Mélida Hodgson, partner at the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, practices in the international litigation and arbitration group. Her focus is on investor-State arbitrations, as well as counseling governments and state-owned entities with respect to international investment protection obligations, World Trade Organization dispute resolution, and international trade policy issues, including compliance with United States national security review of foreign investment. She also serves as an arbitrator of international trade disputes initiated under Chapter 19 of the NAFTA and was appointed to the list of panelists eligible to hear WTO disputes. Mélida is frequently invited to speak at conferences addressing investment and commercial arbitration issues.
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Mélida began her career in private practice before becoming a U.S. government litigator – first at the Department of Justice, where she litigated claims brought by bank shareholders against the U.S. government relating to the failure of savings and loans associations in the early 1990s. Mélida then joined the Office of the United States Trade Representative as an associate general counsel, where she litigated international trade disputes before the WTO; provided counsel in NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-State arbitrations involving the United States, Canada, and México; and defended the United States in Ad Hoc arbitrations under the 1996 Softwood Lumber Agreement between the United States and Canada.
Mélida also represented the United States in the negotiation of the new generation of free trade agreement investment protection and procurement provisions, as well as bilateral investment treaties. She participated in the preparation of the 2004 U.S. Model BIT and was the lead lawyer for the first two negotiations under the 2004 Model.
