Panelists:

Professor Claudia Flores

Claudia Flores is Associate Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the International Human Rights Clinic. Before her appointment to the Law Faculty, Flores was a partner at Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd., a boutique law firm in Chicago. There, Flores specialized in civil rights and constitutional matters, with a focus on labor violations against low-wage and temporary workers and qui tam litigation.

Prior to that, Flores served as legal advisor for the United Nations Development Program and UN Women in East Timor and Zimbabwe. Previously, she managed a USAID-funded program to combat human trafficking in Indonesia. From 2003 to 2008, Flores was a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union in the Women’s Rights Project.

Flores was a recipient of the Skadden Arps Fellowship of the Skadden Foundation and law clerk to U.S. Federal Court of Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson. She was also a Root-Tilden-Kern Public Interest Scholar and Sinsheimer Service Fellow. Flores earned her JD from New York University School of Law and received her BA in philosophy from the University of Chicago.

Elise Meyer

Elise Meyer is the Schuette Clinical Fellow in Health and Human Rights at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, where she supports the Access to Health Project. Elise co-instructs the International Human Rights Law and Practice Clinic and the Health and Human Rights Seminar. Her previous work has included supporting litigation before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, engaging in capacity building in law and advocacy in Myanmar, and promoting countering violent extremism efforts in Tanzania. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of The Chicago Journal of International Law.

Javier Rubinstein

Javier Rubinstein is a partner and co-leader of the Kirkland & Ellis International Arbitration Practice, based in Chicago and New York. Born in Argentina with native fluency in Spanish and English, Javier has focused his career on international commercial, investment and sports-related arbitration. From 2006-2016, Javier served as Vice Chairman and Global General Counsel of PricewaterhouseCoopers International. Prior to joining PwC, Javier was a partner at Mayer Brown LLP from 1989-2006 and led the firm’s International Arbitration practice.

Javier has represented clients from around the world before many of the leading international arbitral institutions. Javier is a Fellow in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a member of the board of directors of the AAA’s International Centre for Dispute Resolution.

Javier received his B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of Michigan in 1984, graduating with High Honors. In 1986 he received his Master’s in Public Administration from the JFK School of Government at Harvard University. Javier obtained his JD cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law School in 1989, where he served on the School's Law & Policy in International Business Journal and won each of the School's moot court competitions.

Preston Torbert

Preston M. Torbert is a retired partner at Baker & McKenzie LLP’s Chicago Office and a founder of the firm's China practice.  He is a Lecturer in Law at the Law School of the University of Chicago and Adjunct Faculty at the Peking University School of Transnational Law.  He is an Associate of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago.  He is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School and holds a Ph.D. in Chinese History from the University of Chicago.  He advised U.S. clients regarding trade, investment, and compliance issues in China for over 30 years. He is the author of The Ch'ing Imperial Household Department (Harvard, 1977) and four books in Chinese on contract drafting.​

Johannes Willheim

Johannes Willheim has 20 years of experience in large-scale and high-stakes international arbitration and complex litigation involving antitrust, corporate and post-transaction, energy, engineering and construction (EPC and EPCM), distribution, insurance, IP, and regulatory disputes. Johannes also is experienced in arbitrating and litigating cases involving EU competition law, distribution, and IP (including patent) issues both on the enforcement and defense sides. He is currently handling major gas price revision disputes throughout Europe for one of the world's leading producers of natural gas. Johannes works out of Jones Day’s Frankfurt, London, and Paris Offices.

Johannes's work is characterized by a holistic approach aimed at the effective and efficient management of disputes and their resolution. He acts as a trusted party advisor to clients prior to, during, and post formal proceedings, as well as an advocate in formal arbitration, litigation, and ADR proceedings. Johannes has been appointed as an arbitrator, mediator, and independent expert in DIS, ICC, VIAC, and other institutional and ad hoc arbitration and mediation proceedings.

In addition to his disputes work, Johannes coordinates the Firm's Austrian law desk, which includes several lawyers admitted to the Austrian bar who offer a wide range of Austrian corporate, commercial, and regulatory services, particularly in the areas of M&A and financial services transactions. He and his Austrian qualified colleagues regularly represent Jones Day clients before Austrian courts and governmental authorities.

Johannes is a guest lecturer on topics relating to international arbitration at academic institutions around the globe, and he is a frequent speaker at arbitration, antitrust, and energy conferences. He is the author of numerous publications related to these topics.