José Antonio Rivas is a Founding Partner of Xtrategy in Washington D.C. (2019) and Bogotá (2018), and Head of the Arbitration and International Law Practice. He is an international arbitrator, acts as international counsel in investment treaty and international commercial arbitrations, and provides public international law advice to sovereign clients and state-owned companies. He is also Co-Founder of the World Arbitration Update and the Washington Arbitration Week. 

José Antonio Rivas has over 20 years of experience in international investment and commercial arbitration and possesses a sophisticated understanding of investment arbitration, having served in various roles: He has acted as counsel for sovereign and private clients under the ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC, and Japan Commercial Arbitration Association (JCAA) rules; arbitrator under ICSID, ICC, AAA, ICDR, CCB, and CCC rules; legal expert witness in investment arbitration; lead negotiator of investment treaties for the Republic of Colombia; and Legal Counsel at ICSID. 

He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, United States, and the Republic of Colombia. As a partner at Xtrategy, he represents and defends sovereign States in investor-State arbitrations and private clients in cases involving underwater cultural heritage, goods production, real estate, and environmental projects. In 2022, he won a JCAA international commercial arbitration—including damages and costs—on behalf of a client specializing in project finance for renewable energy. Previously, he worked as a senior associate at Arnold & Porter LLP, where he represented sovereign States in matters of public international law, international litigation, and arbitration under ICSID, ICC, and UNCITRAL Rules. He has acted as counsel to clients from Latin America, North America, Asia, and Europe in arbitrations related to infrastructure concessions, land and maritime transportation, energy and hydrocarbons, real estate, and environmentally sensitive projects. He has advised Caribbean countries and CARICOM member States on their investment treaty models, including drafting provisions enabling States to sue investors for breaches of treaty obligations. Additionally, he successfully represented the Republic of Colombia, securing the dismissal of the San José Galleon case, a USD 17 billion lawsuit filed by Sea Search Armada (SSA) before U.S. Federal Courts. 

Before entering private practice, José Antonio served as Director of Foreign Investment at Colombia’s Ministry of Trade, where he led the negotiation of investment treaties with fifteen countries, including Canada, China, India, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, among others. In that role, he routinely worked with the business community to resolve investment disputes. 

Early in his career, he served as Legal Counsel at ICSID, where he analyzed cases submitted to the Centre, advised the Secretary-General on their registration or rejection, and worked on issues involving arbitrator challenges. He also served as Secretary to arbitral tribunals, advising arbitrators on the applicable arbitration rules. 

José Antonio Rivas is Adjunct Professor of Investment Treaty Arbitration and Public International Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he earned both his Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) with Distinction and his Master of Laws (LL.M.). He has lectured at Harvard Law School and served as a Visiting Professor in the same field at the Universidad de los Andes Law School in Colombia, where he obtained his law and economics degrees. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a member of the arbitration panels of the American Arbitration Association/International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA/ICDR), the Inter-American Commission on Commercial Arbitration (CIAC), the Beijing International Arbitration Center, and the arbitration centers of the Chambers of Commerce of Bogotá and Medellín. He has authored over 20 publications on investment treaty arbitration, public international law, and international trade law, including the books International Treaties and Investment Arbitration: Experiences of Colombia and Comparative Law (Ibañez, 2019) and Revolution in the International Rule of Law: Essays in Honor of Don Wallace (Juris, 2014), for which he served as co-editor and co-author. He is a frequent speaker on international arbitration and public international law and is trilingual in English, Spanish, and French.