Yas Banifatemi
Founding partner, Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes 

Dr. Yas Banifatemi is a founding partner of Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes and is widely recognized as one of the most prominent international arbitration and public international law specialists worldwide. Prior to founding Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes, she served, alongside Prof. Emmanuel Gaillard, as Shearman & Sterling’s Global International Arbitration Practice Group Leader as well as the Public International Law Team Leader and Lead Industry Coordinator for Energy.
She advises and represents States, State-owned entities and companies on both public international law and international arbitration issues. She acts as both counsel and arbitrator in arbitrations conducted pursuant to the ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC, LCIA, SCC, SIAC, HKIAC, CRCICA, DIS, NAI and the Swiss Arbitration Rules, with particular focus on investment protection, oil & gas and general commercial matters.
Dr. Banifatemi is a member of the SIAC Court of Arbitration and the GIAC Arbitration Council. She is a former Vice-President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration as well as a former member of LCIA Court. She is listed on a number of arbitrator panels, including the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators, appointed by the Chairman of ICSID’s Administrative Council.
She is the President of the International Arbitration Institute (IAI), succeeding the late Prof. Gaillard in that capacity.
Dr. Banifatemi teaches at Harvard Law School, Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the Sciences Po School of law. In the Summer 2019, she gave a course at The Hague Academy of International Law on the powers of the arbitrator. She researches in the areas of public international law and international arbitration, and has authored numerous publications in, and regularly speaks about, both these fields.