Luis Rey, Senior Consultant, Baker O’Brien
Luis Rey offers more than 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry in technical and executive roles where he has been responsible for business operations, project management, enterprise/project risk management, project engineering, and structural engineering. He has managed upstream, midstream, and downstream EPC activities for major international projects, designed and assessed several offshore oil and gas facilities, and participated in the design and construction of reinforced concrete buildings.

Luis has held various corporate roles in Operations, Project Management, and Risk Management. He has provided oversight of Front-End Engineering Design (FEED), Detailed Engineering, and management of large-scale EPC projects. Luis has experience performing due diligence and peer reviews of major EPC projects and has led the integration team of two major company mergers. Prior to joining Baker & O’Brien, Luis provided expert witness testimony in ICC arbitrations related to complex engineering and construction issues. He had also provided expert testimony in a refinery EPC dispute and fact witness testimony in an offshore facility EPC dispute.

Since joining Baker & O’Brien, Luis has prepared expert witness testimony regarding technical claims in ICC and DIAC arbitrations and court proceedings for complex EPC disputes. Luis has co-authored publications on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete columns for ACI and ASCE and has presented at conferences, including the OTC and SPE, regarding the assessment of offshore platforms. Luis is fluent in both English and Spanish.

Ank Santens, Partner - New York, White & Case LLP
Ank Santens is Global Co-Head of White & Case's International Arbitration Practice. She serves as counsel or arbitrator in commercial, investment, and construction arbitrations around the world, under all major international arbitration rules as well as regional and local rules. Ms. Santens has led cases large and small for clients with remarkable success, including victories in the hundreds of millions of dollars, full cost awards, and favorable amicable settlements. Her industry experience includes energy, infrastructure, construction, telecommunications, mining, life sciences, financial services / insurance / pensions, and consumer goods, among others. Her clients include companies and sovereigns from around the globe, with a focus on Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and the United States.

Jennifer Smith, Independent Arbitrator
Jennifer Smith has significant experience when it comes to international arbitration.  A recognized leader in her field, she has advocated for companies involved in international complex commercial disputes for more than 30 years. Now a full-time arbitrator, she prides herself on being well-versed in the business and cultural realities of cross-border disputes, having appeared as an advocate and sat as an arbitrator in a large number of jurisdictions across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Dual-qualified in England and Texas, Jennifer has extensive hands-on arbitration experience on a broad range of issues and in a variety of industries.  Representative matters include disputes involving production sharing agreements, pipelines, gas processing plants, intellectual property disputes, petrochemical facilities, construction, drilling rigs, reservoir management, accounting issues, software licenses, distribution agreements, aviation, shipping, joint operating agreements, LNG,  FPSOs, corporate governance, joint ventures, mining, telecommunications, charter parties, financial services, and insurance disputes. 

Jennifer is recommended by Who’s Who Legal in association with Global Arbitration Review as a Global Leader in Arbitration and a Global Leader in Energy.  She is also recognized as Best of the Best in Commercial Arbitration, Energy and Natural Resources, and Women in Business Law, and named as an independently rated Acritas Star as a stand-out lawyer in her field.

She is listed on the AAA Panel of Commercial Arbitrators, the ICDR Panel of Arbitrators, the LCIA database, the ICC and numerous other arbitral institutions, as well as on Global Arbitration Review’s Arbitrator Research Tool.

A co-arbitrator recently described Jennifer as “first class in every respect — extremely smart, thorough, collegial, responsive, and committed to getting the right result.  She is tremendously talented, and I recommend her without qualification.”  

The governing laws of the arbitrations that she has handled are equally broad and include those of England, Trinidad & Tobago, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Ecuador, Poland, the Philippines, Texas, and principles of Sharia law.

Jennifer devotes time to professional and community service organizations and serves on the Executive Committee of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration, on the International Advisory Committee of the ICDR, on the Advisory Council of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Business, on the Executive Committee of the World Affairs Council of Houston, and as a Trustee of Wellesley College.

Michael Yates, Partner - Houston, White & Case LLP
Michael is a Partner in the Project Development and Finance Group in the Firm's Houston office. His practice focuses on the representation of owners and developers in their construction projects including liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, power plants, battery energy storage facilities, photovoltaic solar generation facilities, carbon capture facilities, and petrochemical facilities.  Michael has first-chair experience negotiating multi-billion dollar contracts with the largest contractors in the world, and his day-to-day work includes advising clients on procurement and construction strategies and drafting and negotiating engineering, procurement and construction, construction, construction management, engineering, licensing, operating & maintenance, long-term service agreements, and procurement agreements for large energy projects throughout the world. Michael also provides guidance to clients during and after project execution including claim evaluations, warranty and defect issues, payment disputes, and contractor solvency issues.

Moderator: Callum Johnson, Counsel - Houston, White & Case LLP
Callum Johnson is counsel in the Firm's Construction & Engineering group and is based in the Houston office.  He advises owners and contractors on construction disputes and project execution issues arising out of large scale international infrastructure and energy projects, and has particular experience advising on LNG processing facilities.

Callum has advised clients in complex arbitrations under several insitutional rules, with various different seats.  He has also spent time on secondment with a client's project team, and has given talks on issues arising in megaprojects to several leading engineering schools in the UK and the Netherlands.