Appointee News, Events, News

Highlights of SVAMC Events in New York City on November 19th– A View By Les Schiefelbein, Board Chair and Chris Compton, Board Vice-Chair

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE– Huge congratulations to the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center (SVAMC) on reaching a milestone: 10 years of providing innovation, efficiency and expertise in technology dispute resolution.  Like other Silicon Valley startups, the six visionary lawyers who founded SVAMC first met in a rented conference room in Palo Alto, CA.

Today SVAMC has members across the globe and features a peer-vetted list of the world’s leading technology neutrals (“The Tech List”) who are appointed for the most challenging and difficult technology business disputes.  

ANNUAL BOARD MEETING– Current Directors elected for a new two-year term are Ray Bender, Chris Compton, Teresa Garcia-Reyes, Grant Kim, Crenguta Leaua, Uche Onwuamaegbu, Les Schiefelbein, Carrie Shang and Peter Vogel. We also elected new Board members Abdi Aidid, Visiting Professor at Yale Law School; Sarah Lee, international dispute resolution lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York; Benjamin Malek, partner at T.H.E. Chambers In New York, and Stan Putter, partner and international arbitration lawyer at HBN Law & Tax in the Hague, Netherlands. 

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS– Current Officers elected for an additional one-year term are Jonathan Fitch, CEO; Teresa Garcia-Reyes, President; Dorothee Schramm, Vice President; Paul Mason, Director General; Uche Onwuamaegbu, Treasurer and Steve Bauer, Secretary.

NEW YORK ARBITRATION WEEK PROGRAM– SVAMC sponsored a terrific breakfast program at the office of Alston & Bird: Intriguing Issues in Tech and International Arbitration.  SVAMC members participating on the panel included moderator Gary Benton, Steve Bauer, Michael Diamant, James Ferguson, Jonathan Fitch and Conna Weiner.

What a day for SVAMC in New York– We celebrated our 10th anniversary with friends and arbitral leaders in a reception at the office of Mayer Brown; we elected Board Members and Executive Officers who are thought leaders in arbitration and mediation; and we presented an excellent program hailed by a full house as part of New York Arbitration Week. 

Les Schiefelbein is an internationally recognized Arbitrator and Mediator with over forty years corporate law and government law expertise in US and International business and technology matters. Les was previously Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company and a US Air Force Judge Advocate Reserve (Colonel), serving clients on US and international aerospace, national security, technology transactions and arbitration and mediation matters. Les is a founding member and Chair of the Board of Directors for the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center. Les has handled over 400 cases in the course of his career, and has gained particular expertise as a sole, chair or panel arbitrator in commercial and government disputes to include aerospace, aviation, satellites, cybersecurity, national security, and information technology. He is a member of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) Commercial Panel, Large and Complex Cases; International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) International...