Annie Lespérance
Montreal, Latin AmericaInvestment Manager and Legal Counsel,
Head of Latin America Group
Annie Lespérance is an Investment Manager and Legal Counsel in Omni Bridgeway's Montreal office, where she sources and assesses investments in international arbitration and commercial litigation matters. She works with litigants to structure funding deals that address their unique needs and provide them insights, when requested, as their cases progress. Annie is also Head of our Latin America Group, with responsibility for leading Omni Bridgeway’s commercial arbitration, litigation funding and judgment enforcement efforts in Latin America.
Prior to joining Omni Bridgeway, Annie gained wide experience as a lawyer at Cabinet Yves Fortier (2012-2019) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (2011-2012), where she acted as Secretary to Arbitral Tribunals in international commercial, investor-State and sports arbitration disputes under various procedural rules (ICC, ICSID, LCIA, UNCITRAL, PCA, ICDR, SIAC, HKIAC, CAS, SDRCC) and governing laws.
The expertise she brings to funding is also informed by earlier experiences in her career as an appointed arbitrator and member on arbitration rosters, including the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (Annex 10-B.1), the Canadian Free Trade Agreement and ICDR Canada's panel of arbitrators. During this time, she received recognition as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) based in London, UK. As a certified mediator, she also successfully mediated several litigated cases prior to joining the litigation funding industry.
Annie serves as a Board Member for the Young Canadian Arbitration Practitioners (YCAP). She is recognized in the Future Leaders category of Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration 2021 and 2022 and in the Latin America, Litigation Funding Spotlight Table of Chambers Partners. She is a frequent speaker and a published author in the field of international arbitration.
Annie earned her law degree from Université de Montréal and her LL.M. cum laude, from Leiden University. Annie was called to the Quebec Bar in 2010 and to the Paris Bar in 2011. She is fluent in French, English and Spanish.
- Co-Author. The State of Dispute Funding in Latin America. Global Arbitration Review and Latin Lawyer: The Guide to Arbitration in Latin America. September 2022.
- Co-Author. Roundtable: Building Your Book of Business Using Alternative Fee Structures, Advocacy Matters, The Advocates’ Society, Winter 2022, p. 21.
- Author. Canada Encourages Gender Equality and Diversity in its Modernized FIPA Model. ArbitralWomen. 27 May 2021.
- Co-Author. Third-Party Funding and Covid-19. Kluwer Book: International Arbitration and the Covid-19 Revolution. October 2020.
- Challenges in the enforcement of arbitral awards. Little Open De Arbitraje. 15 February 2023. Webinar.
- Montréal comme siège d’arbitrages internationaux/Montreal as a seat for international arbitrations. ICC Canada Annual Conference (part of CanArbWeek). 21 October 2022. Montreal, Canada.
- Canadiens d’ici et d’ailleurs/Canadians here and there. ICC Canada. 13 October 2022. Webinar.
- Financiamiento de Disputas en Arbitraje. ENERAP - Energy Related Arbitration Practitioners. 29 September 2022. Webinar.
- The flight of the award. The importance of enforcement. Open de Arbitraje. 4-5 May 2022. Madrid, Spain.
- Creating leverage: How technology companies can use investment treaties to mitigate regulatory risk. CPR Annual Conference. 3 March 2022. Webinar.
- Accelerated Route to Fellowship Course. Tutor – Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. 10-11 December 2021. Miami.
- Dispute Funding: A Tool to Grow your Arbitration Practice. Chambers & Partners. 8 December 2021. Webinar.
- Enforcement and Monetization of Arbitral Awards. Sao Paulo Arbitration Week. 19 October 2021. Webinar
- Funding and Arbitration. ADRIC Arbitration Forum (part of CanArbWeek). 21 September 2021. Webinar.
- Accelerated Route to Fellowship Course. Tutor – Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. 19-20, 26-27 August 2021. Online
- Perspectives on Dispute Funding in Latin America. Latin Lawyer, Lexology, GAR. 16 June 2021. Webinar.
- Hot Topics in International Arbitration. Western Canada Commercial Arbitration Society Annual Conference. 4 May 2021. Webinar.
- From the Trenches: Arbitration 101. YCAP Spring Symposium. 3 May 2021. Webinar.
- Le financement de différends. Guest Lecturer Diplôme universitaire de droit international économique africain (Paris II). 24 March 2021. Webinar
- The Art of Settling Investment Disputes. GAR Live BITs. 21 January 2021. Webinar.
- Third Party Funding in International Arbitration. Atlanta Arbitration Society (AtlAS) Annual Conference. 10 December 2020. Webinar.
- Le financement d’arbitrages. Guest Lecturer Master 2 BTFML (Paris XI). 1 December 2020. Webinar.
- Las ventajas, desventajas de TPF y experiencias. ICC YAF Latin American Chapter. 14 October 2020. Webinar.
- The New Business of Litigation. Benchmark Women in Litigation Vancouver Forum. 8 October 2020. Webinar.
- Is the Future of Arbitration made of Virtual Insanity. ICC YAF/YCAP Fall Symposium (part of CanArbWeek). 24 September 2020. Webinar.
- Peer-to-Peer Discussion. ADRIC Symposium. 30 July 2020. Webinar.
- Legal Practices in Canada. Guest Lecturer Business Law LLM (Université de Montréal). 1 November 2019. Montréal.
- Hot Topics in International Arbitration. ICC YAF Atlanta. 8 September 2019, Atlanta.
