Faculty 2024

Claudia Annacker

Independent Arbitrator and Counsel (Annacker International Disputes); specializes in international arbitration and public international law, in particular investor-State disputes, inter-State disputes, disputes involving international organizations and human rights cases; represented sovereign and private parties in more than 50 investment arbitrations, in commercial and inter-State arbitrations and before the European Court of Human Rights; acts as arbitrator in investment treaty and commercial arbitrations; member of several arbitrator panels, including the ICSID and SIAC Panels of Arbitrators; member of the SIAC Court of Arbitration and VIAC Board; PhD and venia legendi (habilitation) in public international law; adjunct professor at the University of Vienna, visiting professor at the Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense University; published widely in the fields of international arbitration and public international law.

Christian Koller

Professor at the University of Vienna; former professor at the University of Innsbruck; held a position as a Post-Doctoral Researcher and Erwin-Schrödinger-Fellow at the University of Zurich from 2009 to 2011; specializes in international commercial arbitration and litigation; main areas of interest include domestic and international civil procedure and its interfaces with private law, international insolvency law, conflict of laws and comparative law.

Christian W. Konrad

Founding and managing partner of Konrad Partners; Austrian Attorney at Law (Rechtsanwalt), Solicitor (England & Wales), Euroadvokat (Czech Republic and Slovak Republic); immediate past Vice-President of the Kosovo Permanent Tribunal of Arbitration; Chartered Arbitrator at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; specializes in commercial and investment arbitration; has extensive experience with arbitral practice, procedure and advocacy both in civil and common law systems; regularly acts as counsel and as arbitrator in ad-hoc and institutional arbitrations; regularly advises clients on the protection of their investments with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe and on the enforcement of arbitral awards and court judgments; member of the panels of various arbitration institutions worldwide; member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR; member of the ICC Taskforce “Addressing issues of corruption in international arbitration”; co-founding member of the Young Austrian Arbitration Practitioners (YAAP).

Author of numerous publications in the field of arbitration and investment protection.

Paul Oberhammer

Professor at the University of Vienna; permanent visiting professor at the Law School of St. Gallen University, Switzerland; admitted to the bar in Hamburg, Germany; serves as of counsel with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, London (International Arbitration Practice Group); chairman of the working group that drafted the Austrian law on arbitration which was enacted in 2006; practical experience in different fields of arbitration as sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator and chairman, mainly in ICC, VIAC, ad-hoc, and SCAI arbitrations.

Author of about 250 legal publications, among them studies on international arbitration, litigation, civil and commercial law.

Helmut Ortner

Founding Partner at PARAGON Advocacy; focuses on complex multi-jurisdictional disputes both as counsel and arbitrator; admitted to the New York and the Austrian bar; studied economics and law in Innsbruck, Vienna, Harvard, and Yale; honorary professor of international business law and international dispute resolution at the Europainstitute (Saarbrücken, Germany); lecturer on private law, comparative law, and alternative dispute resolution at various universities, including the Universities of Vienna, Linz, and Innsbruck.

Selected Publications: together with T. Tiede and B. Koch: Conflict of Law – Text and Materials, (5th ed. 2018); together with F. T. Schwarz and J. A. Trenor (eds.): Contractual Performance and COVID-19 (2020); together with M. Kern and K. Plavec: Applicable Law in International Arbitration (2020); together with F. Schwarz: Does a Right to a Physical Hearing Exist in International Arbitration? (2021); together with C. Fischer-Czermak and C. Nigsch: Private Law in Graphs (5th ed. 2021).

Friederike Schäfer

Partner with Zeiler; graduate of the University of Freiburg, Germany and admitted to the bar in Germany and Austria; expert in international dispute resolution, with a strong focus on international arbitration; before joining ZFZ private practice as well as counsel at the Secretariat of the ICC Court; worked with various other sets of arbitration rules, such as VIAC, UNCITRAL and DIS rules in different capacities, including as sole arbitrator; clients in various aspects of commercial and corporate matters and regularly represented clients before the Austrian courts; advised clients in various matters concerning private foundations and real estate; regular lecturer on dispute resolution at international and national conferences.

Patricia Shaughnessy

Professor at Stockholm University where she created the Master of International Commercial Arbitration Law Program; specializes in international disputes and commercial law; a member of the ICC Court of Arbitration and ICC Commission; was a board member and Vice-Chair of the SCC Arbitration Institute, as well as a member of the drafting committees for the SCC Rules; government-appointed expert on the legislative committee for the 2019 revisions to the Swedish Arbitration Act; acts as an arbitrator, expert, and consultant, and leads projects related to commercial law and dispute resolution in many countries; has served as a fellow to the US Supreme Court; practiced law for ten years in the US; President of the Vis Moot Organization.

She publishes extensively and is a frequent speaker at leading universities and international conferences.