International Section

Edward Lenci

Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP

New York, NY

Ed Lenci litigates and arbitrates business disputes, including reinsurance disputes, and defends businesses sued in class action lawsuits. He has considerable appellate experience, too; and a number of his appellate victories involve arbitration, including a class action defense victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, which enforced the class action waiver in a student loan’s arbitral provisions. Drawing on his extensive experience with domestic and international arbitration, he drafts arbitral provisions tailored to the unique needs of each client, and he co-authored the ARIAS-U.S. International Arbitration Form.

Given his extensive knowledge and background, Ed is often sought by national media outlets for comment and insights. Forbes, American Banker, Law360, and the New York Law Journal are among the publications that have quoted Ed on a range of topics, including international arbitration, class actions and class action waivers, reinsurance disputes, sovereign immunity, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and diversity, equity, and inclusion in ADR. He has spoken around the world and written on the same topics. He was interviewed in 2017 on RTÉ, Ireland’s national radio and television broadcaster, about legal opportunities in Ireland after Brexit.

Ed serves as the Chair of the Reinsurance Section of the firm’s global Insurance Services Practice Group. Prior to joining Hinshaw, Ed had his own firm, Wilker & Lenci, LLP, a highly-regarded New York City boutique firm that focused on reinsurance disputes and international arbitration. Before that, he was a partner in the New York office of a large, international law firm. Ed began his legal career at “Big Four” Mori, Hamada & Matsumoto (then Hamada & Matsumoto) in Tokyo after his first year at Columbia University School of Law, from which he graduated in 1990 with honors.

Ed recently became an arbitrator and brings to that new role over three decades’ experience as an advocate in many arbitrations and the judicial proceedings that often follow. Additionally, he served three terms (2017 – 2019) on the Editorial Advisory Board of Law360 International Arbitration and was a charter member of the Editorial Board of Reinsurance & Arbitration (HarrisMartin). He is co-chair of ARIAS-U.S.’s International Committee, a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a founding member of the New York Branch of Arbitration Ireland.

Ed is the chair of the New York State Bar Association’s International Section.

Azish Filabi

Executive Director, Maguire Center for Ethics; Associate Professor & Charles Lamont Post Chair of Business Ethics

King of Prussia, PA

Azish Filabi, JD, MA, is the Executive Director, The American College Maguire Center for Ethics in Financial Services and the Charles Lamont Post Chair of Business Ethics and Associate Professor. Azish’s career has spanned private, non-profit, public/regulatory and academic environments. 

Prior to joining the College, she was a member of the BlackRock Investment Stewardship team, where she led the corporate governance, sustainability and proxy voting considerations relating to a portfolio of companies in which BlackRock is invested on behalf of its clients.   

From 2015—2019, Azish was the Executive Director of Ethical Systems, an organization housed at the NYU Stern School of Business. Through research and collaboration with leading social and behavioral scientists, she dedicated her time to helping business distill findings from academic research, and develop strategies to measure and promote ethical culture in their organizations. She was also a Sr. Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor at NYU/Stern.  

Azish started her career as a corporate lawyer at the NYC-based law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, LLP.  She then worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY for eight years, from 2007 – 2015, serving as an Assistant VP, Ethics Officer and Counsel in the Legal Group. Her time at the Fed spanned the Global Financial Crisis, and she was part of various teams that structured both the direct and broad-based lending facilities that supported the markets at that time.  Later, as an Ethics Officer, she managed a conflicts of interest program for financial institution supervisors, also providing training and outreach relating to the Code of Conduct and ethics guidelines.  

Azish has presented on business ethics and corporate culture at various forums, including the OECD, the Ethics and Compliance Initiative, Thomson Reuters, the 1LoD conference, the Conference Board, the Good Work Institute, and the NY State Bar Association (International Section), among others.  She also writes frequently on these topics.  

She is an active member of the community, serving as a Senior Officer in the NY State Bar Association International Section, where she also co-founded the Committee on Social Finance and Enterprise. She previously served as a member of the Board of Trustees for USQ Core Real Estate Fund, a ’40 Act Fund providing investment opportunities to retail investors in commercial real estate. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Lymphedema Network, and the East Coast Greenway Alliance.  

Azish was born in Mashhad, Iran and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents in the early ‘80s.  She has a B.A. as an Echols Interdisciplinary Scholar from the University of Virginia (UVA), a J.D. from the UVA School of Law, and a M.A. in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). 

Douglas K. Chia

President, Soundboard Governance LLC.

Princeton, NJ

Douglas K. Chia is the Sole Member and President of Soundboard Governance LLC, a company he formed in 2019, and a Fellow at the Center for Corporate Law and Governance at Rutgers Law School.  

Until June 2019, Doug was Executive Director of The Conference Board ESG Center.  He continues to contribute to The Conference Board as an ESG Center Fellow.  Doug is also a Fellow at the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program, Advisor to Foresight® BoardOps (Corporate Governance Partners, Inc.) and a member of the Advisory Boards of the ESG Professionals Network and PracticalESG.com. 

