Myrna Barakat Friedman is an independent commercial arbitrator, mediator and dispute prevention neutral with over 25 years’ experience advising senior executives and leading domestic and cross-border transactional matters. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a New York State Part 146 Certified Mediator. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at St. John’s University School of Law where she teaches Negotiation and Contract Drafting.
Myrna has been appointed as Chair, Sole Arbitrator, Co-Arbitrator and Appellate Arbitrator to over 45 cases involving a broad range of commercial and financial matters, including matters under the AAA, ICC, CPR and FINRA rules.
Myrna brings to her ADR practice a unique mix of legal, corporate and business experience. She has led 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. Her multifaceted career spans across industries and jurisdictions.
Myrna’s deep legal roots and strategic business acumen allow her to be a highly effective neutral in the most complex commercial matters. She is recognized for her keen ability to quickly dissect the facts at hand, identify the crux of a dispute and analyze the underlying issues with sound judgment and focus. She brings a structured but practical and business-minded approach to her practice. For international disputes, the breadth of her work on global matters, and with differing cultures and legal systems, allows her to have a unique appreciation for, and understanding of, the intricacies of disputes involving multiple legal and business environments and multicultural constituents.
Myrna is trilingual- English, French and Arabic, and has a working knowledge of Spanish. She is 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.