Mélida Hodgson
Profile
Ms. Hodgson is a partner in the firm's International Arbitration Practice. She focuses her practice on investor-state and commercial arbitrations, counselling governments and state-owned entities, as well as corporate entities, with respect to international investment protection provisions, business disputes and World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute resolution and international trade policy issues.
Recognized by Latinvex as one of the top 50 female practitioners and top 100 lawyers whose practice focuses on Latin America, Ms. Hodgson is noted for her key role in successfully advising Venezuela against several International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitrations. She has also represented the Republic of Panama, Peru, and Sierra Leone in ICSID and United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) matters.
Ms. Hodgson is an arbitrator of international disputes initiated under Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and in commercial arbitrations under the American Arbitration Association/International Center for Dispute Resolution rules. She was also appointed to the list of panelists eligible to hear WTO disputes.
Ms. Hodgson began her career in private practice before becoming a US government litigator at the US Department of Justice, where she litigated claims brought by bank shareholders against the United States, as well as public contracting disputes. She then joined the Office of the United States Trade Representative as an associate general counsel. There, she litigated international trade disputes before the WTO; provided counsel in NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitrations involving the United States, Canada and Mexico; and defended the United States in ad hoc arbitrations under the 1996 Softwood Lumber Agreement between the United States and Canada.