Before joining The Conference Board in 2016, Doug served as Assistant General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Johnson & Johnson.  Previously, he served as Assistant General Counsel, Corporate of Tyco International and practiced law at the global firms Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Clifford Chance, both in New York and Hong Kong.  

Doug has held central leadership positions in the corporate governance field, including Chair of the Board of the Society for Corporate Governance, President of the Stockholder Relations Society of New York, and member of the New York Stock Exchange Corporate Governance Commission.  He is currently a member of the Society for Governance Professionals, Corporate Laws Committee of the American Bar Association, American Law Institute, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and Ascend Pan-Asian Leaders.  Doug has also received numerous awards and recognitions for his work in corporate governance.  

A nationally-recognized governance expert, Doug has spoken at major conferences and seminars across the United States throughout his career and has frequently appeared in the news media, including CNN, NPR Marketplace, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, and The New Yorker.  

Doug received an A.B. degree from Dartmouth College and a J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.  He currently lives in Princeton, New Jersey with his wife and their four children.  Doug is a Trustee and Vice President for Governance of the Historical Society of Princeton and member of the Dartmouth College Fund Committee. 

Jennifer King, Partner 

Partner, Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP 

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Jennifer King is a partner in Gowling WLG’s Environmental Law Group with a national practice in environmental law and its intersections with Indigenous, constitutional, municipal, land use planning, and regulatory law. 

Jennifer is a member of the firm’s Canada North, Indigenous, Advocacy, Energy Sector, and Municipal Law Groups, and serves on the firm’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) leadership team. She is called to the bar in Ontario and Nunavut. 

Jennifer provides strategic regulatory advice and representation on matters including environmental impact assessments, natural resource development, major infrastructure projects, and endangered species approvals, including in Canada’s near and far north. 

She represents clients before all levels of Ontario courts and the Supreme Court of Canada, and regularly appears before tribunals including the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal and Institutions of Public Government such as the Nunavut Impact Review Board and Nunavut Water Board. In her constitutional law practice, Jennifer advises clients on issues related to division of powers, including in the areas of climate change, municipal law and transportation. 

Jennifer finds creative and pragmatic solutions to complex legal and environmental problems for clients including public entities, Indigenous groups, and private companies. Some of her current work includes: 

• Advising a group of municipalities on a federal environmental assessment of a proposed major private sector intermodal transportation facility. Jennifer was co-lead counsel on the federal panel review hearing involving multiple experts including transportation, traffic, air quality, health, and species at risk 
• Representing an intervener in the provincial references regarding the constitutionality of the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. Jennifer appeared before the Ontario and Saskatchewan Courts of Appeal, which both upheld the Act. She appeared at the Supreme Court of Canada on the provinces’ appeals. In March 2021, the Supreme Court released its decision, with the majority confirming that the federal carbon pricing backstop is constitutional
  

In 2020, Jennifer was named a Leading Lawyer to Watch in environmental law by Lexpert, and was elected as an executive to the Ontario Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section. 

Regularly invited to speak on a wide range of topics, Jennifer is an authority on climate governance with the Canada Climate Law Initiative. She also served on the advisory board of Osgoode PD’s ESG Climate Law Certificate. 

Jennifer acts as chair of Gowling WLG’s Canadian Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Council’s Recruitment and Retention Committee. She is a member of the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers. For more than 10 years, she has served on the boards of local neighbourhood centres, helping to provide a range of community and social services. 

Jennifer currently sits on the board of the Eastview Neighbourhood Community Centre, a charitable multi-service neighbourhood centre that offers a broad range of recreational, social, and capacity-building programs to residents in Toronto’s east end. 

Yousuf Aftab

Director, A2

New York, NY

Yousuf is an ESG lawyer and strategist with deep expertise in business and human rights and a decade of experience advising Fortune 100 companies, governments, and international organizations on all aspects of strategic sustainability—from governance design and due diligence to crisis management and disputes. He is the Director of A2  a boutique ESG law firm, and the Principal of Enodo Rights  a human rights strategy firm, both of which are based in New York. Yousuf previously helped design and launch Debevoise & Plimpton LLP’s Business Integrity Group; specialized in international disputes at Latham & Watkins LLP; and clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada. He is widely published on the legal dimensions of ESG and is the co-author of Business and Human Rights as Law (LexisNexis 2019), which was cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in Nevsun v. Araya, a landmark ruling on corporate human rights accountability.

Luigi Bruno

IKEA

Sweden

Luigi is Privacy Engineering Lead, and Cybersecurity and Privacy Lead for Investments in Group Digital at IKEA. His main areas of responsibilities include, among others, designing and driving the implementation of technology solutions that enable the company to protect personal data better and more efficiently, as well as leading the cybersecurity and privacy due diligence process for investments and M&A deals.

