ITA Americas Initiative in the Cayman Islands

Overview

Presented by the ITA Americas Initiative

Over the past 30 years, Latin America has seen significant advancement in its commercial arbitration, including the modernization of its legislation and its judicial attitudes to commercial arbitration, and the development of proficiency in arbitration among counsel and arbitrators. Different countries have taken different paths.

In recent years, developments have been occurring in several Caribbean jurisdictions to modernize arbitration approaches, build arbitration capacity, increase commercial arbitration use, and advance the economic interests of businesspeople and Caribbean nations.

What challenges do those seeking to develop arbitration in the Caribbean region face, from education and training to judicial, lawmaking, arbitration capacity building, and the development of counsel proficiency to building business and government support? What lessons might be learned for the Caribbean from the evolution of arbitration in Latin America?

In this session, the ITA Americas Initiative’s Caribbean Task Force will present its findings and recommendations, having explored these issues over the past few years with many stakeholders in a quest to ascertain how the ITA might be able to assist with the development of arbitration in the Caribbean.

Then, leading arbitration practitioners from Latin America and the Caribbean will discuss what the Caribbean might learn from the Latin American experiences, practical steps that might be taken to advance arbitration in the Caribbean, and how the ITA can assist Caribbean organizations, governments, businesses, and practitioners.

Schedule and Faculty

Panelists:

About the Faculty

Hon. Barry Leon, FCIArb is an independent arbitrator and mediator with Arbitration Place, 33 Bedford Row Chambers, and Caribbean Arbitrators, and mediator with Wyeth Thomas Mediation. For a three-year term (2015–2018), Barry was Presiding Judge of the BVI Commercial Court.

Barry is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), an International Mediation Institute Certified Mediator, and a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.

Barry is an Arbitrator on the American Arbitration Association National Roster of Arbitrators, and a member of the Cayman International Mediation and Arbitration Centre (CI-MAC) Rosters of Arbitrators and Mediators, the Jamaica International Arbitration Centre (JAIAC) Panel of Neutrals (Arbitration, Mediation, Facilitated Contract Re-Negotiation, Neutral Evaluation), and the Vancouver International Arbitration Centre (VanIAC) Domestic Arbitration, International Arbitration, and Mediation Panels.

He is Co-Chair of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration’s Caribbean Task Force, a past Chair and active member of ICC Canada’s Arbitration Committee, and a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR. He is Vice Chair and Branch Committee Member of the Caribbean Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a member of the BVI Arbitration Group and its governing Committee, a member of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Guyanese Congress, Co-Chair of the Canadian Arbitration Report, a member of the Organizing Committee for Canadian Arbitration Week, a member of the International Trust Arbitration Organisation’s Research Council, and a member of the North America Committee of the Campaign for Greener Arbitrations. He is an Executive Editor of the Canadian Journal of Commercial Arbitration, and a Co-Moderator of OGEMID. Also, Barry is a Director of the International Law Association’s Canadian Branch and a member of the Canadian Bar Association’s International Law Section, International Arbitration Club of New York, Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society, London Court of International Arbitration, American Society of International Law, and New York International Arbitration Center.

Before 2015, Barry was Partner and Head, International Arbitration Group at Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall. Until 2009, he was a Partner with Torys LLP in its Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice, and for many years, Practice Coordinator.

Barry is a recipient of the 2023 Award for Distinguished Service in Canadian Arbitration from Chartered Institute of Arbitrators’ Canadian Branch, and CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution’s “Award for Outstanding Contribution to Diversity in ADR”. He has been short-listed for Global Arbitration Review “best prepared arbitrator”.

Barry was admitted to the Bar in Ontario, Canada (now non-practicing). He holds a law degree (University of Toronto), MBA (Richard Ivey School of Business, Western University), and BA (University of Alberta).

