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Armindo Ribeiro Mendes

Armindo Ribeiro Mendes

He/himOf Counsel
Armindo Ribeiro Mendes maintains a reputation as a dominant figure in arbitration.
Legal 500 2022
About

Armindo Ribeiro Mendes joined the firm in 2019 as Senior of Counsel. Former Judge of the Portuguese Constitutional Court and Invited Professor of Civil Procedure, Arbitration Law and Comparative Law, has over thirty years of experience handling cases, both domestic and international.

Armindo is appointed as chairman or co-arbitrator on international and domestic arbitration tribunals. He has intervened in around 100 arbitration cases, mainly as arbitrator. His arbitrations have included English and French language cases administered by the ICC as well as ad hoc arbitrations pursuant to the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules.

Armindo is the author of several works in Civil Procedure and Arbitration Law, advising clients and issuing legal opinions on numerous significant projects and transactions.

Armindo was until recently (April 2022) the President of the Portuguese Arbitration Committee of the ICC and Appointing Committee.

EXPERIENCE

  • Acting as Arbitrator in institutional arbitration proceedings to resolve the dispute between a Hedge Fund and a Group of Spanish Banks regarding the default of the financial entities as Participants in the Fund.
  • Acting as Arbitrator in arbitration proceedings initiated by a Bank against the Portuguese Republic to resolve the dispute between a Private Bank and the Portuguese Government in relation to the Agreement on the Privatization of Portuguese Bank and Agreement for the Purchase and Sale of Shares in the Denationalization of such Bank.
  • Acting as Arbitrator in arbitration proceedings initiated by Portuguese Company against Portuguese Government Agencies to be reimbursed of the lump sum which corresponds to the return of the consideration provided by the private contractor in a contract for the "Implementation Agreement the Concession Private Use of Water Resources Public domain the Hydroelectric Energy Production and the Conception, Construction, Operation and Conservation of the respective Infrastructure Hydraulic”.
  • Acting as Arbitrator in several construction arbitration proceedings.
  • Providing Legal Opinion to Portuguese and foreign companies in highly complex constitutional, civil procedure and arbitration matters.
Languages
  • Portuguese
  • French
  • English
  • German
Education
  • Law Graduate 1969 (Faculty of Law, Lisbon University)
  • M.A. in Law (1972), Negotiorum Gestio in Civil Law (dissertation)

Awards

  • Chambers – Most reputed
  • Arbitrators – Tier 1
  • Recommended by Legal 500 in Dispute Resolution

Publications

Da Gestão de Negócios no Direito Civil 1972); translation of The Concept of Law by H. L. A. Hart (1986) for the Gulbenkian Foundation - Collection of University Manuals; Resources in Civil Procedure (1st ed 1992, 2nd ed 1994); The Appeals in the Revised Civil Procedure Code (1998). Collaborator of the 3rd Volume of Prof. Lebre de Freitas, Code of Civil Procedure, Coimbra, 2003, 2nd ed., 2008; Proceedings in Civil Procedure - Reform 2007, Coimbra, 2009.

Author of numerous scientific articles on the law and legal opinions, namely in Civil, Constitutional and Arbitration Procedural Law, especially in the International Journal of Arbitration and Conciliation, being co-author of Chronicle of Jurisprudence published annually in the ten issues of this magazine.

Prior Experience

  • Member of the first Portuguese National Electoral Committee (1974-1975) 
  • Lawyer in a Banking Institution (1976-1980)
  • Member of the Constitutional Commission (1980-1983)
  • Chief Lawyer of a Banking Institution (1983-1989)
  • Judge of the Constitutional Court (1989-1998)
  • Chief Lawyer of an Insurance Company (1998-2000)
  • Partner of his boutique law firm (2000-2019)

Additional qualifications / positions

  • Assistant Professor, Lisbon Faculty of Law (1969-1975)
  • Assistant Professor and Chair of Civil Procedural Law II and III and Comparative Law (1977-1984)
  • Professor and member of the Scientific Board of the Superior Institute of Banking Management 1985-2010)
  • Member of the International Maritime Law Commission since 1982. Member of the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Civil Procedure (1996-2004)
  • Member of the Portuguese Superior Council of Judicature elected by Parliament. (2000-2005)
  • Invited Professor of Comparative Legal Systems in the Law Faculty of the New University of Lisbon (2004-2005)
  • Invited Professor in the Law Faculty in The Lisbon Catholic University (Law of Arbitration) (2008-2018)
  • Member of the Superior Council of the Ordem dos Advogados (Portuguese Bar Association) (2003-2004 and 2011-2014)
  • Member of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Arbitration Association (2012-2017)
  • President of the Institute of Modalities of the Practice of Law of the Bar Association since 2017
  • Deputy Director of the Portuguese Journal of Arbitration and Conciliation (2007 to present)

Memberships And Affiliations

  • Admitted to the Portuguese Bar Association
  • President of the Portuguese Arbitration Committee of the ICC and Appointing Committee
  • Member of the Board of the Portuguese Arbitration Association (2012-2017)

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