founded in 2013, NYIAC is a non-profit organization that promotes and enhances the conduct of international arbitration in New York, offers educational programming, and operates world-class hearing facilities for rent in Midtown Manhattan.
Prior to joining NYIAC, Ms. Rangachari was Director of ADR Services for the New York Commercial Division of the American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR). Therein, she led the New York Corporate InnovAAAtion Team, and served on the Diversity Committee (spearheading initiatives for greater cross-cultural representation and collaboration) and the AAA-ICDR Foundation Committee (which has funded over 35 projects since its launch in 2015). She is a 2017 Recipient of the AAA-ICDR President’s Award for Service. Ms. Rangachari also served as Case Counsel for the ICDR, focusing her efforts on the European and Sub-Saharan Africa Regions.
Rekha is actively engaged with the arbitration community at the city, state, national, and global levels. At the New York state and city levels, Rekha serves as Member of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) Dispute Resolution Section’s Executive Committee, Co-Chair of the International Disputes Resolution Committee, and Member of the NYSBA Planning Committee for the Judith Kaye Moot Court Competition; Member of the NYSBA International Section’s Executive Committee and Co-Chair of the International Contracts and Commercial Law Committee; and Member of the New York City Bar’s Women in the Legal Profession Standing Committee and Affiliate Member of the Arbitration Committee.
Rekha is also Board Member of the New York Coalition of Women’s Initiatives and of the Association for Conflict Resolution of Greater New York. At the national level, at the American Society of International Law (ASIL), Rekha is Co-Chair of the Private International Law Interest Group (PILIG), and at the American Bar Association, Rekha is Member of the Executive Committee of the Section of Dispute Resolution and Co-Chair of the Young Professionals Committee.
On the global level, Rekha is Member of ArbitralWomen and its Marketing Committee. Rekha also maintains an active connection to academics as Associate Editor of the Juris Investment Arbitration Conference Volumes, Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall Law School, and Peer Review Board Member of the American Review of International Arbitration (ARIA) at Columbia Law School.
Josefa Sicard-Mirabal, Esq.
Josefa Sicard-Mirabal has vast experience in international arbitration and international business transactions. Her experience includes acting as arbitrator and counsel in numerous international arbitrations under the ICC, AAA, UNCITRAL, and FINRA Rules as well as representing international and domestic clients in mergers and acquisitions, project finance, banking and securities matters. Ms. Sicard-Mirabal is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law in New York City.
She teaches Introduction to Investor-State Arbitration since 2010, International Business Transactions since 2017 and International Arbitration Practicum for LLM students (Spring 2019). She has been a guest lecturer on international commercial and investment arbitration at several law schools including, Harvard University, Columbia University, Boston University, Northwestern University, the Law School at the Università degli Studi di Firenze, and La Sapienza – Università di Roma, Italy, and the Universidad de Montevideo, Uruguay, among others. Since 2011, she serves as an External Member of the Sanctions Committee of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The Sanctions Committee is the second tier of the IDB Sanctions System. The Committee reviews and makes final decisions on cases concerning fraud and other Bank- prohibited practices committed by beneficiaries of IDB Bank loans for IDB-sponsored projects. 7/9/2021 Josefa Sicard-Mirabal | Josefa Sicard-Mirabal | Fordham https://www.fordham.edu/info/23650/s_-_t/7396/josefa_sicard-mirabal 2/3 From 2006-2015, Ms. Sicard-Mirabal was the Executive Director (formerly, Regional Director) of Arbitration and ADR for North America for the ICC International Court of Arbitration/SICANA, Inc. In this capacity, she represented and promoted ICC dispute resolution services in North America. She advised companies, States, and attorneys on all phases of commercial and investor- state arbitration, including negotiation of arbitration clauses, requests for arbitration, procedural issues and enforcement of arbitration awards. During the same period, she served as Director of Dispute Resolution Services of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB). The USCIB is the U.S. National Committee of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. In such capacity, Ms. Sicard-Mirabal assisted the ICC Court in the nomination of arbitrators, mediators, and experts; made referrals to parties seeking arbitrators or counsel; organized seminars, conferences, and corporate roundtables to discuss topics on arbitration; and, answered questions regarding the arbitration process, and other ICC dispute resolution services.
