Faculty and Staff

Horacio A. Grigera Naon
 

Horacio Grigera Naón
Center Director and Distinguished Practitioner in Residence

Email: hnaon@wcl.american.edu
Phone: (202) 895-4531

Dr. Grigera Naón, presently an independent international arbitrator and consultant on arbitration and business and international law matters, is a former Secretary General of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce and a practitioner in the field of international commercial arbitration and international business law for over thirty years. Dr. Grigera Naón has also widely published in those areas, including a book on “Choice-of-Law Problems in International Commercial Arbitration” (1992) and lectures at the Hague Academy of International Law (2001) on the same topic.

Dr. Grigera Naón, is a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Washington College of Law, American University, Washington D.C. and the Director of its Center for International Commercial Arbitration, a former Special Counsel with White & Case LLP and a former Senior Counsel with the International Finance Corporation, Washington D.C.  He also serves as an adviser to the American Law Institute’s project on restating the U.S. law of international commercial arbitration. Professor Grigera Naón holds LL.M. and S.J.D degrees from Harvard Law School, LL.B and LL.D. degrees from the School of Law of the University of Buenos Aires and is a member of the Argentine Federal, New York, District of Columbia, and United States Supreme Court Bar Associations.

Bjorn Arp
 

Björn Arp
Assistant director and Adjunct Professor
Center on international commercial arbitration

Email: arp@wcl.american.edu
Phone: (202) 274-4321

Dr. Björn Arp is the Assistant Director of the Center on International Commercial Arbitration, as well as Adjunct Professor. He teaches international investment commercial arbitration and international investment law. In addition, he co-teaches International Commercial Arbitration in the online Certificate Program on International Commercial Arbitration, as well as other courses. In his practice, he represents parties in international investment protection and other international law related matters.

From 2000 to 2010, he taught Public International Law, European Union Law, and Investment Arbitration at the University of Alcalá, Madrid. In 2007, Bjorn Arp as a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School. His publications and research have focused on international investment protection and international law.

Björn Arp holds a J.D. in Law from Alicante University, a Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Alcalá in Madrid, and a LL.M. in International Legal Studies from American University Washington College of Law. He is admitted to practice in New York, and he is a member of the American Society of International Law.

Faculty

Susan Franck
 

Susan D. Franck
Professor of law

Email: sfranck@wcl.american.edu
Phone: (202) 274-4362

Professor Franck is an expert in the fields of international economic law, dispute settlement, and the empirical analysis of international law. Professor Franck's legal experience includes serving at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and practicing in international dispute settlement with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering [now Wilmer Hale] in Washington, DC and Allen & Overy in London, England. She is qualified to practice law in England and Wales, Minnesota and the District of Columbia. She is the Chair of the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, a member of the Executive Committee of the American Society of International Law, and a member of the American Law Institute.

Professor Franck is the author of various articles published in journals such as the American Journal of International Law, Duke Law Journal, Fordham Law Review, Harvard Journal of International Law, Minnesota Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Virginia Journal of International Law, and Washington University Law Review. In connection with the Lewis Center and Transnational Law Institute, she organized the Joint Symposium on International Investment and Alternative Dispute Resolution, and created a UNCTAD publication summarizing the proceedings, which occurred through a collaboration blog, other online mediums and a traditional in-person conference.

Professor Franck has been elected to the International Who's Who of Commercial Arbitration and received the "New Voices" award from the American Society of International Law (ASIL) for her groundbreaking empirical analysis of investment treaty arbitration.

Claudia Frutos Peterson
 

Claudia Frutos-Peterson
Adjunct Professor
Managing Partner, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
 

Email: cfrutos-peterson@curtis.com
Phone: (202) 274-4321

Dr. Frutos-Peterson is Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office and a member of the International Arbitration group.

Dr. Frutos-Peterson was formerly counsel at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) from 2001 to 2009. At ICSID, she served as Secretary of Tribunals in numerous arbitral proceedings brought under the ICSID Convention and the ICSID Additional Facility Mechanism, based on the bilateral and multilateral investment treaties.

She focuses her practice on arbitration, international law and international investment law and works with multiple governments and state entities. She has represented foreign states in investor-state arbitrations under the Arbitration Rules of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

Dr. Frutos-Peterson has also represented private companies in international commercial arbitration under the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and the ICC International Court of Arbitration (ICC).  She has also acted as an arbitrator under the ICC Arbitration Rules and the Rules of the Centro de Conciliación y Arbitraje (CeCAP) of Panama.

Dr. Frutos-Peterson is an Adjunct Professor at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington D.C., where she lectures on international commercial arbitration and investor-state arbitration. She is also a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars in the United States and abroad.  She is the author of the book L’émergence de l’arbitrage commercial international en Amérique latine: l’efficacité de son droit, published by L’Harmattan.

Susan Franck
 

Hernando Otero
Adjunct Professor & ADR Fellow

Email: hao1492@gmail.com

Hernando Otero is an Adjunct Professor of the Washington College of Law and a Fellow with the Center on International Commercial Arbitration where he lectures on arbitration and mediation. He also serves as neutral, both in international arbitrations and commercial mediations, with a focus on construction and engineering contracts (incl. FIDIC EPC contracts) and energy disputes (both upstream & downstream) in Latin America. He has been appointed as an arbitrator in international proceedings with the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Bogota Chamber of Commerce Arbitration and Conciliation Center. He is a CEDR accredited mediator for Investor-State disputes and is a neutral with multiple organizations including CPR in New York, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) and the Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (SHIAC).
 

Research Fellows and Dean's Fellows

Yeliza Mosquera

Dean's Fellow for Spring 2024

natalí pulido

Dean's Fellow for Spring 2024