Personal bio
After practising for four years in Geneva (1982-1986), Paolo Michele Patocchi further specialised in the law of international trade and arbitration in London (1986-1988). He then joined an international law firm in London as an associate (1989-1992). In 1989 he was appointed lecturer at the Faculty of Law of Geneva (Department of Private International and Comparative Law, Head: Prof. Dr. Pierre A. Lalive) to take over the lecture on the Introduction to the Anglo-american Law Tradition (1989-2006). Having returned to Switzerland in 1992, Michele joined a national law firm in Zurich, and he has worked as counsel and arbitrator ever since. In 1994 he moved back to Geneva and joined another national law firm where he was made a partner in 1997. He has been in charge of the International Arbitration Group of the Geneva office of that firm from 1997 until 2013. In 2014 he established Patocchi & Marzolini with Paolo Marzolini. Whether as counsel or as an arbitrator, Michele has taken part in over 240 international arbitrations to date. He has also advised on the Swiss law of contract, the Swiss law of international arbitration and the Swiss private international law, as an expert or amicus curiae. As a practising lawyer or as an arbitrator, Michele has been called upon to work on matters involving a number of legal systems other than Swiss law, including in particular the laws of Albania, Algeria, Austria, Belgium, China, Egypt, England and Wales, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, the Netherlands, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, the UAE, the U.S.A. and Venezuela. Michele has also been active in international law. He has been on the ICSID list of arbitrators since 2012 (List of arbitrators designated by the Swiss Government) and has been involved in two ICSID cases, two ICSID Additional Facility Rules cases, one ICSID annulment case and one case under the OIC Treaty.