Michele Potestà is a partner at Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler. He specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration, as well as public international law, acting as counsel, arbitrator and expert in complex investment and commercial matters.

In the last decade, Michele participated in over 50 international investment and commercial arbitrations under all major arbitral rules (including ICC, ICSID, UNCITRAL, Swiss Arbitration Center, CAM, SIAC, DIAC, Danish Institute of Arbitration and CAS), and in disputes governed by a variety of procedural and substantive laws (including Swiss, Italian, French, Spanish, U.S., Danish, Panamanian, Venezuelan, U.A.E., Kazakhstani, Greek, Singaporean, Iranian and Egyptian).

He has specific experience in disputes relating to energy and natural resources (oil, gas, mining and solar energy), real estate and construction, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, international sales, banking and finance, shareholders disputes, aviation, IT and agency contracts. He frequently acts in arbitrations involving states and state entities.

Michele has advised sovereign states on their investment treaty programs and currently acts as expert advisor to the Swiss Government in the inter-State negotiations on the reform of investor-state dispute settlement (“ISDS”) in UNCITRAL’s Working Group III.

He is a member of the ICSID Panels of Arbitrators and Conciliators, and was appointed by the European Commission on the EU list of arbitrators and trade and sustainable development (TSD) experts in bilateral disputes under the EU’s trade agreements with third countries. He is also a member of the panels of arbitrators at VIAC, LCIA, SIAC, AIAC, KCAB International, and Delos.

In 2023, Michele was recognized by Global Arbitration Review (GAR) as one of the 45 leading international arbitration specialists worldwide under the age of 45. According to his peers and clients, he is “a leader in investment arbitration and an obvious choice for complex disputes” and “one of the real experts in investment disputes of his generation”. In 2020, Michele was named the most highly regarded individual in Europe by Who’s Who Legal Arbitration: Future Leaders (Non-Partners), described as a “super smart” and “simply outstanding” lawyer, and praised for his “great breadth and depth of learning on investment treaty arbitration”.

He is part of the faculty at the Geneva LLM in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS) and at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, where he teaches international investment law, investment arbitration, and damages & compensation in international economic disputes. He has authored multiple publications on arbitration and public international law.

Michele, an Italian national, is qualified to practice law in Italy and is registered with the Geneva bar (foreign lawyers’ section). He holds a Ph.D., bachelor and master’s degree from the University of Milan.