11th ITA-IEL-ICC Joint Conference on International Energy Arbitration - Houston

Overview

Presented by The Institute for Transnational Arbitration and The Institute for Energy Law of The Center for American and International Law and The ICC International Court of Arbitration.

The 1½-day ITA-IEL-ICC Joint Conference is presented annually in Houston and in Singapore, by the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, the Institute for Energy Law and the ICC International Court of Arbitration, with the support of other leading regional and global arbitration organizations. The joint conference traditionally includes a year-in-review analysis of key developments in international energy arbitration practice during the preceding year, panels and debates concerning these developments, a Forum for off-the-record discussion of current issues, a young arbitrators Roundtable and a variety of social networking activities.

As we convene in person for the first time since 2020, this conference is an opportunity to reflect on how the concentrated disruptions of recent years have interacted with recent trends in the energy markets and in the practice of energy arbitration. Specifically, we will consider the impact of the pandemic, recent geo-political events, and changing energy policy regimes on well-established principles of law and arbitration practice. We also will consider what lessons (if any) practitioners can glean from these shifts. And we will benefit from the insights of in-house counsel, specialist counsel, and experienced energy arbitrators on whether the trends arising from such disruptions are here to stay — or are just as fleeting as the disruptions from which they were born.

Conference Co-Chairs

Cecilia Azar
Galicia Abogados
Mexico City, MEXICO

Teresa Garcia-Reyes
Vice President - Litigation
Baker Hughes
Houston, TX, USA

Liz Snodgrass
Three Crowns
Washington D.C., USA

COVID Protocols

We encourage all attendees to be either fully vaccinated or to have received a negative COVID test within 48 hours of the start of the conference.

Schedule and Faculty

Thursday, January 19

1:45 pm - REGISTRATION

2:30-2:45 pm - WELCOME

• Laura Robertson, Immediate Past IEL Chair, Deputy General Counsel, Litigation and Arbitration & IP, ConocoPhillips Company, Houston
• Claudia Salomon, President, ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris
• Tom Sikora, ITA Chair, Senior Counsel - International Disputes Group, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Houston

YOUNG LAWYERS ROUNDTABLE

Presented by
ICC Young Arbitration & ADR Forum (YAAF)
IEL Young Energy Professionals (YEP)
Young ITA

Roundtable Co-Chairs
Meredith Craven, Young ITA representative, White & Case LLP, Houston
Christopher Smith, ICC YAAF representative, King & Spalding LLP, Atlanta
Amy E. Tomlinson, IEL YEP Representative, Liskow & Lewis, Houston

2:45-2:50 pm - WELCOME TO THE ROUNDTABLE

2:50-3:50 pm - ETHICS OF ARBITRATOR CONDUCT AND CHALLENGES

Panelists will consider whether the standards for challenging an arbitrator’s independence and impartiality align with user expectations of arbitrator conduct by examining concrete examples of arbitrator disclosures and conduct, and polling the audience on whether the conduct should reasonably result in the challenge/removal of the arbitrator. Panelists then will discuss whether that conduct intuitively appears ethical from their perspective, and whether the conduct could support a valid challenge.

Moderator: Elizabeth J. Dye, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman, Houston

Panelists:

• Rahul Donde, Levy Kaufmann-Kohler, Geneva
• Kabir Duggal, Arnold & Porter/Columbia Law School, New York
• M. Imad Khan, Winston & Strawn, Houston
• Lucy Winnington-Ingram, Reed Smith, London

3:50-4:55 pm - EVOLVING DOCTRINES OF EXCUSE IN THE FACE OF GLOBAL DISRUPTION: PANEL AND DEBATE

Recent global disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, sanctions, supply chain disruptions, and environmental disasters have called into question traditional strict interpretations of force majeure, impossibility, hardship, and other contractual excuse doctrines. Panelists first will discuss the impact of recent developments on the doctrine of excuse, and then will engage in a debate.

Debate Resolution: This house maintains that contractual excuse doctrines should be interpreted broadly to excuse contractual non-compliance caused by catastrophic unforeseeable events.

Moderator: Christina G. Hioureas, Foley Hoag, New York

Panelists/Debaters:

• Naomi Briercliffe, Allen & Overy, London
• Trevor Cox, Legal Counsel, SLB, Houston
• Carla Gharibian, Jones Day, Los Angeles
• Andrea Orta González Sicilia, Ruiz - Silva Abogados, S.C., Mexico City

4:55-5:00 pm - ROUNDTABLE CLOSING REMARKS

5:00-6:15 pm - WELCOME RECEPTION

6:30-8:30 pm - JOINT CONFERENCE DINNER

Optional for all Joint Conference registrants, faculty, and sponsors

Caracol Restaurant
2200 Post Oak Blvd., #160
Houston, TX 77056

Please indicate on the registration form if you wish to attend – ticket price: $95 per person. Seating is limited so register soon.

Friday, January 20

8:00 am - Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00-9:10 am - WELCOME BACK

9:10-9:40 am - 2022 YEAR IN REVIEW: INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION BLOCKBUSTERS AND FLOPS (WITH ENERGY BONUS)

This presentation will consider both investor-state and contractual disputes in the energy sector. It will cast an eye over the wide range of matters that have come before arbitral tribunals in 2022 and will attempt to identify the ten (or close to ten) special rulings and industry trends that will have the most significant influence on energy arbitration in 2023 and beyond.

