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Dr Patricia Nacimiento, Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills Germany, has been nominated by the German Federal Government to the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators as one of four German arbitrators.

Patricia Nacimiento is the German co-head of Disputes and member of the EMEA Disputes Leadership Team. She specializes in investment protection and investment arbitration. Investment protection aims at ensuring the protection of foreign investments abroad through international law mechanisms. These rights can be bindingly enforced through investor-state arbitration proceedings. The Herbert Smith Freehills practice enjoys an international reputation in representing investors and governments in investment protection proceedings, which is reflected in the international rankings of leading directories.

In 2007, Patricia was appointed for the first time to the ICSID panel of arbitrators and confirmed for the list in 2013, this time as a mediator. As a party representative and arbitrator, she has been involved in over 120 arbitration proceedings under the rules of numerous arbitration institutions as well as in ad hoc proceedings. To date, Patricia has conducted around 25 arbitration proceedings as chairperson, sole arbitrator or party arbitrator. She is a native German speaker and fluent in English, Spanish, Italian and French. She is author and co-editor of leading arbitration manuals and regularly teaches at the Universities of Heidelberg, Berlin, Frankfurt and Saarbruecken.

For the first time, the Federal Government has conducted an extensive selection procedure for the current nomination. Patricia qualified in this procedure both through her professional competence in investment arbitration and through her many years of experience in various national and international organizations. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is an international arbitration institution based in Washington, D.C. and is part of the World Bank Group. The ICSID supports the settlement of disputes between investors and states within the framework of bilateral and multilateral investment protection agreements. The ICSID maintains a list of arbitrators for which each Contracting State may nominate up to four persons (Art. 13 para. 1 ICSID Convention).


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