Partner Gary Born and Counsel Tom Snider of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP’s International Arbitration Group spoke to an audience of government officials, private practitioners, professors and students on “International Claims Tribunals: Lessons Learned from the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission” at the Addis Ababa University School of Law on April 26. Snider spoke about his experience as counsel for the Government of Ethiopia before the commission, and Born discussed his role in the groundbreaking Abyei arbitration.

Before joining WilmerHale in 2009, Snider was a member of the legal team representing the Ethiopian government before the commission, an international tribunal in The Hague adjudicating claims arising from the armed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. He worked on the matter for eight years and lived in Ethiopia from 2002 to 2004.

Then, two years ago, he and two of his co-counsel—Sean D. Murphy, now a professor at The George Washington University Law School and a member of the UN International Law Commission, and Won Kidane, now an associate professor at Seattle University School of Law—decided to write a book based on the experience they had gained through their work with the commission.

“We wanted to analyze and synthesize the various awards and decisions that the commission issued, with a focus on making this information useful for future tribunals of this sort,” said Snider.

The book, entitled Litigating War: Mass Civil Injury and the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission, was published by Oxford University Press in April. A copy of the book was presented to the Addis Ababa University School of Law.

Born is chair of the firm's International Arbitration Group and, among other things, was counsel for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in the Abyei arbitration and counsel for Eritrea in the Zuqar/Hanish Islands arbitration. He is the author of some of the leading texts on international arbitration and litigation, including International Arbitration and Forum Selection Agreements: Drafting and Enforcing (Kluwer 4th ed. 2013), International Arbitration: Law and Practice (Kluwer 2012), International Arbitration: Cases and Materials (Aspen 2011), International Civil Litigation in United States Courts (Aspen 5th ed. 2011) (together with Peter Rutledge), and International Commercial Arbitration (Kluwer 2009).