Fietta LLP

Abdullah Tariq

Abdullah Tariq is a Pakistani-qualified lawyer and Associate at Fietta LLP. Abdullah has worked on a wide range of international disputes, including investment treaty and commercial arbitrations under the ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC and LCIA Rules.  Abdullah also has experience with post-award remedies under the ICSID Convention, including revision and annulment proceedings.  He advises on public international law matters, including the law of the sea and rights and obligations under international investment treaties, and has also acted in legal proceedings before Pakistani courts. Abdullah holds an LLM (Distinction) from King’s College London and an LLB (Hons) degree from the University of London, International Programmes. Prior to joining Fietta LLP, Abdullah worked at an American international law boutique and in the dispute resolution department of a major Pakistani firm.

Eileen Crowley

Eileen Crowley is a dual-qualified English and US lawyer, and an Associate at Fietta LLP. She is an English-qualified Solicitor and an Attorney in New York State. Her practice focuses on international dispute resolution as well as advising on general public international law matters. Eileen has worked on a wide range of international disputes, including investment treaty and commercial arbitration cases under ICSID, ICC and LCIA rules as well as WTO trade disputes. Eileen has advised sovereign States, State-owned entities, and private entities on public international law matters including international treaty obligations, WTO law, business and human rights, international environmental law, international human rights and the negotiation of free trade agreements. Eileen has extensive experience working on matters involving WTO law and international trade treaties. Eileen has advised States involved in WTO dispute settlement and has worked on matters involving the interpretation of WTO treaties and free trade agreements for sovereign States and private clients. In 2019, Eileen spent nine months at the UK Department for International Trade where she was advising the British Government on international law issues arising out of Brexit. Eileen regularly works on pro bono matters. She successfully represented a minor in Disability Appeal Tribunal proceedings and completed a remote secondment to work on asylum claims at the Lesvos refugee camp in Greece. While at a previous firm, Eileen also advised pro bono on international human rights and humanitarian law issues. Eileen has written several articles on international arbitration including co-authoring an article on the “Evolution of the Third-Party Funder”, and a guide to ICSID arbitration on Practical Law. Prior to joining Fietta LLP, Eileen worked as an Associate at a major international law firm in their London and Geneva offices. Eileen has also worked for the Appellate Body at the WTO and the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations in Geneva. Eileen has a Bachelor of Business and Law from University College Dublin and an LL.M in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University Law Centre.

Gershon Hasin

Dr. Gershon Hasin is a qualified US lawyer. He has extensive experience in investor-State arbitration and inter-State dispute resolution, as well as the law of the sea and space law. Gershon represents sovereign States, as well as individuals and private entities, in various international legal matters before leading world dispute resolution fora. Gershon also advised sovereign States and private entities on various aspects of international law, including maritime boundary delimitation, the law of the sea, and international investment law. Gershon previously clerked for a prominent international arbitrator, Professor W. Michael Reisman, in multiple UNCITRAL and ICSID investor-State arbitrations and international commercial arbitrations.  He has also drafted legal opinions for investor-State disputes, and worked on inter-state litigations before the International Court of Justice. Gershon also taught two seminars on international law at the Yale Law School as a Visiting Lecturer in Law, and is frequently invited to lecture on the regulation of outer space activities, with a particular focus on international investment and commercial arbitration. Gershon has published and has forthcoming articles in leading law journals including the Yale Journal of International Law, Harvard International Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, International Law Studies, and the Georgetown Journal of International Law.

Laura Rees-Evans

Laura is an English-qualified solicitor and Solicitor-Advocate (Higher Courts Civil Proceedings). Laura’s practice focuses on contentious and non-contentious aspects of public international law (PIL) and international arbitration.  Laura is widely recognised in the leading legal directories for her expertise in these fields.  She has been recognised as a “Rising Star” in PIL in the Legal 500 UK Solicitors annually since 2022.  She has been ranked in Chambers UK since 2023, most recently (2024) as an “up and coming” lawyer in PIL.  She has been included in the (biennial) Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Litigators guide since 2021 for her expertise in PIL.  She is also recommended by Legal 500 UK Solicitors 2024 for international arbitration.  She was included in Who’s Who Legal 2024 as a “Future Leader” in Arbitration (based on recommendations from peers and clients), and selected by peers for inclusion in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in the United KingdomTM in International Arbitration.  Chambers reports that clients describe Laura as “very impressive”, an “outstanding lawyer”, who “has deep expertise in international arbitration and public international law” and provides “high-quality advice”. Laura advises on a wide range of PIL issues, including international investment law; international human rights law; the law of the sea; statehood and sovereignty issues; treaty interpretation; and UN procedure.  She has acted in a number of inter-State proceedings, both before the International Court of Justice and under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and in proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights.  She also acts for claimant investors and respondent States in complex and high-value international investment arbitrations across a range of different industry sectors, and has experience of all the major arbitral rules (ICSID, SCC, UNCITRAL).  Laura also regularly advises on PIL issues before domestic courts (including, in particular, State immunity issues, recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, and set-aside proceedings), and recently advised a client defending set-aside proceedings in which a reference was made to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Laura has delivered numerous training courses to officials of State clients and lectures at academic and other institutions on topics of PIL and international arbitration. Laura is frequently invited to speak at conferences and has authored and co-authored numerous articles on topics of PIL and international arbitration.

