Profile

Founding Partner, AZHA Attorneys-at-Law

Dr Mercédeh Azeredo da Silveira is an attorney-at-law with fifteen years of experience in international arbitration. She is a partner at AZHA Attorneys-at-Law, a boutique law firm located in Geneva that represents governments and state entities, as well as institutional and private clients in international arbitration proceedings, and offers legal advice on international transactions and economic sanctions.

Dr Azeredo da Silveira acts as arbitrator in international commercial arbitration proceedings and represents corporate entities and governments before arbitral tribunals in both commercial and investment arbitration proceedings. She has acted as counsel in the context of commercial disputes related, inter alia, to international engineering and construction contracts, sales contracts, distribution agreements and share purchase agreements, as well as in the context of investment disputes in the mining, telecommunications and energy sectors. Dr Azeredo da Silveira also acts as counsel before the Swiss Supreme Court in proceedings related to challenges of international arbitral awards, including sports-related awards. Finally, she regularly advises clients and serves as legal expert on issues pertaining to economic sanctions.

Dr Azeredo da Silveira has an academic expertise in the field of economic sanctions. She is the author of Trade Sanctions and International Sales - An Inquiry into International Arbitration and Commercial Litigation, which was awarded the Professor Walther Hug Prize in 2015. She is also the author of numerous publications in the areas of international arbitration, international trade, contracts, economic sanctions and mediation. Her academic research has been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and three renowned Swiss private foundations (Société académique de Genève, Fondation Boninchi, Fondation Schmidheiny).

She has taught at the European Law Students' Association's Summer Law School on Arbitration (2017), given guest lectures at the University of Geneva Law School (2013-2014), at Fordham University School of Law (2010) and at Columbia Law School (2009), and is regularly invited to speak at conferences.

Dr Azeredo da Silveira is fluent in French, English and Persian.