Ms. Sicard-Mirabal commenced her legal career as a Judge of a Small Claims Court and subsequently as Chief Justice of the Civil, Commercial and Labor Court in La Vega, Dominican Republic where she rendered numerous decisions on commercial, civil, and labor matters. She also had stint sittings as substitute judge at the Court of Appeals of the Judicial Department of La Vega. During her tenure as a judge, Ms. Sicard-Mirabal was a Professor of Law at the Universidad Tecnológica del Cibao, teaching International Public Law and Comparative Law.
She continued her legal practice in the United States, first as an associate at the law firm of Thelen, Reid & Priest and then as a Of Counsel at Winston & Strawn and Greenberg Traurig. Ms. Sicard-Mirabal received a law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Santiago, Dominican Republic. She continued her legal studies at Fordham University School of Law in New York. She is admitted to the New York State bar and the Dominican Republic bar.
She speaks English, French, and Spanish. Ms. Sicard-Mirabal is part of the USCIB Arbitration Committee leadership. She chairs the USCIB Sole Practitioners’ Subcommittee. She is also a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR and a member of the ICC Institute of World Business Law. Ms. Sicard-Mirabal is co-author of the book, Introduction to Investor-State Arbitration, with Yves Derains, Kluwer Law International, 2018. She has authored many articles, appeared on numerous television programs, domestic and foreign newspapers, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars all over the world. Ms. Sicard-Mirabal was named one of the “20 Leading Latinas in Business” by Hispanic Enterprise magazine in its 2007 issue and one of the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business Magazine in its 2006 issue.
Nancy M. Thevenin, Esq.
Nancy M. Thevenin is an international arbitrator and mediator based in New York City. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, an adjunct professor of the International Commercial Arbitration course at St. John's University School of Law, a past chair of the New York State Bar Association’s International Section, and is designated by the Republic of Haiti to serve on the Panel of Arbitrators of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Ms. Thevenin also serves as an external general counsel for the United States Council for International Business (USCIB/ICC USA), the U.S. national committee to the ICC International Court of Arbitration© and manages its Arbitration & ADR Committee, which, inter alia, provides assistance in the nomination of U.S. arbitrators, makes referrals to parties seeking arbitration practitioners and arbitrators, and serves as a resource for the U.S. business community about the ICC’s dispute resolution services.
Aside from general corporate counsel duties, Ms. Thevenin also manages requests for USCIB to participate in amicus brief filings on issues of relevance to USCIB’s membership. Ms. Thevenin was an adjunct professor of the Arbitration Practicum course at Fordham Law School responsible for helping prepare Fordham’s Vis Moot teams in Hong Kong and Vienna, and was also a special counsel in and global coordinator of Baker & McKenzie’s International Arbitration Practice Group. Before joining Baker & McKenzie, Ms. Thevenin was deputy director of arbitration and ADR for North America for the ICC International Court of Arbitration© in New York.
Ms. Thevenin started her career practicing international litigation and arbitration at a boutique law firm in Miami, Florida. Representative Clients, Cases or Matters Ms. Thevenin also advises on arbitrations, mediation strategy, dispute boards, expertise and expedited proceedings, ad hoc cases and use of pre-arbitral referee as well as and emergency arbitration procedures.
Her extensive experience includes arbitrations under various institutional rules, including the ICC, ICDR, UNCITRAL and ICSID and advising on early resolution of matters that would otherwise become formal disputes. Ms. Thevenin’s areas of experience include international commercial litigation and arbitration, creditor’s rights and business torts. She has handled disputes for multinational companies and governments in the construction and engineering, financial services, commercial real estate and aviation industries, often involving issues concerning mergers and acquisition, sales, distribution, licensing, technology transfer and leasing agreements
