The panel was convened at 3:58 p.m. on 6 October 2014. The

panelists include Alexandre de Gramont, a litigation partner of

Weil Gotshal & Manges’s Washington D.C. office, David Herlihy, a

partner in the International Arbitration and Litigation Group’s

London office, Craig Miles, a partner in King and Spalding’s

Houston office, Victoria Orlowski, an associate in Gibson Dunn’s

New York office, and Herfried Wöss, a partner of Wöss and

Partners’ Mexico City and Washington offices. The panel was

moderated by Franco Ferrari, Professor of Law and the Director

of the Center for Transnational Litigation, Arbitration, and

Commercial Law at New York University School of Law.

 

 

 

MR. FERRARI: Welcome to the last session of today’s conference.

My name is Franco Ferrari. I’m a professor at New York University

School of Law, and I’ve never acted as counsel, but merely as

arbitrator, both in ICSID and in commercial cases. I will use this

occasion to make a point of what was mentioned earlier. I think

that the earlier panel forgot to mention that some of the issues

discussed are actually not meant to be addressed by damage

experts. One of the issues, for example, is the date of valuation.

 

 

In some cases, the date of valuation is a statutory issue, which

is why I can say that some issues are to be decided by the

tribunals themselves and not by the damage expert. But this is

not what we’ll be talking about today. My five colleagues will

address some of the issues that have been dealt with earlier

today. They will do so by answering some of the questions I will

pose and, of course, I will ask my colleagues to comment on those

questions, if they have something to say. Finally, we will open the

floor for discussion.

 

 

Let’s start with Alexandre De Gramont, who is a litigation

partner and a member of Weil Gotshal & Manges international

arbitration practice in the Washington office. He has represented

clients in a wide variety of arbitration matters.

Alexandre, how far out on a limb can an expert reasonably go
in setting out the client’s claims?