ATTORNEY PROFILE

Ms. Alvarez-Avila is a partner in the International Arbitration group. She focuses her practice on arbitration, international law and investment law. She has experience in transactions involving a wide range of sectors, including infrastructure projects, electricity, telecommunications, and oil and gas. She has acted as counsel for foreign states in investor-state arbitrations conducted under the Arbitration Rules of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).  She has also acted as counsel and arbitrator in ICC arbitration commercial cases and as sole arbitrator in an arbitration conducted under the Arbitration Rules of the Centro de Arbitraje de México (CAM).

Before joining Curtis, Ms. Alvarez-Avila was a counsel with ICSID in Washington, D.C., where she administered arbitrations as secretary of tribunals, hearing cases in English, Spanish and French. The arbitration proceedings in which she was a participant included claims based on bilateral investment treaties, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, national investment laws and international contracts.

Ms. Alvarez-Avila has been cited for her work in international arbitration by Chambers Global, Chambers Latin America and Legal 500 Latin America. Sources note that she is “an expert” in investor-state arbitration and that “no one has more experience in this field than she does.”

Ms. Alvarez-Avila earned a Degree of Law from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a Master in Law with a specialization in International Law from Université de Genève. She is a candidate for a Ph.D in International Relations with a specialization in international law at Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, Université de Genève.