Calvin A. Hamilton, C.Arb, Co-Chair (Arbitra International, hamilton arbitration). Calvin is a Chartered Arbitrator with more than 30 years’ experience. He has sat as arbitrator under the Rules of the leading arbitration institutions and UNCITRAL Rules in a variety of seats located in the Caribbean, Latin America, USA, Africa and Europe. He serves as an adjudicator on DABs in construction contracts governed by the suite of FIDIC Conditions of Contract. Calvin is a highly regarded Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

His expertise and knowledge lie in Investor State and Commercial disputes arising from administrative and public law, retail and consumer, energy and natural resources, mergers & acquisitions, cross border transactions including distribution, agency, franchise and transfer agreements, and acquisition of assets and/or shares.

His primary focus is on the Caribbean, Latin America, London, Continental Europe and the US. Calvin’s experience includes common law and civil law which he developed in his many years of practice in Spain, the Commonwealth Caribbean, including Guyana and Barbados, and the US. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts arbitrations in both English and Spanish. He is proficient in French and has working knowledge of Portuguese. He is a dual national of Guyana and Spain and admitted in New York and Madrid.

Dancia Penn is a lawyer and Alternate Dispute Resolution Practitioner in active practice. She is a British Citizen and is a former Attorney General of The Virgin Islands (“BVI”). She became Kings Counsel in 1996. Her legal experience includes contentious and non-contentious matters in corporate and commercial law including financial services, insolvency, dispute resolution, employment, hospitality, and regulatory matters as well as a wide range of other areas of private law, including trusts and estates, and public law.

Dancia regularly advises and assists clients in BVI and globally on matters of BVI law. She represents clients in major commercial disputes and has appeared in the Courts at all levels including Her Majesty’s Privy Council. She has the right of audience in Court in all nine Member States of The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and was called to the Bar of Barbados in 1999.

Dancia accepts appointments as an Arbitrator and is a qualified Mediator on The Roster of Mediators of The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. She regularly sits as a Sole Arbitrator, Chair, or Member of various Arbitration and Ad Hoc Tribunals, and also represents parties before them.

Dancia is currently a Judge of The Caribbean Community Administrative Tribunal (CCAT) which sits on an Ad Hoc basis.

Dancia is a member of Arbitrators@33BedfordRow, London and Arbitration Place, Toronto. She is also Co-Founder of Caribbean Arbitrators in BVI and is on the Roster of Arbitrators of The BVI International Arbitration Centre and is a Founding Member of its Support Group. She is President of the BVI IAC Committee.

Dancia is a Neutral with CPR/ AAA, as well as a Neutral with the Jamaica International Arbitration Centre (JAIAC)

Dancia is an appointed Arbitrator on the Labour Arbitration Tribunal of The Virgin Islands and is regularly chosen as a party representative on that and other Tribunals.

Dancia is a Member of the Council of The Commonwealth Lawyers Association, an Overseas Member of The Chancery Bar Association of the United Kingdom and a Member of the Legal Services Panel of The Government of The Virgin Islands.

Among other distinguished awards, Dancia has been recognized as a Caribbean Luminary by The American Foundation of The University of The West Indies in New York, and she is a recipient of The Pelican Award which is the highest Peer Award from Alumnae of The University of The West Indies.

Dancia has the unique distinction of having served at the highest levels in all three branches of Government – Executive, Legislative and Judicial, and of working prominently in the private sector of the legal profession and Alternate Dispute Resolution in The Virgin Islands, and beyond.

Carita Wallgren-Lindholm is a Helsinki-based international arbitrator who began her practice in Paris in the early 1980s. Before starting her boutique Lindholm Wallgren, Attorneys, Ltd. in 2008, she spent 25 years at Roschier, Helsinki, in corporate and dispute resolution work. She has been involved in more than 120 international arbitrations, mainly as arbitrator and chair. Institutions and rules include the SCC, ICC, FAI, LCIA, JCAA, DIA, PCA, ICSID, UNCITRAL and NAFTA and seats Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and Washington DC. Her ICSID work is listed here: Link to ICSID

She was the Chair of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR 2018-2021 and a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration 2012-2018. As from February 2019 she serves on the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators having been on its Panel of Conciliators 2007-2018. Since 2012 Carita only acts as arbitrator and serves in commercial and investment disputes. She is also a trained mediator. Her working languages are English, French, Swedish and Finnish, with some capacity in Spanish.

