Juan Felipe Merizalde
Founding Partner of Merizalde Abogados, S.A.S.
Juan Felipe Merizalde’s practice focuses on international commercial arbitration and investment arbitration. He has considerable experience as counsel and arbitrator in over 50 cases before the most renowned institutions, including the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague.
In December 2020, Juan Felipe launched his own practice in Bogota, Colombia, acting as counsel and arbitrator. Prior to starting his firm, he worked for 12 years at Dechert LLP in its Paris and Washington D.C. offices. At Dechert, he gained vast experience with one of the most renowned arbitration practices in the world.
Since 2017, Juan Felipe has been consistently ranked in the international arbitration category by The Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal, Chambers, and other renowned reviews. He is frequently invited to participate as a speaker in conferences and trainings and author of several articles related to the theory and practice of international arbitration.
Juan Felipe is currently an active member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration & ADR (Task Forces on “Accuracy of Fact Witness Memory in International Arbitration” and “Addressing Issues of Corruption in International Arbitration”); Advisory Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA); the Latin American Arbitration Association (ALArb); among other highly regarded international arbitration institutions. He was appointed to the CAfA Arbitration pool in April 2021.
A truly international practitioner, Juan Felipe is admitted to practice in New York, the District of Columbia (Special Legal Consultant), Colombia and passed the Paris Bar Exam (art. 100). His educational background includes: New York University (LL.M.); Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas (Master 1(JD)and 2(LL.M.)); and Universidad del Rosario (JD).
Juan Felipe is fluent in Spanish, English and French and proficient in Portuguese.
Jurisdiction: U.S.A and Colombia