Dr. Herfried Wöss has more than 30 years of experience in commercial and investment arbitration and dispute settlement mainly related to complex damages cases, infrastructure and energy projects. He also practices in the area of customs and international trade law (anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, dispute resolution under WTO, USMCA and other trade agreements) as well as corporate law. He is listed as top tier and leading individual in arbitration by the Legal 500, in the Legal 500 Power List Arbitration Latin America and the international Who’s Who of Commercial Arbitration. His arbitration and damages portfolio as party counsel, arbitrator, adjudicator, damages and legal expert and consultant recently exceeded US$1 billion. In June 2022, the European Commission included him in its list of candidates suitable as arbitrators under the European Union Trade and Investment Agreements
He recently successfully represented a large French energy company in a complex US$ 240 million energy tariff arbitration in which all claims against the firm’s client were dismissed and the counterclaims and costs of arbitration were awarded to the client. In 2020, the firm also successfully advised a leading EPC contractor with respect to multiple claims and counterclaims with a New York investment fund regarding a 1,000+ MW combined cycle thermoelectrical plant and complex technical and economic issues, which led to the settlement of the dispute while on the brink of commencing an ICC arbitration in New York under the laws of New York.
Dr. Herfried Wöss and his partner Adriana San Román are the principal authors of the Oxford University Press monograph Damages in International Arbitration under Complex Long-term Contracts in which they formulated an international damages doctrine for income generating contracts and investment goods. They have published extensively on these issues, including their chapters on ‘Damages in Commercial Arbitration’ and ‘Damages in Investment Treaty Arbitration’ (International Arbitration and EU Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2021)). They have contributed to the UNCITRAL Working Group III work on damages through an expert opinion and are the authors and lecturers of the Advanced Seminar on Damages in International Arbitration©.
Dr. Wöss is an Austrian jurist resident in Mexico City and Vienna, licensed in Mexico and as Special Legal Consultant affiliated to the Washington DC Bar. He holds a Magister iuris and a doctorate in international economic law (with honours) in Austria, an LL.M. in International Business Legal Studies at the University of Exeter UK, is Licenciado en Derecho in Mexico and was a Visiting Scholar for arbitration, comparative and international damages law at the Georgetown University Law Centre from 2012-13.
Dr. Herfried Wöss is the managing partner of Wöss & Partners, S.C. in Mexico City and of Woess & Partners LLC – International Arbitration – in Washington DC.
He is fluent in German, English and Spanish, and also reads French.