Rita Assis Ferreira joins roster of arbitrators of the Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (SHIAC)
December, 2014 - Lisbon, Portugal
Rita Assis Ferreira, a PLMJ senior associate working in Beijing and Macao since 2011, under partnerships with Dacheng Law Offices and DSL Lawyers, has recently joined the roster of arbitrators of the Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (SHIAC).
Arbitrators are selected for the SHIAC roster after rigorous evaluation on the basis of the lawyer’s experience and professional and academic background. Only two Portuguese lawyers are members of the SHIAC panel, which has a total of 696 arbitrators from 54 countries and regions.
Established at the end of the 1980s, SHIAC has handled a growing number of cases and has successfully dealt with domestic and international arbitrations. The types of disputes it deals with include trade, investment, technology transfer, M&As, finances, real estate, insurance, construction, logistics, intellectual property, energy, the environment and IT, among others. Over recent years, SHIAC has focused its efforts on the internationalisation of arbitration and on building a regional centre for commercial arbitration, and the appointment of foreign arbitrators to SHIAC is part of achieving these objectives.
Rita Assis Ferreira, a lawyer at PLMJ for 14 years, has been head of the China Desk since 2011 and assists Portuguese-speaking investors in China, as well as major Chinese investors who are supported by PLMJ International Legal Network in their investment projects in Portugal, Brazil and Africa.
Dacheng Law Offices, one of the largest law firms in China Continental, and DSL Lawyers, a leading law firm in Macao, are both members of PLMJ International Legal Network. Together they from a multilateral structure that seeks to serve investors from Portuguese-speaking countries in China and Macao, but also to capture Chinese investment not only for Portugal but also other Portuguese language countries.
José Miguel Júdice, head of PLMJ Arbitration, says: “The selection of Rita Assis Ferreira for the SHIAC roster of arbitrators is a great honour for PLMJ, but knowing her since she arrived here as a trainee lawyer, I wasn’t surprised. For PLMJ Arbitration, it is yet another building block in the construction of an international practice which now covers 4 of the 5 continents”.
