Speakers: Ghada Qaisi Audi, Charbel J. Moubarak, and Nicolas Weigand, Dr.

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Ghada Qaisi Audi

Ghada Qaisi Audi is an experienced alternative dispute resolution practitioner and arbitrator based in the San Francisco Bay Area and acts as chairperson, sole-arbitrator, and party-appointed arbitrator under the rules of major arbitral institutions including. She is empaneled by a number of arbitration institutions, including the Arbitration Association (AAA), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). She is an authority on disputes concerning retail, luxury, and fashion in addition to a broad range of experience in complex commercial disputes across a number of industries and sectors.

Ms. Audi has 20+ years of legal practice in common law and civil law jurisdictions spanning dispute resolution counsel, court administration and in-house roles. She is a frequent public speaker and thought leader, and she currently serves as Executive Committee Member and Co-Chair of the Membership & Diversity Committee of California Arbitration (CalArb).

Charbel J. Moubarak

With a background in law and engineering, Charbel arbitrates cases focusing on Construction, Architecture, Engineering, Design, Real Estate, and Property Investments, in both common law and civil law jurisdictions. His ADR experience ranges from local to multinational disputes, with a portfolio of cases worked on amounting up to 1B$, between Arbitration, Mediation, and Negotiated Settlements.

In addition to institutional and ad-hoc arbitration, Charbel is the Managing Partner of M&Associates, which specializes in Engineering Consulting, and Client Counseling in various aspects of claims and disputes resolutions pertinent to its fields of expertise. 
Prior to his current position, Charbel occupied several positions with AECOM and Dar Group, and has operated in the US, UK, Cyprus, Lebanon, KSA, Qatar, UAE, and Oman. He is a graduate of Sorbonne School of Law, the University of California at Berkeley, the American University of Beirut, and is a lecturer on ADR related topics in many academic institutions.

Nicolas Weigand, Dr.

Nicolas is Co-Head of the firm’s dispute resolution group, Head of APAC and US International Arbitration and Managing Partner of the CMS US representative office as well as the Hong Kong office. He is based out of San Francisco and Hong Kong. 

Nicolas specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration with a focus on corporate, joint venture, IP, sales and distribution and general commercial disputes. He is highly experienced with arbitration in or in relation to Europe, the US and Asia, and there specifically to Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore as well as numerous other Asian jurisdictions. His most recent caseload has focused on the pharma, technology, infrastructure as well as energy sectors. 

Having lived and worked in both civil law (Germany, Switzerland) and common law (California, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia) jurisdictions, Nicolas is experienced in handling cases under both legal traditions. He has acted in more than 140 international arbitrations governed by a broad range of different substantive laws.

Alongside his work as a party representative, Nicolas is a very experienced arbitrator. To date, he has sat in well over 40 cases covering a wide range of both civil and common law jurisdictions, such as Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, PRC, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, California, New York, Vietnam, Malaysia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and others. He has also served as an emergency arbitrator.