Biography
Juan Felipe Merizalde is a civil and common law lawyer with more than 17 years of experience in international arbitration. His practice focuses on international commercial and investment arbitration, particularly disputes involving Latin American parties. He has considerable experience as counsel and arbitrator in over 90 cases, representing States, State-owned entities, and private parties before the most renowned institutions.
He has acted in arbitrations under all the major arbitral rules such as the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) and the Madrid International Arbitration Center (CIAM) securing many landmark victories for his clients.
His recent victories include successfully representing the owner of the largest solar energy facility in Central America in an ICC arbitration against an energy distribution company due to the breach of two power purchase agreements (PPAs), as well as a Central American State and two companies of the region in the negotiation of commercial and investment disputes.
He also represented the Republic of Guatemala in the IC Power and Iberdrola cases, where all claims were dismissed, as well as his home country, Colombia, in an ICSID case initiated by America Móvil, dismissing claims exceeding US$ 1 billion. He also successfully represented a Swiss pharmaceutical company in an ICDR arbitration against his distributor in 2 Latin American countries.
Juan Felipe is an adjunct lecturer of Investment Arbitration at Universidad de los Andes and Universidad del Rosario. He is also frequently invited to teach at American University and Georgetown University.
Before founding Adell & Merizalde, Juan Felipe worked for 12 years at a large US law firm in Paris and Washington DC, where he gained vast experience with one of the most renowned international arbitration practices in the world.
In 2023, Juan Felipe was recognized as one of the top 45 lawyers under 45 globally by Global Arbitration Review (45 under 45). He is also consistently acknowledged by Who's Who Legal, Global Arbitration Review, The Legal 500, Leaders League, Latin Lawyer, and Chambers Latin America.