ECIJA

Arbitration & Litigation Area

Head of Area

Blanca started her practice in the banking area from 1990 until 1999 as part of the legal departments of Banco de los Andes, Filanbanco, Banco de Colombia and Banco de Préstamos. Her practice on the banking area continued afterwards when she was appointed as National Legal Director of the Deposit Guarantee Agency on 2004. She was nominated also to the Board of Directors of Banco Nacional de Fomento and Corporación Financiera Nacional between 2010 and 2013.

She is Arbitrator of the Quito Chamber of Commerce since 2000.

From 1999 until 2006  Blanca became associate of Larreategui & Fabara Law Firm on charge of the Arbitration and Litigation department.

She was head of the legal areas of various governmental agencies such as the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Industries and Productivity and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2013. On such posts she was nominated to be part of the National Aviation Council, where she acted from 2006 until 2013. Also she was nominated to be part of the Board of Directors of two of the largest cement factories with state participation from 2010 until 2013.

On 2013 she accepted the post as head of the Ecuador´s legal team of the Attorney General Office, in charge of representing the Republic in international investment arbitrations, such as Chevron Corporation vs. Ecuador, Occidental Petroleum Company vs. Ecuador, Murphy vs. Ecuador, Burlington vs. Ecuador, Perenco vs. Ecuador, Copper Mesa vs. Ecuador, Albacora vs. Ecuador and Merck Sharp & Dohme vs. Ecuador. She has acted in arbitral proceedings under the auspices of ICSID, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Chamber of Commerce, and in judicial proceedings in several jurisdictions, including the United States, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom. Also, has defended a project owner in ICC Rules-based Dispute Board proceedings related to the construction of a 1500 MW hydropower plant in Ecuador. She has acted as counsel, co-counsel and advisor in domestic arbitrations involving several industries including the utilities sector, oil and gas, telecommunications, and public infrastructure. She represented Ecuador as claimant and/or defendant before the Andean Court of Justice in proceedings related to compliance with trade regional treaties of the Andean Community of Nations. She has also participated as Ecuador delegate on the UNCITRAL Working Group III (Reform on the Investor State Dispute Settlement System).

She became partner of González Peñaherrera Abogados (nowadays Ecija GPA) on October 2018. She is in charge of the defense on various arbitration proceedings under Ecuadorian rules of Arbitration and ICC arbitrations. She is Vicepresident of the IEA (Ecuadorian Arbitration Institution from February 2020. She is part of the list of arbitrators of the Lima Chamber of Commerce since 2019, and is arbitrator in an ICDR-AAA  arbitration.

She is actually professor of arbitration and ADR in the University of San Francisco de Quito.

Spanish and English

Colegio de Abogados de Pichincha (Bar Association) – MemberCIARB – International Arbitration FellowshipCEA – Spanish Club of Arbitration – MemberICC Institute of World Business Law - MemberWIP Ecuador – Founding MemberIEA – Ecuadorian Institute of Arbitration - Member

Universidad International de la RiojaMasters of Law, International Commercial Law, 2018Universidad Andina Simón BolivarPost-graduate Specialization, Procedural Law, 2002Pontificia Universidad Catolica del EcuadorDoctor in Jurisprudence, 1991Pontificia Universidad Catolica del EcuadorLinguistics – French, 1991Universidad Nacional de PanamáSchool of Sociology, 1986