Profile: Yas Banifatemi

Commercial Arbitration

Biography: Commercial Arbitration

Yas Banifatemi is a partner at Shearman & Sterling. She leads the firm's public international law practice and is a member of Shearman & Sterling's international arbitration group.

Yas Banifatemi has represented multinational corporations, states and state-owned entities in more than 50 international arbitration cases, focusing on international investment law, oil and gas, mergers and acquisitions disputes, and general commercial matters. She has advised companies and governments on a variety of public international law issues, including state responsibility, law of treaties, state contracts, immunities of states and international organisations, international boundaries and law of the sea. She is considered one of the leading young specialists in public international law and international arbitration.

Yas Banifatemi holds an LLM from Harvard Law School and a PhD in public international law (with highest honours) from the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). Her dissertation was honoured with a prize at the Concours de Prix de Thèses of the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). She teaches international investment law at the University of Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris I). She has also lectured on public international law at the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and was the director of studies in public international law at the Hague Academy of International Law in 2004.

Yas Banifatemi has authored, co-authored and co-edited numerous publications on public international law and international arbitration, both in French and in English. She was co-editor of Annulment of ICSID Awards, which is often referred to as an authority on the subject. She regularly appears as speaker on issues of international arbitration and public international law. She speaks French, English and Farsi.