Biography

Dr. Manuel A. Abdala is a PhD in economics from Boston University and has been a director at LECG since 1998, where he is co-chair of its international arbitration practice group. He has provided written and oral expert testimony in more than 50 international arbitration cases, many of them involving treaty disputes between private investors and governments on topics related to damage valuation, as well as opinions on regulatory conduct vis-à-vis investors' expectations. He also has substantial experience in commercial arbitrations in shareholder disputes, property damages, and political risk insurance claims. He is currently a member of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA), the International Society of the New Institutional Economics (ISNIE) and has been engaged as guest professor at the International Arbitration Program in American University.

He has published extensively on topics covering infrastructure economic regulation, institutional design, utility privatization and valuation, industry structure, and competition policy. Dr. Abdala has completed projects on ex-post privatization analysis in several countries, including various research studies led by the World Bank. He has also served as economic advisor to Argentina's Secretariat of Energy on the power sector reform that took place in the 1990s. He has conducted numerous works and studies for private companies and public institutions related to business valuation, damage analysis, and regulatory analysis of infrastructure projects in several countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Hungary, India, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

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Profile Highlights

Professional Experience Consulting Government Official International Engagements Academic Professional

Testimony Experience Federal/National State/Provincial Arbitration Oral Written

Publications

• 2009, Key Damage Compensation Issues in Oil and Gas International Arbitration Cases
• July 2008, Governance of Competitive Transmission Investment in Weak Institutional Systems
• February 2008, Chorzów’s Standard Rejuvenated: Assessing Damages in Investment Treaty Arbitrations
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Employment History

• 2001 to present, LECG Director
• 1992 to 1998, Expectativa, Consultores Económicos Director
• 1999 to 2002, Universidad ITBA Professor of Comparative Regulatory Frameworks
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Education

• 1992, Boston University, PhD
• 1990, Boston University, MA
• 1985, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba