Lawyer
ÁLVARO AWAD SIRHAN
aawad@covel.cl
+56 2 2484 6400
Practice Area
Education
Law degree, summa cum laude, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2012).
Lawyer, Corte Suprema de Chile (“Supreme Court of Justice”) (2013).
Master of Laws (LLM), The University of Chicago (2016).
Minor in Philosophy, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2012).
Curso Internacional de Derecho Romano (“International Course on Roman Law”), University of Salamanca (2011).
Languages
- Spanish (native), English (advanced), Italian (intermediate) and French (basic).
Publications
Author of multiple articles and columns on Civil Law and Dispute Resolution, including the following:
- “Gross negligence in Chilean Law”, Ediciones UC (Santiago, 2022).
- “Mining disputes in Chile and their characterization as potential international arbitration cases” in Revista Ecuatoriana de Arbitraje (Quito, 2021).
- “Digital evidence from the industries: The case of the Building Information Modeling” in “Arbitration and New Technologies” (Lima, 2021).
- “Surviving in the Field of International Arbitration: War Stories and Lessons Learned”, Wolters Kluwer (London, 2020).
- “Jumping in the Pool: How to Draft your First Arbitral Award?” in “Surviving in the Field of International Arbitration: …”, Wolters Kluwer (London, 2020).
- “Pandemic Dispute Resolution Methods” – EstadoDiario (2020).
- “Civil Procedural Reform in Chile: What’s new / What’s yet to come” – Euro LATAM LEX, co-authored with Óscar Contreras B. (2018)
- “Drafting your first arbitral award” – Bulletin on International Commercial and Investment Arbitration in Latin America, No. 40, Lima, Peru (2018).
- “The most important decision of the arbitration: factors to consider in the selection of the arbitral tribunal” – El Mercurio Legal (2017).
- “Perpetual Actions: A comment on the civil imprescriptibility in Chilean law” – VI Congreso de Derecho Privado (6th Private Law Congress), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2016).
- “On civil imprescriptibility in Chilean Law, and firstly on acquisitive imprescriptibility” – Teaching assistants’ gazette of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s Faculty of Law, Volume 2 (2015).
Álvaro Awad is a Professor of Private Law and Oral Advocacy at P. Universidad Católica de Chile. He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from The University of Chicago (2016),
He focuses his professional practice on commercial law, litigation and arbitration, both locally and internationally.
Awards and memberships
- Outstanding academic performance (2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011).
- Phillipi Award to the best private law student (2013).
- Fulbright scholarship (2015).
- Beca Chile scholarship (2016).
- Member of the Chilean Bar Association.
- Coordinator of the Pro Bono Foundation (2017 – 2018).
- Arbitrator of the Pro Bono Arbitration Program (2017 to date).
- Organizer and Founding Member of the Santiago Very Young Arbitration Practitioners (SVYAP).
- Reporter for the “Boletín de Arbitraje Internacional Comercial y de Inversiones” (“International Commercial and Investment Arbitration Gazette”) (2018-2021).
- Arbitrator Intelligence’s Ambassador for Chile (2018 to date) and member of the Ambassadors Executive Committee (2020-2021).
- Young Arbitrator at the Center of Arbitration and Mediation of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce (since 2020).
- International Arbitrator at the Center of Arbitration of the Lima Chamber of Commerce (since 2020).
- International Arbitrator at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (since 2021).
- Representative for Latin America in the International Chamber of Commerce’s Young Arbitrators Forum (ICC YAF) for the period 2021-2024.
Teaching Experience
- Professor of Civil Law, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2014 to date).
- Professor in the postgraduate course “Arbitraje y Solución de Controversias” (“Arbitration and Dispute Resolution”,) Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2018 to date).
- Professor of Oral Litigation, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2018 to date).
- Professor of the Chilean Judicial Academy (2017).
