Virtual Seminar: Addressing Payments Defaults and Flow of Funds Difficulties during the COVID-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant global consequences on all manner of commercial expectations, both small and large.  This includes frustrating expected sales, cash flows and other flow of funds, thereby hindering the ability to make timely payments that were the foundation of significant commercial and industrial relationships.  Many contracting Parties have chosen to address these difficulties in an amicable manner, by means of contractual settlement.  Nevertheless, unfortunately, litigious and arbitration disputes have emerged from these difficulties.  Whether as a matter of amicable settlement or dispute resolution, valuation experts are now routinely called on to assess the damages caused by these issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our speakers at this virtual seminar will be a diverse panel composed of a transactional practitioner, a highly qualified disputes lawyer and a well-respected quantum expert.  These speakers will discuss how contracting commercial parties should consider and assess the various impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on payment obligations and flow of funds issues.  Our speakers are:

Antonio De Lisi, Counsel at Gonzalez Calvillo in Mexico City. He has over 15 years of experience in cross-border and domestic energy and infrastructure development transactions, financings and mergers and acquisitions. His practice is focused on cross-border and domestic financing transactions, including project, corporate, trade and structured financings, and the representation of private and public sector entities in cross-border and domestic energy and project development transactions. He has extensive experience in connection with the structuring of and participation in public tenders for major energy and infrastructure projects and the negotiation of joint venture and other investor agreements, supply and off-take agreements, operating agreements, EPCs and other industry-related agreements. His experience also includes advising clients in M&As and other strategic investments. He has been recognized by Legal 500, as a Next Generation Partner in Energy.

David Brynmor Thomas QC, a barrister at 39 Essex Chambers and a globally recognised specialist in complex, high-value, international commercial litigation and arbitration. He has been counsel on cases involving projects and assets in the United Kingdom, India, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. He has extensive expertise in handling disputes arising from long-term commercial relationships and construction projects across a vast range of industries. David has been appointed as an arbitrator in more than 50 institutional and ad hoc arbitrations. David is an Honorary Professor in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, where he teaches International Construction Contracts and Arbitration. He is also a former Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a member of the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) Commission on Arbitration. David was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2019, only 8 years after being called to the Bar.

Dr. Branko Jovanovic, an economist at the Brattle Group with over two decades of experience in providing economic and statistical analysis in litigation matters, government investigations, and regulatory proceedings; his areas of focus include securities, finance, and consumer protection. He has provided testimony before the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration and the American Arbitration Association. In these proceedings he developed discounted cash flow models and market-based approaches to estimate the damages stemming from breach of contract. He has also served as a consulting expert on a number of cases requiring sophisticated econometric analyses to address liability and damages issues. He has also provided expert testimony before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and in various US federal and state courts.

The panel was moderated by Mr Gunjan Sharma, a lawyer at Volterra Fietta. For any queries regarding the content of the seminar, please email gunjan.sharma@volterrafietta.com.