PROF. WON KIDANE
Partner
Professor Dr. Won Lemma Kidane is a Fulbright Scholar, a Professor of Law at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, and the Director of the International Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Cape Town. Prior to that Prof. Won taught at the Seattle University School of Law, the Pennsylvania State University School of Law, and the Peking University School of Transnational Law for a total of fifteen years. Prof. Won earlier practiced international arbitration and litigation at the global law firms of Piper Rudnick (now DLA Piper) and Hunton & Williams in their Washington, DC offices.
Professor Won has represented States, their subdivisions and instrumentalities in a wide array of international litigation and arbitration matters ranging from mining, infrastructure, construction, railway, and oil and gas to commodities trading. He has represented SOEs at critical stages of relationship formation ranging from contract negotiations, dispute prevention, contract management, mediation, and conciliation to arbitration and court litigation. He also frequently counsels companies in private equity ventures, contract negotiations, and dispute avoidance and resolution.
Professor Won is a prolific author and one of the leading scholars in the areas of international investment law in Africa and globally. He is the author or co-author of five books and more than 40 law review articles and chapters in leading international law journals and books. His book on China-Africa Dispute Settlement (Wolters Kluwer, 2011) is the first of its kind and has been translated into Mandarin Chinese. His fourth book on The Culture of International Arbitration (Oxford University Press, 2017) is widely considered a groundbreaking work in the field. Prof. Won's fifth title is a comprehensive examination of Africa's International Investment Law Regimes (Oxford University Press, 2024).
Professor Won holds a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) degree from Georgetown, a Juris Doctor degree (JD) with honors from the University of Illinois, and a Master of Laws degree (LL.M) from the University of Georgia as well as a Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B) from Addis Ababa University. He is a member of many professional organizations including the Academic Council of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration, the American Society of International Law, and the Academic Forum on Investor-State Arbitration Reform.
Professor Won is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Illinois, and the State of Washington.