Yas Banifatemi

Global International Arbitration Practice Group Leader, Shearman & Sterling

Paris

Yas Banifatemi is a partner and the Global International Arbitration Practice Group Leader at Sherman & Sterling. She also serves as the firm's Public International Law Team Leader and Lead Industry Coordinator for Energy.

She is widely recognized as one of the most prominent international arbitration and public international law specialists worldwide. Yas acts as counsel and arbitrator, with a specific focus on investment, energy, business combination, telecom, sports and healthcare matters. She also advises States in relation to public international law matters.

In addition to being a Vice-President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, Yas is a member of the SIAC Court of Arbitration and a former member of LCIA Court. She is also a member of the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators, appointed by the Chairman of ICSID's Administrative Council.

Yas teaches at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School and Panthéon-Sorbonne University. In the Summer 2019, she gave a course at The Hague Academy of International Law on the powers of the arbitrators. 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.

She co-founded and was the first Secretary-General of the Arbitration Academy. Yas also acts as executive director and coordinator of the New York Convention Guide Project, a research project undertaken with UNCITRAL in relation to the UNCITRAL Secretariat Guide on the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards. 

Yas is actively engaged in a number of initiatives aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and elsewhere.

HK45 is a group for young arbitration practitioners in Hong Kong and beyond formed under the auspices of the HKIAC. Our aims are to promote interest in and knowledge of issues relating to arbitration, and to provide opportunities for both professional development and social interaction.  

Membership of HK45 is free. To join HK45, please subscribe here​​​​​.