Bill Cline is Senior Advisor at Gaffney Cline & Associates (GCA) and the current President of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN). GCA is an integrated firm with offices in more than a dozen key locations that provides a broad range of technical, commercial and strategic advisory support to the private and public sectors of the oil and gas industry. Bill has over 35 years of experience in the international oil and gas industry and has managed a large number of the firm’s engagements with national oil companies and other national agencies and Ministries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, including such industry milestone events such as the opening of state petroleum sectors to private investment in Venezuela, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and others.

Bill has also acted in the capacity of expert witness particularly with respect to valuation of petroleum properties and/or petroleum industry practices in numerous arbitration, mediation and litigation proceedings including: ExxonMobil vs. Venezuela (ICSID); ExxonMobil vs. Petróleos de Venezuela (ICC); Anadarko Petroleum/Maersk vs. Sonatrach (UNCITRAL); Maersk vs. Algeria (ICSID); Sonatrach vs. Duke (UNCITRAL); Texaco vs. Apache (AAA); Vanco vs. Ukraine (Stockholm Chamber of Commerce); Occidental vs. Ecuador (mediation); CNOOC vs. Talisman (mediation); a series of arbitrations related to Egypt’s natural gas sector (ICC, ICSID, UNCITRAL and CRCICA); Midland Resources vs. Shtaif et al. (Ontario Superior Court); Total/ExxonMobil/ Chevron/Nexen vs. NNPC (Nigerian arbitration); Repsol vs. Chevron (Spanish litigation); Niko vs. Bangladesh (ICSID and Bangladesh litigation); First National Petroleum vs. TNG (Stockholm Chamber of Commerce); Occidental/Nexen/et al. vs Yemen (ICC); Naftogaz et al. vs. Russian Federation (Permanent Court of Arbitration) and multiple cases for the United States’ Internal Revenue Service, amongst others.

Kevin O'Gorman is the Administrative Partner for Norton Rose Fulbright's Houston office. He is recognized in the United States and globally for his experience in international arbitration (both commercial and investor-state), US arbitration and international litigation. Kevin has particular experience with energy, commercial, corporate, sovereign, treaty and construction disputes. He has handled cases under all major arbitral rules including AAA, CPR, ICC, ICDR, ICSID, JAMS, and LCIA, as well as ad hoc disputes under the UNCITRAL arbitration rules. Pertinent to today’s topic, Kevin represented the successful upstream energy investor in one of the leading NAFTA energy-related arbitrations. In addition to his client work, Kevin has served as an arbitrator in US and international cases for over a decade.

Kevin serves on the Board of Trustees of the Center for American and International Law, and on the boards of organizations in the areas of law, foreign affairs and healthcare. He has held senior leadership positions on the ABA Section of International Law and State Bar of Texas Section of International Law. Earlier in his career, Kevin served as Team Leader and Senior Legal Secretary to the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland.

Kevin is admitted to practice law in Texas, New York and England and Wales (Solicitor). He is a Life Fellow of the American, Texas and Houston Bar Foundations.

Orlando Pérez Gárate received with honors the degree in law at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). He also received a post-graduate degree in International Trade Law at the UNAM. He has mora than 20 years of experience in the Ministry of the Economy.

Currently serves as Legal Counsel for Trade Negotiations; a position in which he is responsible for providing legal on trade negotiations and coordinate Mexico’s defense in international arbitration on Investor State proceedings and State to State proceedings in the framework of trade agreements.

Previously he head the General Direction on International Trade Rules in which he was responsible to coordinate Mexico's position on trade disciplines in FTA negotiations, including sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, trade remedies, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), competition policy, intellectual property, and government procurement.

He performed as Mexico's Lead negotiator during the modernization process of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Free Trade Agreement between Mexico and the European Union for the Intellectual Property Rights and State-Owned Enterprises chapters of these agreements.

Before his current position, he was involved in the negotiations of the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) and the Pacific Alliance (AP).

In the academic field, he is Professor of International Trade Law at the Faculty of Law at UNAM.