Carita Wallgren-Lindholm is inter alia ranked as a leading individual in Chambers Europe and Chambers Global (Most in Demand Arbitrators) and recognized by Who’s Who Legal as one of the Thought Leaders in Arbitration.

Carita, while of Finnish nationality only, also resides since long on the Island of Anguilla (BWI) where she has a home.

Daniel Avila is an associate at Reed Smith’s International Arbitration Group practicing in the areas of international arbitration, complex commercial litigation, and transnational investment law. As part of the firm’s Latin American Business Team, Daniel assists clients on dispute resolution matters across the region in both English and Spanish. Daniel has assisted clients in disputes across several industries including renewable energy, oil and gas, commodities, banking, transnational investments, M&A, defamation, partnership, and construction projects both domestically and in foreign countries. Daniel has extensive experience in international and domestic arbitration, handling disputes under various international and domestic arbitral institutions and rules, including under ICSID, ICC, Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá, ICDR, LCIA, UNCITRAL, and AAA Rules. 

Daniel is a frequent speaker and writer regarding cross border, international, and disputes topics including recently co-authoring The Guide to Arbitration in Latin America’s chapter on The Growing Appeal of Regional Arbitral Centres in Latin America and the Caribbean published by the Global Arbitration Review/Latin Lawyer. As the Communications Officer for the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA), Daniel led the publishing of the ITA Guide to Latin American Arbitral Institutions covering 30 institutions based out of 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Daniel is currently the Chair of the International Law Section of the Houston Bar Association, the Pro Bono Head for the Houston office of Reed Smith, and the Global Associate Chair of UNIDOS, Reed Smith’s Latinx/Hispanic Business Affinity Group. 

Huáscar Ezcurra earned his LL.M. from Yale University, United States, and his LL.B. from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Partner of Bullard Falla Ezcurra since 2001, his experience spans domestic and international arbitration litigation in oil & gas, energy, infrastructure, construction, telecommunications, shareholders’ agreements, contractual disputes, areas, among others. Moreover, he represents investors in international investment arbitration disputes. It has been recognized as Band 1 for 16 consecutive years in Chambers & Partners "Dispute Resolution: Arbitration" category and as a Thought Arbitration Leader by Who’s who Legal since 2021. Member of the General Counsel of the Centro de Arbitraje of the Cámara de Comercio de Lima and professor of commercial and investor-Sate Arbitration at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru and professor of Law and Economics at ESEN in El Salvador.

Marcela Filloy Zerr is off-counsel lawyer at BSK Legal -Costa Rica, Director of the Arbitration and International Commercial and Trade Law Department. She has 40 years in practice and more than 30 years of experience in arbitration, mediation, international negotiations, international commercial and trade law. She acts as arbitrator and counsel in national and international arbitrations.

Marcela is listed as arbitrators in national and international arbitration centers and in the list of electable arbitrators of the Ministry of Trade of Costa Rica for the FTA´s ratified by Costa Rica. Moreover, she is member of arbitral court Chamber of Commerce of Costa Rica, former member of the council of the CAM CR of the Costa Rican bar association and former representative of Costa Rica in the Interamerican Commercial Arbitration Commission.

Marcela is former vice-president of the Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica and as such, Member of the Advisory Council of the Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade of Costa Rica.

She holds a law degree – Cum Laude Probatus, Universidad Autonoma de Centro América, Escuela Libre de Derecho and a Masster of Law, Emphasis International Arbitration and International Trade Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. (Fullbright Scholar).

She has been nominated as Latin America Arbitration Lawyer of the Year by Women in Business Law Awards 2023, and listed in Leaders League 2023 as Costa Rica Best Arbitrators and WWL- Central America 2023 Dispute Resolution.

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