Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

Catherine Amirfar is a partner in the firm’s litigation department whose practice focuses on international litigation and arbitration. She has broad experience in commercial arbitration cases, including dealing with long-term gas supply contracts, share purchase agreements, and currency exchange issues. She has also acted as counsel in commercial litigation in US courts, including a jury trial arising from environmental damage to a sustainable rainforest operation in Argentina, a patent infringement case before the International Trade Commission, and a breach of fiduciary duty case involving over a billion dollars in alleged damages. Ms Amirfar has also argued before the International Court of Justice in Avena and other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v United States of America) and currently represents Oy Metsä-Botnia AB in connection with the case concerning pulp mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v Uruguay). She has appeared in the US Supreme Court in Medellin v Dretke, Sanchez-Llamas v State of Oregon, and Medellin v Texas and as counsel to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as amicus curiae in Boumediene v Bush. She is currently representing the United Nations in litigation involving its immunities in US courts.

Ms Amirfar is a frequent guest lecturer at conferences and law schools and has authored several publications, including: ‘Developments in the Act of State Doctrine’, in International Lawyer, 2004 & 2005; and ‘The Current Status of NAFTA Chapter 11 Arbitration’ in New York International Law Review (winter 2007). She is currently authoring, with Donald Donovan, a book to be published by Cambridge University Press entitled From the World Court to the United States Supreme Court: The Vienna Convention Litigation and Its Impact on International Law. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) and the Executive Council of the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Steering Committee of the Young Arbitrators Forum.