• Danielle Morris, WilmerHale, Washington D.C.
• Timothy J. Tyler, Vinson & Elkins LLP, Houston

9:40-10:00 am - Coffee Break

10:00-10:50 am - LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE FIELD: NAVIGATING THE CHALLENGES OF ENFORCEMENT AGAINST STATE-OWNED ENTITIES

Recent geopolitical issues have highlighted the fact that, when it comes to enforcement risk, the differences between investor-state arbitration and commercial arbitration may not be as vast as we once thought, and there are lessons learned that are equally applicable to both types of arbitration. This panel will focus on the unique challenges posed in enforcement of awards involving state owned entities, particularly in jurisdictions with localization requirements, where issues of veil piercing and the integrity of arbitration clauses are of particular concern.

Moderator: Alex Yanos, Alston & Bird, New York

Panelists:

• Isabel Fernandez de la Cuesta, King & Spalding LLP, New York
• Christopher P. Moore, Cleary Gottlieb, London
• Andrew Stafford KC, Kobre & Kim, London

10:50-11:40 am - THE IMPLICATIONS OF CHANGING ENERGY POLICY IN ENERGY DISPUTES

Whether as a result of political changes (characteristics and ideology of the public administrations), efforts to address climate change/energy transition or otherwise, we have been witnessing the impact of turnarounds in energy policy in different countries and regions. This panel will analyze this situation, discuss different examples, and evaluate how these issues are likely to arise in energy arbitrations (investment or commercial). Along the way, the panel will discuss the scope of regulatory freedom, strategies for managing political risk, and concepts like force majeure and hardship.

Moderator: Analia Gonzalez, BakerHostetler, Washington, D.C.

Panelists:

• Alberto Fortún, Cuatrecasas, Madrid
• Dr. Antonio Ortiz-Mena, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University; Partner, Dentons Global Advisors, Washington, DC
• Lindsey D. Schmidt, Gibson Dunn, New York

11:40-1:30 pm - LUNCHEON

A Conversation with

Alan R. Crain, Jr.
Independent Arbitrator
Former Senior Vice President, Chief Legal and Governance Officer
of Baker Hughes
Houston

Interviewed by
Professor Catherine A. Rogers
Vice Chair, Academic Council
Università Bocconi (Milan}
and
Queen Mary University of London (London)

This interview is the latest in a series organized by the ITA Academic Council to record the evolution of modern international arbitration in the words of those who have led it.

1:30-2:20 pm - NATURAL GAS: WHAT NEXT!?

The natural gas sector has recently seen major disruption resulting from measures taken in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s reaction to those measures, and latterly from physical disruptions to supply caused by acts that may (or may not) be connected to armed conflict. That disruption is layered on top of ongoing evolution in the natural gas market that has led, over the past decades, to successive waves of gas pricing disputes in Europe and Asia. This panel will attempt to forecast where disputes are likely to be coming from in this sector, addressing the impact of supply disruptions, import restrictions and a mooted “price cap” on Russian gas, issues of liability for damage to infrastructure resulting from regular or irregular armed conflict, and how all of this is likely to affect the evolution of gas price review arbitrations.

Moderator: Gisele Stephens-Chu, Stephens Chu, Paris

Panelists:

• Cristian Nitsch, Pavilion Energy, Madrid
• Michael Polkinghorne, White & Case LLP, Paris
• Mark R. Robeck, Golden Pass LNG, Houston

2:20-3:10 pm - BACK TO THE FUTURE OR THE NEW NORMAL (NO, THIS IS NOT A PANEL ON VIRTUAL HEARINGS)

The past few years have seen many disruptions to the way we typically practice energy arbitration, resulting from restrictions on travel and gathering in person during the height of the pandemic. There were obvious downsides, but necessity was also the mother of innovation when it came to proactive case management. Anecdotally, we saw tribunals demonstrating greater openness to procedural techniques such as bifurcation and early dispositive motions in order to make such progress on cases as was possible even without a full, in-person merits hearing. This panel will evaluate whether we should want to return to pre-pandemic approaches to such techniques, or whether the forced experiment of the past few years has yielded valuable case management insights that we should take forward into the “new normal.”

Moderator: Caroline Richard, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Washington, D.C.

Panelists:

• J. Brian Casey, Bay Street Chambers, Toronto
• Pedro José Izquierdo, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, New York
• Ema Vidak Gojković, Independent Arbitrator, New York

3:10-3:30 pm - Coffee Break

3:30-4:00 pm - QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON/PINSENT MASONS SURVEY ON THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL ENERGY ARBITRATION – FINAL RESULTS

4:00-5:00 pm - ITA-IEL-ICC FORUM

The Forum is an open informal discussion providing the opportunity for arbitrators, arbitration counsel and in-house counsel to share experiences and raise concerns in transnational arbitration in an off -the-record unstructured dialogue format. The agenda for the Forum is determined by the participants, by pre-submitted questions and topics and by spontaneous remarks at the event. Registrants will receive instructions on how to submit questions or topics for discussion at the Forum.

Co-Moderators:

• Denton Nichols, Norton Rose Fulbright, Houston
• Joanne Luu, Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP, Calgary

5:00 pm - CLOSING REMARKS

5:10-6:15 pm - YOUNG LAWYERS NETWORKING RECEPTION

For members of the Young ITA, the IEL Young Energy Professionals (YEP), the ICC Young Arbitrators Forum (YAF) and other young lawyers interested in international energy arbitration.

CLE Credit

Course ID Number: 174183016. This program is approved by the State Bar of Texas for 6.00 hours, including 1.0 hour of ethics/professional responsibility.  Credit hours for other states will vary and are subject to each state’s approval and credit rounding rules.

For this conference, ITA & IEL will directly apply (if requested) for course accreditation in the following states: California, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia and Virginia. Some of these states may not approve a program for credit hours before the program occurs. Attorneys may be eligible to receive CLE credit through reciprocity or attorney self-submission in other states. ITA & IEL conferences are typically accredited by all mandatory CLE states.

Overnight Accommodations

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Sponsorship Opportunities

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