He is also a lecturer and doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law at McGill University, where he teaches “Cybersecurity for Jurists”, a unique course designed to equip law students with knowledge of cybersecurity threats, data protection and information security strategies, as well as the ability to assess and mitigate risks and achieve compliance with relevant laws and regulation.

He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from McGill University and a Master of Laws from the University of Bari (Italy). He is currently completing an MSc. in Computer Science at the University of York (United Kingdom). His final research project investigates the use of GPUs to process satellite imagery at the edge in orbit securely.

Luigi holds several certifications, including the Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E) and the Professional Scrum Master (PSM I). He is a published author with peer-reviewed articles and book chapters to his name.

Through his professional and academic experiences in five countries and two continents, he has acquired and developed a unique array of interdisciplinary skills and expertise in managing and delivering complex cybersecurity, data protection and privacy projects across industries and domains.

Luigi is fluent in English, French, Italian, and German and is based in Malmö, Sweden.

Aaron Simpson

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP 

New York, NY

Aaron advises clients on a broad range of complex global privacy, data protection and cybersecurity matters, including with respect to existing and emerging requirements in the US and EU. 

As a leader on the firm’s global privacy team, Aaron’s work includes advising clients on large-scale cybersecurity incidents; conducting diligence and negotiating privacy and data security aspects of corporate transactions; developing of cross-border data transfer solutions; developing local, regional and international privacy and data protection compliance programs with existing and emerging data protection requirements in Europe and the US; and negotiating data-driven commercial agreements. 

Aaron is well known as a top privacy professional and has been recognized by Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500 and Computerworld for his work on behalf of clients. Aaron splits his time between the firm’s New York and London offices, and is the only lawyer currently listed in both The Legal 500 United Kingdom and The Legal 500 United States guides, providing clients with a broad and unique transatlantic perspective. He is a sought-after media resource on privacy issues and has been quoted in such publications as Time Magazine, Bloomberg BNA, Businessweek Magazine, Computer Weekly, Corporate Secretary, DataGuidance, Law360, SC Magazine and The Times. Aaron regularly speaks before industry groups, legal organizations, government agencies and educational institutions at conferences, seminars, roundtables and webinars. He has written and co-written numerous articles, book chapters and handbooks on privacy and information security issues. 

Naïm Antaki

Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Naïm Alexandre Antaki is a partner in Gowling WLG’s business law group in Montréal. He is the co-head of the Tech group in Montréal and a member of the national Blockchain and Smart contracts and Fintech groups. A member of both the Québec and Ontario Bars for more than 10 years, he provides strategic, solution-oriented advice to Canadian and foreign businesses in the course of their cross-border activities and expansion, bridging civil law and common law jurisdictions. 

He is sought after to lead and co-ordinate complex transactions in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and private equity, including in the context of public private partnerships (P3s). Clients also rely on him to act as their trusted external counsel for their ongoing and evolving Canadian operations. 

Part of the national executive committee of the Technology Industry Group and its co-leader in Montréal, Naïm acts for magic quadrant clients as well as selected startups. His experience spans key IT acquisitions and reorganizations, IT financing at various stages and key commercial agreements for which technology plays a key role, such as licensing and outsourcing agreements dealing with cloud computing (Iaas, Paas and Saas in public, private or hybrid cloud models), cyber security and related privacy, governance and regulatory issues. 

Naïm is an active member of the U.S. Initiative, having previously served on the national executive committee and as co-leader in Montréal. He regularly acts for U.S. clients, aiming to work seamlessly with their in-house and external counsel, and participates in the ABA. He was a lead contributor to the firm’s Canadian Private M&A Guide, has given multiple presentations on doing business in Canada and Québec, including as part of a U.S. consulate mission in Québec, and on key Canadian legal pitfalls for U.S. lawyers.  

He is a long-standing member of the executive committee of the Princeton Alumni Association of Canada and president of the Québec Chapter; he was previously part of the executive committee of the Princeton Alumni Council at a global level. 

He is a dedicated mentor to associates and articling students. Naïm also regularly provides continuing legal education presentations in business and technology and related regulatory matters (including public RFPs), both in the context of large conferences and personalized client settings. 

Naïm is a corporate director of the ADR Institute of Canada. He has experience in domestic and international commercial arbitration, and previously interned at the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC in Paris. 

Sherry Truong

Asana

San Francisco, CA

Sherry is Privacy Counsel at Asana, a leading platform designed to improve team collaboration and work management, and advises the business on go-to-market strategy, global privacy compliance and trust, and risk and remediation. She also counsels and supports Asana’s Commercial team and business partners on vendor, strategic partnership, and other complex commercial deals. Sherry was previously privacy counsel for Twilio and prior to joining Twilio’s team, advised on privacy and security compliance and M&A integration for GitHub/Microsoft. Sherry is a Bay Area native and earned her J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law.