CIAM-CIAR incorporates two new lawyers to its General Secretariat

The Madrid International Arbitration Center – Ibero-American Arbitration Center (CIAM-CIAR) implements a dual model in its General Secretariat, which will continue under the direction of Marta Lalaguna, with María Paula Jijón as Deputy General Secretary and the same legal team. It also incorporates Elisa Vicente as legal director assuming the coordination of cases and Michelle Vasco as director of Business Development (both pictured) and Paula Hernando in administrative support functions of the center.

Elisa Vicente

Elisa Vicente has 15 years’ experience in arbitration at Garrigues. She has been involved in major international M&A transactions, advising clients in pre-litigation negotiation processes, and in high-profile arbitration proceedings before the most prestigious international arbitration institutions, under different laws and in various locations around the world (Paris, London, Zurich, New York, Doha and Shanghai, among others).

Vicente holds a degree in Law and Business Administration and Management from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and completed her training with an Executive Master’s Degree in Business Law at Centro de Estudios Garrigues, in collaboration with Harvard Law School.

She combines her professional activity with teaching arbitration and procedural law at institutions such as Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, IE University and Centro de Estudios Garrigues, and actively collaborates with the Spanish and Ibero-American Arbitration Club (CEIA), where she has led various working groups.

Michelle Vasco

Vasco is a lawyer specialised in international arbitration, with experience in commercial and investment disputes. She has worked as a senior associate in prestigious firms such as Robalino and Almeida Guzmán & Asociados (Ecuador), participating in cases under UNCITRAL and ICC rules. She has also been part of the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Ecuador, as a lawyer in the National Directorate of International Affairs and Arbitration.

The lawyer holds an advanced LL.M. in international dispute resolution and arbitration from the University of Leiden (The Netherlands), and a specialised degree in M&A from IE University. Committed to the academic development and training of young professionals, she founded the Ecuadorian chapter of Very Young Arbitration Practitioners and directs the Revista Ecuatoriana de Arbitraje REA.