Yas Banifatemi

Professor Yas Banifatemi is an Adjunct Professor of law at the University of Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris, where she has taught international arbitration since 2006. Her affiliation with Harvard Law School started in 2018, when she introduced Investment Treaty Arbitration into the curriculum, co-teaching with the late Professor Emmanuel Gaillard. She also taught international commercial arbitration at Yale Law School from 2014 to 2023, co-teaching with Professor Michael Reisman and Professor Emmanuel Gaillard.

Professor Banifatemi co-founded the International Academy for Arbitration Law (“Arbitration Academy”) and served as its first co-Secretary General from 2011 to 2013. She continues to serve on the Executive Board and Board of Directors of the Arbitration Academy. She was a Director of Studies during the Public International Law session of The Hague Academy of International Law in the Summer 2004.  She returned to the Hague Academy in the Summer 2019, when she gave a course on “The powers of the arbitrators” (publication forthcoming). She also served as the President of the International Arbitration Institute (“IAI”), succeeding the late Emmanuel Gaillard in that capacity, from 2021 to 2024.  

Professor Banifatemi is a Founding Partner of Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes, and is widely recognized as one of the most prominent international arbitration and public international law specialists worldwide. Prior to founding Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes in February 2021, she served as Shearman & Sterling’s Global International Arbitration Practice Group Leader and Head of the Public International Law practice. She advises and represents States, State-owned entities and companies on both public international law and international arbitration issues. She acts as counsel, arbitrator and expert in arbitrations conducted under all major arbitration rules.

She is a former Vice-President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration (2015-2021), as well as a former member of the SIAC Court of Arbitration in Singapore (2019-2024) and the LCIA Court in London (2015-2020). She currently serves as a member of the KCAB International Advisory Council in Seoul (2025–2028) and a member of the HKIAC Council in Hong Kong (2025–2028). 

Professor Banifatemi researches and writes in the areas of public international law and international arbitration, and has authored numerous publications in, and regularly speaks about, both these fields. Here academic focus also includes legal theory and jurisprudence.