- Legal drafting
- Project and team management
- International work experience
- Complex legal research
- Attention to detail
- Overseeing and organising case logistics
- Oral advocacy
- Lebanese spoken Arabic
- Communication
- Analytical
- Arbitrator for the LSE-LCIA Pre-Vis Moot (2022)
- Guest Lecturer at the Paris Bar Association (2020-)
- Associate at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
- Graduate Fellow, Centre for Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies, American University of Beirut (2012-2013)
- Hammersmith & Fulham Council candidate (2008-2010)
- Chair of the Hammersmith Young Conservative Association (2007-2010)
- Projects Fund Award, Trinity College, Cambridge (2010)
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Olivia is a qualified solicitor advocate in England and Wales with broad international arbitration experience in investor-state disputes and complex commercial arbitration across a number of sectors and regions in proceedings brought under the ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC, and NAI rules, with experience also in state-state disputes and English litigation. Olivia is a graduate of Cambridge University, has an MA in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies from the American University of Beirut, and global work experience in the UK, Lebanon, and Russia.
- Case experience included:
• Representing an investor in a potential claim against a Balkan state; and
• Representing a professional fund manager in summary arbitration proceedings under the auspices of the Netherlands Arbitration Institute.
- Responsibilities included: drafting funding memos, drafting pleadings, preparing for hearings, drafting oral submissions, and liaising with clients and tribunals.
- Focus on investor-state disputes with limited involvement in ICJ state-state proceedings.
- Case experience included:
• Representing the Russian Federation in multiple UNCITRAL investment arbitration proceedings brought by Ukrainian investors under the Russia-Ukraine BIT, with a strong focus on the complex jurisdictional aspects of these cases;
• Representing the Russian Federation in ICJ proceedings against Ukraine; and
• Representing a number of shareholder claimants in an ICSID claim against Latvia brought under the UK-Latvia BIT.
- Responsibilities included: organising and overseeing the growing team, researching international law, drafting research memos, drafting pleadings and correspondence, liaising and presenting to the client, overseeing and organising case logistics, preparing for and attending hearings (drafting opening and closing statements and cross examinations), working with legal experts and liaising with co-counsel, tribunals and opposing counsel.
- Focus on investor-state disputes and complex commercial arbitration with involvement in proceedings brought under the ICSID, UNCITRAL, and ICC rules, in addition to limited English litigation.
- Case experience included:
• Representing Canadian claimants in investment disputes against Kazakhstan brought under the Canada-USSR BIT;
• Representing a Russian company in an early-stage investment dispute against Ukraine;
• Representing an American company in an ICC commercial arbitration against an Indian energy company;
• Representing Kazakh investors in an ICSID investment dispute against Uzbekistan under the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan BIT;
• Representing a US healthcare operator in an ICC commercial arbitration;
• Representing a US construction company in an investment dispute against Panama; and
• Representing Canadian claimants in English court proceedings against Kazakhstan in respect of an extension of time application in order to challenge an arbitral award.
- Responsibilities included: research, drafting pleadings and witness statements, preparing for and attending witness interviews, overseeing and organising case logistics, drafting correspondence, preparing for and attending hearings (including drafting opening and closing statements, direct examinations, and cross-examinations), and undertaking oral advocacy during hearings.
- Emphasis on international arbitration (investor-state and commercial arbitration, see above cases and responsibilities) with experience also gained in English litigation, commercial real estate and competition law (see above case experience).
- Providing moral and administrative support for litigants-in-person at immigration tribunals and throughout proceedings.
- Responsibilities included managing the office and the team, organising graphic designers, tracking and managing projects and finances, and liaising with clients.
- Responsibilities included compiling daily news summaries of the Middle Eastern press, organising and attending conferences, meetings and events, and conducting research.
- Working with incoming Government ministers on women's policy development and entrepreneurship.
- Responsibilities included handling membership, campaign administration, overseeing and organising interns and working with political candidates, party members and the public.
Investment Law and Arbitration Course
Distinction, aggregate mark 89
Distinction, aggregate mark 78.1
GPA 92.3/100, equivalent 4.0
Focus in Social Anthropology
A-levels (2007): Grade As in History, Latin, Chemistry and Geography
GCSEs (2005): Grade A* in Maths, English Language, English Literature, French, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Latin, History and Geography