Research and Academic Affairs Manager, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

Mercy McBrayer, FCIArb, is CIArb’s Research and Academic Affairs Manager. Mercy is a United States qualified attorney (Texas) and certified mediator with experience as party counsel in commercial business litigation and arbitration. She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in comparative and international dispute resolution from Queen Mary University of London, a Juris Doctorate (JD) from Southern Methodist University, and a Master of Science (MSc) in environmental biology from the University of North Texas. Mercy is also a graduate of CIArb’s Post-Graduate Diploma programme in international commercial arbitration (PGDip). Mercy trained in international commercial arbitration with Al Tamimi and Co. in Dubai, UAE, and was an associate with Blume, Faulkner, and Skeen in Dallas, Texas, before joining the CIArb Executive in 2018. Mercy is CIArb’s observer delegate to UNCITRAL Working Groups II and III and curator of CIArb’s professional practice guidelines. She is an assistant editor of the CIArb Journal, a Teaching Fellow in international arbitration at Queen Mary University of London, a speaker and lecturer on issues of international arbitration and ADR, and moot coach. Mercy is a US citizen who grew up in Nairobi, Kenya and is based in London, UK.

Jalal (Jil) El Ahdab is a partner at Bird & Bird, in the Dispute Resolution Group in Paris. He is the Head of the Arbitration Practice in France and a member of the Dispute Resolution practice in the UAE, where he offers the clients his longstanding and cross-border expertise in managing international disputes and arbitrations, especially in international business law, notably in Europe, Africa and the MENA region, focusing on international disputes and foreign investments.

Jil acts as a counsel, an arbitrator and an expert in various sectors such as construction, telecoms, ports, airports, energy, life sciences, sports and more. He has a 25-year experience in the field and was involved in approximately 150 matters (30 as an arbitrator).  

Dr. Ahdab is a former member of the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC (2015/21). He also chairs (VC) the European Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and is the co-chair of the IBA Arab Regional Forum. He also sits as a member of the Advisory Board of the Vienna International Arbitration Centre (VIAC).

Jalal is qualified to practice in Beirut, Paris and New York, and is equally fluent in Arabic, English and French. Jalal has released a book on Arbitration Law in France, written jointly with Professor Daniel Mainguy and published by LexisNexis (2021).

Dr Crina Baltag is Associate Professor (Docent) in International Arbitration at Stockholm University and qualified attorney-at-law since 2004, with extensive practice in various aspects on international dispute resolution, private and public international law. Crina is director of the Master in International Commercial Arbitration Law at Stockholm University and member of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Institute (SCC) Board. Crina’s publications include The Energy Charter Treaty: The Notion of Investor [Wolters Kluwer, 2012]; ICSID Convention after 50 Years: Unsettled Issues [Wolters Kluwer, 2017]; The Future of Investment Treaty Arbitration in the EU [co-editor, Wolters Kluwer, 2020] etc. and numerous publications in leading legal journals and reviews, including on the Denial of Benefits in Investment Law [co-author; Max Planck Encyclopaedia of International Procedural Law , Oxford University Press, 2019]. Crina is the editor of Kluwer Arbitration Blog, co-managing editor of ITA Arbitration Report and member of editorial boards of prestigious journals and book series in the field, including of the Journal of International Arbitration and Bloomsbury’s Global Energy Law and Policy. Crina has been appointed in numerous arbitrations, as sole arbitrator and co-arbitrator under the rules of the ICC, LCIA, SIAC, FAI, and CCIR-Romania. Crina holds a PhD degree in International Arbitration from Queen Mary University of London (UK), LL.M in International Commercial Arbitration Law from Stockholm University (Sweden), M.Sc. in International Business from Academy of Economic Studies (Romania), LL.B. from University of Bucharest (Romania).

Jonathan leads RPC's international arbitration practice who were successful in the recent UK Supreme Court case of  Kabab-Ji Sal ( Lebanon) v Kout Food Group (Kuwait ) . He has over 40 years' experience in the field. He is ranked in band 1 Chamber's arbitrators category and as a "leading individual" by the Legal 500. He is recommended as a Global Leader for Litigation in Who's Who Legal.  He was re-elected Chair of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrator's Board of Trustees for a fifth term, recently appointed Chair of the London Chamber of Arbitration and Mediation and one the founders of the award winning Virtual Arbitrations forum. As well as acting for a wide range of commercial clients in insurance , financial services, energy and maritime, cultural property, Jonathan has been counsel for the British Government's Export Credit Agency (UKEF), for 30 years advising on all aspects of international trade and public international law, handling disputes and arbitrations around the world as well as government to government negotiations. He was co-chair of the IBA's committee on International Sales and related Financial Transactions. He practiced in Singapore where he was admitted as a registered foreign lawyer and has experience in many jurisdictions around the world. He started his career as a criminal defence  and civil liberties lawyer , notably obtaining an acquittal of a mother charged with murder of her baby on the basis it was a "cot death" and advising on European Convention of Human Rights cases, appearing in Strasbourg as advocate. He now mainly sits as arbitrator.