Miglena Angelova

Miglena Angelova is a dually-qualified English and French lawyer, and Associate at Fietta LLP.  She is an English-qualified Solicitor and Solicitor-Advocate (Higher Courts Civil Proceedings), as well as a French-qualified lawyer admitted to the Paris Bar. Miglena has worked on a wide range of international disputes, including investment treaty and commercial arbitration cases under ICC, ICSID, UNCITRAL and SCC Rules, as well as on legal proceedings before French courts. Miglena has also worked on pro bono matters, including on a case before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Miglena holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in International Economic Law from Sciences Po Paris. Prior to joining Fietta, Miglena spent time at the ECtHR, working on the project of accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Oonagh Sands

Oonagh Sands is a dually-qualified English and US lawyer. She is an English-qualified Solicitor and Solicitor-Advocate (Higher Courts Civil Proceedings), as well as an Attorney in New York State and the District of Columbia. The Legal 500 has recognised Oonagh as a “Rising Star” in public international law. She has significant experience representing sovereign States and their State-owned entities, as well as individuals and private entities, before leading world dispute resolution fora. Oonagh has represented clients before the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, as well as investor-State arbitral tribunals constituted under ICSID, ICSID Additional Facility, UNCITRAL, SCC and ICC Rules. Oonagh has also advised sovereign States, State-owned entities, and private entities on the law of sovereign immunity and the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards under English law. She has counselled States on territorial and maritime boundary disputes, the law of State responsibility, treaty interpretation, international environmental law, and the law of the sea. Oonagh has also delivered several training courses to officials of State clients on international law of the sea and public international law more broadly. In addition, Oonagh has represented clients in international commercial arbitration proceedings conducted under ICC, LCIA, SCC and UNCITRAL Rules, as well as multiple domestic proceedings before English and U.S. federal courts. Oonagh has taught aspects of international law of the sea on a Master’s programme at King’s College London and at the International Foundation for the Law of the Sea Summer Academy in Hamburg; she has also guest lectured on investment treaty arbitration at Pepperdine University. In addition, Oonagh sits on the faculty of the London Institute of Space Policy & Law. In May 2020, the American Society of International Law appointed Oonagh to serve on its Program Committee, alongside prominent US academics and international law practitioners. Oonagh has served on ASIL’s Steering Committee for its signature topic, “Beyond National Jurisdiction: Human Activities in the Oceans, Polar Regions, Cyberspace and Outer Space”, following her tenure as elected Co-Chair of the Society’s ‘Space Law Interest Group’. In 2016, Oonagh was recognised by the Irish Times for women’s influence in global public affairs and is a member of Arbitral Women. Prior to joining Fietta, Oonagh worked at major law firms in Washington DC and London. Oonagh has worked for the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs in New York, the European Commission in Brussels, and the Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC.

Stephen Fietta

Stephen Fietta KC founded Fietta LLP in 2015. He has practised at the forefront of public international law, whether within government or private practice, for more than 20 years and is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading public international law practitioners. He regularly advises sovereign clients with respect to high-profile and sensitive public international law issues, including as regards sovereignty disputes, the law of the sea (including maritime boundary delimitation), international environmental law, human rights, treaty interpretation and international investment law. Stephen has advised on cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), European Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights and multiple domestic courts. He has appeared in more than 40 pending and decided arbitration cases under the World Bank (ICSID), UNCITRAL and other rules, a number of which have featured ground-breaking awards on jurisdiction, merits and/or damages. Before establishing Fietta in 2015, Stephen co-founded the world’s first specialist public international law firm (Volterra Fietta) in 2011. Prior to that, he was a partner specialising in public international law at a leading US and global law firm. Both of those practices were top-ranked at the time. Stephen regularly manages large teams of lawyers (including specialist or domestic co-counsel), experts and witnesses in multiple jurisdictions. Stephen is a Visiting Senior Lecturer at King’s College, London. In January 2015, Stephen was awarded the Smit-Lowenfield Prize by the International Arbitration Club of New York for the best article published globally in the field of international arbitration, entitled Public International Law, Investment Treaties and Commercial Arbitration: an emerging system of complementarity? Stephen has co-authored (with Dr Robin Cleverly) A Practioners guide to Maritime Delimitation, published in March 2016, which has subsequently been cited before both the ICJ and ITLOS. DIRECTORY RECOGNITION Chambers Global Directory ranks Stephen as one of the world’s top public international law practitioners.  Chambers Global Directory 2023 describes him as “hugely knowledgeable and tactically very astute”.  Chambers UK Directory 2022 ranks him as one of only two “star individuals” in the United Kingdom.  It comments that he “is regularly instructed on complex mandates” describes him as “a first-class international lawyer” with “a remarkably detailed as well as broad knowledge and insight into a wide variety of fields of law”.  A previous edition quoted sources as identifying Stephen as “a world-leading PIL practitioner and an unflappable advocate” who is “meticulous, thorough and thoughtful”. The Legal 500 has consistently ranked Stephen as a “leading individual” in public international law.  He is one of only four lawyers included in its “Hall of Fame” which “highlights individuals who have received consistent praise by their clients for continued excellence”. Legal 500 Directory 2021 identifies Stephen as “a master of his field”, who can “translate the complexity of issues in a simple and direct manner”.  Previous editions have commented that he is "calm, measured and unflappable”, a “simply fantastic practitioner” and that "his professionalism and work ethic are remarkable”. In June 2020, Best Lawyers named Stephen “Lawyer of the Year 2021” in its public international law practice category.  The award is given to a single lawyer in each practice category based upon extensive peer reviews. Who’s Who Legal again recognised Stephen as among the world’s leading arbitration experts in its 2020 edition, classifying him as both a “Global Leader” and a “Thought Leader”. The recognition follows independent research with clients and peers. Stephen was featured in the global Who's Who in Public International Law (published in 2007).  In March 2013, Stephen was named among the top 100 lawyers in London by the inaugural UK edition of Super Lawyers. The Global Arbitration Review 2011 named Stephen as one of the world's leading international arbitration practitioners under the age of 45 (the “45 under 45”).