Itzel is a Mexican-qualified international trade and dispute settlement lawyer with nine years of experience. Her work spans the negotiation, interpretation and enforcement of trade and investment agreements, and the disputes that arise under them. She has seen these questions from three sides: as counsel in private practice, as a government official at the negotiating table, and as an assistant to an arbitral tribunal.
Her career in international dispute settlement began in Geneva, where she interned at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the WTO while still a student, supporting Mexico’s delegation from consultations to hearings and Dispute Settlement Body meetings. She went on to join the Ministry of Economy as Deputy Director at the Office of the General Counsel for International Trade, representing Mexico in investor-State arbitrations and WTO disputes, and helping negotiate the USMCA, the CPTPP, the Pacific Alliance and several bilateral investment treaties. Having acted for a State, she then spent seven years at SAI Derecho & Economía, rising from Junior to Senior Associate. There, she acted in investment and commercial arbitrations under ICSID, UNCITRAL, CIETAC and Arbitration Center of Mexico Rules, and advised companies and governments on WTO law, trade and investment agreements, and trade remedies.
She has also worked from the tribunal’s side of the table, as Assistant to the Tribunal at the Central American Mechanism for the Settlement of Trade Disputes, in a dispute between Costa Rica and Panama. Itzel holds a degree in Law and Finance from the Monterrey Institute of Technology, where she received the CENEVAL National Award for Performance of Excellence. She completed the WTO’s Advanced Course on Dispute Settlement and a Certificate in Sports Arbitration, ranking first in the course.
She is actively engaged in several professional organisations, including Young ICCA, Young ICSID and the ITA, and has taken the Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge.
Outside her legal career, Itzel is passionate about books, films and sports, especially football, tennis and F1, the last two at some cost to her blood pressure.
Nationality
Mexico
Working Languages
English
Spanish
Areas of Expertise
International Trade Law;
Investment Arbitration;
International Commercial Arbitration
Bar Information
Mexico, 2017