Dr. Diora Ziyaeva 


Dr. Diora Ziyaeva is a Partner and US Region Co-Lead in Mining and Natural Resources at Dentons LLP in New York. Her practice focuses on investor-state arbitration, international commercial arbitration, and public international law.
 
Licensed in New York and Uzbekistan, she has successfully handled cases ranging in value from $10 million to $20 billion, with experience in mining, renewable energy, oil and gas disputes in Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Oceania, and Africa. She has been involved as counsel in over 30 significant international arbitration proceedings, both institutional (ICSID, LCIA, ICC, ICDR, SIAC, HKAIC and SCC) and ad hoc, as well as post-arbitral disputes (annulment and enforcement) for both private and public operators. Diora has represented parties before the federal and state courts in the United States, including the United States Supreme Court.

Notably, she is currently acting for a Canadian mining company in a US $300 million ICSID claim against Colombia. She has successfully defended the state of Turkmenistan in seven investment disputes and the Republic of Kazakhstan in a $1.2 billion arbitration involving energy reserves. She also successfully represented the Republic of Venezuela in a number of energy disputes, including US $30.3 billion arbitration, the Republic of Uganda in a $435 million oil and gas arbitration, and the State of Papa New Guinea in US $100 million mining dispute.

Diora is the first female from the Republic of Uzbekistan to graduate from Harvard Law School. In addition, she is a member of the ICC (International Commercial Court) Commission on Arbitration and co-chairs the Investment Law committee of the International Law Association, where she also seats on the Board of Directors. She serves as Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, where she teaches the practice of international arbitration, and at Fordham University School of Law, where she teaches investment treaty arbitration. Diora is a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member. She also maintains an active practice as both an arbitrator and mediator. She is a Certified Mediator by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, and is admitted with institutions all over the world, including EDAC, CIETAC, TIAC, SCIA and SCIAHK Panels of Arbitrators. Diora is Court Member of the Tashkent International Arbitration Centre (TIAC). She has been consistently recognized by Who’s Who Legal in 2020-2024 as the Future Leader: Arbitration, a 2023 "Rising Star" by Law360, and in 2018 as one of the American Bar Association’s On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyers.