Myrna Barakat Friedman is an independent commercial arbitrator, mediator and dispute prevention neutral with over 25 years’ experience leading corporate and transactional matters.

Myrna has served as a neutral on a wide range of commercial disputes involving contract interpretation, commercial transactions, mergers/acquisitions and post-M&A matters, strategic business sales, private equity transactions, securities and financial structures, and fundraising. Industry experience includes real estate, construction and infrastructure, cybersecurity, crypto and online exchange platforms, insurance, telecommunications, transportation, healthcare, finance and banking, and professional services.

Myrna has been appointed as Chair, Sole Arbitrator, Co-Arbitrator and Appellate Arbitrator to cases involving commercial and financial matters, including matters under the AAA, ICC, CPR and FINRA rules.

Before starting her ADR practice, Myrna led the execution of domestic and cross-border business combinations and securities offerings in the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.  She brings to her ADR practice a unique mix of legal, corporate and business experience.  She has completed transactions globally as a Wall Street M&A and securities lawyer, a lead in-house M&A lawyer for a Fortune 500 Company, a Corporate Development executive and the founder of a boutique strategic growth initiatives advisory company.

Myrna’s experience structuring and negotiating transactions both in-house and as an advisor to corporations and investors allows her to have a firsthand business understanding of the operational and financial intricacies of the most complex commercial matters.  She leverages her legal and business experience in her ADR practice to dissect the facts at hand with focus, quickly identify the crux of a dispute and analyze the underlying issues with sound judgment and common sense.  She brings a structured but practical and business-minded approach to her ADR practice.  For international disputes, the breadth of her work on global matters allows her to have a unique appreciation for the nuances in disputes involving multiple legal and business environments and multicultural constituents.

Myrna is the President and a Founding Member of the Association of Commercial and Transactional ADR Professionals – ACT-ADR.  She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a graduate of McGill University’s Law School, where she earned degrees in both common law and civil law, and McGill University’s School of Management, concentrating in Economics and Finance.  She is trilingual- English, French and Arabic, and has a working knowledge of Spanish.