International Commercial Arbitration
International commercial arbitration resolves disputes between parties in different countries without the procedural complexity, discovery burden, and enforcement difficulty of cross-border litigation. For companies doing business across borders — particularly between the U.S. and Latin America — arbitration is often the only realistic path to a binding and enforceable resolution.
We represent parties in international commercial arbitration proceedings and advise clients from contract negotiation through enforcement. Our work spans institutional proceedings under ICC, ICDR, JAMS, and other rules, as well as ad hoc arbitrations governed by the UNCITRAL Rules or by agreement.
We represent parties in arbitration proceedings under the leading institutional rules: ICC, ICDR (the international division of the AAA), JAMS International, and LCIA. We also handle ad hoc proceedings under UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules and arbitrations before regional institutions including those in Latin America. We advise on institution selection at the contract stage — before a dispute arises — and manage the full proceeding when one does.
The arbitration clause is where disputes are won or lost before they start. A poorly drafted clause can make arbitration non-binding, expose a party to parallel court proceedings, or put the dispute in a seat that disfavors enforcement. We draft and review arbitration provisions for commercial contracts, investment agreements, joint ventures, shareholders' agreements, and cross-border transactions — with particular attention to seat, governing law, institution selection, number of arbitrators, language, and confidentiality.
When a dispute requires immediate action before a tribunal is constituted, the ICC and ICDR emergency arbitrator procedures allow parties to seek binding interim relief within days. We advise on when emergency arbitration is available and appropriate versus seeking interim relief from a court, and we manage emergency proceedings including the preparation of urgent applications and hearings.
The New York Convention (ratified by 172 countries) provides a treaty framework for enforcing foreign arbitral awards in U.S. federal court. Miami's federal courts — the Southern District of Florida — are an established enforcement jurisdiction for awards against LATAM parties with U.S. assets. We handle award enforcement proceedings from petition through execution, including addressing Article V defenses raised by the award debtor.
A party who believes an award was obtained through arbitrator misconduct, procedural irregularity, or a decision on issues outside the scope of the submission may petition a court to vacate or modify the award. We advise on the limited grounds available under the FAA and the New York Convention, and represent parties in vacatur proceedings in U.S. federal court.
Many significant disputes are resolved — or avoided — before arbitration is filed. We advise companies on the legal landscape of their cross-border contracts, assess the strength of potential claims and defenses, analyze arbitration clauses, identify procedural strategy, and conduct pre-filing negotiations. When settlement is achievable without arbitration, we help clients get there.
International commercial arbitration is the preferred mechanism for resolving significant cross-border disputes — not because it is simpler than litigation, but because it offers parties in different countries a process they agreed to accept before the dispute arose, under rules they chose, before a neutral tribunal neither side controls. Awards rendered under ICC, ICDR, JAMS, and UNCITRAL rules are enforceable in 172 countries under the New York Convention, with a degree of finality and confidentiality that court proceedings cannot match.
We have represented parties as counsel in large-scale international commercial arbitrations and multi-jurisdictional disputes, including ICC and ICDR proceedings involving parties from the United States, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Venezuela, and other jurisdictions across the Americas. Our arbitration and litigation work spans complex commercial contract disputes, joint venture and shareholder disagreements, post-acquisition claims, failed cross-border transactions, and investment-related proceedings where the factual record, governing documents, expert witnesses, and applicable law span multiple legal systems. We conduct hearings, examinations, expert sessions, and written submissions at equal depth in English and Spanish.
Miami occupies a specific and practical role in international arbitration involving Latin American parties. The Southern District of Florida has an established docket of New York Convention enforcement proceedings — including cases in which LATAM award debtors raise Article V defenses — and its jurisdiction over assets held in Florida makes it an effective forum for enforcing awards against parties with U.S. financial exposure. We advise on the strategic choice of seat at the contract stage and on enforcement positioning when a counterparty contests recognition of an award in U.S. court.
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