D'Empaire

Competition Law, Public Law and International Arbitration

Partner

José Humberto represents clients in domestic and international arbitrations, including commercial and investor-state disputes. He is also specialized in antitrust, regulatory and public law.

Before joining D’Empaire in 2005, José Humberto worked with the Venezuelan antitrust authority (Procompetencia), and as a foreign associate at the New York offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in 2001.

José Humberto’s recent work includes:

Representing two investors from Luxembourg and Portugal in two ICSID arbitrations against the Government of Venezuela Representing two investors from Spain in a UNCITRAL arbitration against the Government of Venezuela Representing a family of Spanish investors in two ICSID arbitrations against the Government of Venezuela Representing a Barbados investor in an ICSID arbitration against the Government of Venezuela Acting for a German company in an ICC arbitration arising from a commercial claim by a Venezuelan company Representing a Spanish company in an ICC arbitration arising from a claim by a Venezuelan company Acting as arbitrator in domestic commercial arbitrations Participating in many of the most significant antitrust cases in Venezuela, representing international and Venezuelan clients (including Telecom Italia, Cemex and Sanofi-Aventis) in several important cases before the Constitutional and Administrative Chambers of the Supreme Court of Venezuela Advising clients in complex administrative and regulatory matters, including representing Santander, Cemex, Ternium and AEI Energy in their nationalizations by the Government of Venezuela

José Humberto is currently ranked as “Band 3” by Chambers & Partners (2019 Venezuela Dispute Resolution Rankings) and as a “Leading Lawyer” by The Legal 500 (2018 Venezuela Dispute Resolution Rankings). He has also been consistently top ranked by Chambers as one of the best antitrust and public law lawyers in Venezuela.

He also teaches legal philosophy at Universidad Catolica Andres Bello.

Spanish and English

Bar Association of the Capital District, Caracas, Venezuela.

Studied law at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas (JD, 1993) and McGill University, Montreal (LLM, 2000).