José Feris

José represents private and public entities, as well as sovereign states in commercial and investment arbitration proceedings. He also regularly sits as arbitrator in international arbitrations administered under the rules of various international and regional institutions, as well as in ad hoc proceedings under a wide variety of applicable laws. He has worked extensively with clients and entities in Latin America, Africa, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia and has a particular focus on disputes in the construction and energy sectors.

Before joining the firm, José served at the ICC International Court of Arbitration where, in addition to Deputy Secretary General, he occupied the positions of Acting Secretary General, Managing Counsel, Counsel and Deputy Counsel. During the course of his career at the ICC, he supervised thousands of international arbitration cases and reviewed an equal number of arbitral awards in a wide range of jurisdictions and economic sectors including energy, construction, telecommunications, transportation, banking and finance, information technology and general commerce and trade.

José also played an important role in key strategic initiatives at the ICC, such as the 2012 and 2017 revisions of the ICC Rules of Arbitration and the drafting of the revised 2017 Rules of ICC as Appointing Authority. He was also instrumental in designing and implementing ICC Court’s policies to increase efficiency, transparency and diversity in international arbitration. José further assisted in the establishment of the ICC Court case management offices in New York City and Sao Paulo, the ICC Arab Arbitration Group and the opening of an ICC Court representative office in Shanghai.

He is Vice-Chair of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, Membership Officer of the IBA Arbitration Committee, Advisory Board member of the Câmara de Arbitragem Empresarial (CAMARB) in Brazil, Advisory Board Member of the World Arbitration and Mediation Review and a member of the Arbitrators Council at the Atlanta Centre for International Arbitration and Mediation. He chaired the Sub-Committee on Good Governance of Arbitral Institutions of the Spanish Arbitration Club and co-chairs the Task Force on Addressing Issues of Corruption in International Arbitration of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR. He is on the list of arbitrators of the Câmara Brasileira de Arbitragem da Administração Publica, Centro Internacional de Arbitraje AmCham Peru, Centro de Arbitraje de la Camara de Comercio de Lima, Conselho Arbitral do Estado de São Paulo (CAESP), Centro Brasileiro de Mediação e Arbitragem (CBMA) and Centro de Conciliación y Arbitraje de Panamá (CECAP).

José teaches international arbitration at SciencesPo in Paris and at the Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala City, coordinated the first ICC Advanced International Arbitration Academy for Latin America, is a regular speaker in conferences around the globe and has authored numerous publications on topics related to international arbitration.

Previously in his career, José served as law clerk to Judges Kooijmans and Rezek at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where he worked on diverse questions of public international law, including issues relating to the use of force, consular assistance, international humanitarian law, expropriation, procedural burdens before the court and boundary disputes. He also worked for the Legal Advisor to the President of the Dominican Republic and represented the Dominican Republic during the negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.