This joint ICC YAAF, ITA  Americas Initiative and Young ITA event will bring together practitioners with U.S. and Latin American experience for a practical conversation following the life cycle of an international arbitration from the earliest stages of a dispute through enforcement of the award.

The panel will begin before the arbitration itself, considering when document-preservation duties arise and how U.S.-style litigation holds compare with practice in Latin America. It will then turn to document production and discovery, including custodians, search terms and electronic evidence; privilege and the risk of waiver; parallel U.S. court proceedings; and the availability and limits of Section 1782 as a tool for obtaining evidence in the United States.

The final part of the discussion will address the path from award to recovery: recognition and enforcement under the New York Convention, attachments and asset recovery, alter ego and veil-piercing theories, and the particular challenges that arise when the award debtor is a State, including sovereign immunity from jurisdiction and execution.

The session will use an interactive "myth or reality" format. Participants will vote at the outset on a series of common assumptions about arbitration with a U.S. connection, which the panelists will test and unpack through practical examples and comparative perspectives. The panel will be followed by networking coffee.

Key Topics:

• Litigation holds and document-preservation duties before arbitration

• Document production, electronic discovery and practical differences from IBA-style disclosure

• Attorney-client privilege, work-product doctrine and waiver

• Parallel U.S. court proceedings and Section 1782 evidence-gathering tools

• Recognition and enforcement of awards under the New York Convention

• Attachments, asset recovery, alter ego and veil-piercing theories

• Sovereign immunity and execution against State assets