Lidia Rezende

Lidia has represented foreign and national companies before U.S. courts and international arbitral tribunals. She also advised owners and contractors managing claims and disputes in ongoing mid-and-large-scale infrastructure projects.  Lidia is a native Portuguese speaker.

Lídia represents clients in international and domestic commercial arbitrations under the ICC, SCC, UNCITRAL, LCIA, and AAA rules, and in litigation before U.S. courts. Her cases focus on matters of construction, infrastructure, oil and gas, insurance and reinsurance, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), complex contract disputes, and matters at the intersection of common and civil law. Prior to joining Chaffetz Lindsey, Lidia practiced for five years at a mixed law and engineering boutique firm in Brazil, working side by side with civil engineers in complex construction matters. Lidia is a native Portuguese speaker.

• Representing a Mexican subsidiary of an Italian renewable energy company in an ICC arbitration seated in Mexico City regarding a BSO (Build, Sell, and Operate) transaction involving large solar plants.
• Represented a Brazilian state-owned energy company in an SCC arbitration seated in Stockholm against a Chinese construction company regarding engineering defects in a thermoelectric plant.
• Successfully defended a Brazilian oil & gas company in an UNCITRAL arbitration seated in Paris over the interpretation of a Joint Operating Agreement under Brazilian law (reported by GAR).
• Won substantial recoveries for two Brazilian oil & gas companies in two distinct ICC arbitrations seated in New York (one ended in 2016 and one ended in 2020) regarding the construction of FPSOs (Floating production storage and offloading vessels). One of the arbitrations was reported by GAR.
• Helped an American company that manufactures rugged embedded computing products reach a favorable settlement with the German and American affiliates of an American multinational conglomerate in the context of an ICC arbitration concerning disputes arising out of a stock purchase agreement and related agreements.
• Successfully represented the Italian tunneling company SELI and its Guatemalan affiliate in an action to enforce, and resist efforts to vacate, an arbitral award against the construction company Cobra in federal court in Miami.
• Helped a foreign central bank reach a favorable settlement with a Taiwanese lender in a dispute over the repayment of two decades-old loan agreements before the Southern District of New York.

• “United States: Counsel’s Conflict of Interest in Pending Arbitrations”, Young ITA Newsletter (Winter 2022).
• “Will Virtual Hearings Lead to Unenforceable Awards?,” 40 Under 40 International Arbitration (April 2021).
• 60 Years of the New York Convention: Key Issues and Future Challenges: An Arbitrator’s Obligation to Use Reasonable Efforts to Issue an Enforceable Award and Its Interaction with the New York Convention, Co-Authored with Aníbal Martín Sabater (Kluwer Law International, April 2019).
• “O Novo Regulamento de Arbitragem da CCI: O Árbitro de Emergência e o Ordenamento Jurídico Brasileiro, (The New ICC Rules: the Emergency Arbitrator in the Brazilian Legal System),” Revista de Arbitragem do GEArb / GEArb’s Arbitration Journal (2013), Co-Authored with Renata Faria.
• “Solução de Controvérsias em Contratos Administrativos por Vias Extrajudiciais, (Extrajudicial Dispute Resolution in Administrative Contracts),” Anais do I Congresso da Associação Mineira de Pós-Graduandos em Direito / I Congress of the Association of Post-Graduates in Law from Minas Gerais (2010), Co-Authored with Renata Faria.

• Chaired the Young ITA Roundtable at the 34th Annual ITA Workshop and Annual Meeting in Austin (June 2022).
• Moderated the panel “Interim Measure Practices in Commercial Arbitration Around the World” at the 34th Annual ITA Workshop and Annual Meeting in Austin (June 2022).
• Moderated the panel “Bate-papo ABNY: Advogadas Brasileiras Conquistando Espaço no Mercado Americano.” (May 2022).
• Chaired the panel “Young ITA Talks North America: Managing Parallel Proceedings” in Miami. (April 2022).
• Moderated the virtual panel: “Young ITA Talks North America and Brazil: Arbitration & Insolvency: When Theory Meets Practice.” (October 2021).
• Moderated the ABNY virtual networking event: “Liderança Feminina no Mercado Financeiro” with Claudia Politanski (the first woman Vice-President of Itaú-Unibanco, Brazil’s largest bank). (April 2021).
• Spoke at CIArb Young Members Group’s virtual event “A Virtual Debate on Virtual Hearings.” (June 2020).
• Moderated the ABNY virtual networking event: “Repensando o seu networking: técnicas específicas para mulheres” with Camila Leal Calais (Partner at Mattos Filho in Brazil). (June 2020).
• Spoke at the webinar “Audiência virtual em arbitragem comercial em tempos de COVID-19” organized by the Brazilian law firm Bichara (May 2020).
• Arbitrator at the Brazilian Competition of Arbitration, oral phase (2019).
• Moderated ABNY Almoço Inaugural: Advogadas Brasileiras em NY” with Laura Delamonica (Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations) (June 2019).
• Presented “Conflicts of Interest Issues for In-House Counsel Who Manage Outside Counsel,” presentation to clients (September 2017).

• Member of the ICDR Y&I Board (2023-2026 term)
• Young ITA Programming Chair (2023-2025 term)
• Founder and manager of the networking group Advogadas Brasileiras em Nova York (Brazilian women lawyers in New York)
• Member of the 2023 ASIL Annual Meeting Committee