Myrna Barakat Friedman is an independent commercial arbitrator, mediator and dispute prevention neutral who brings over 25 years of corporate and transactional experience to complex commercial disputes.  She is the President and a Founding Fellow of the Association of Commercial and Transactional ADR Professionals (ACT-ADR).

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. Her industry experience spans real estate, construction and infrastructure, cybersecurity, information technology, 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/ICDR, ICC, CPR, and FINRA rules.

Before establishing her dispute resolution practice, Myrna led domestic and cross-border business combinations and securities offerings in the US, Europe, Latin and South America, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. She brings a rare combination of legal, corporate, and business experience to every matter, having 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 advisory firm.

Myrna’s experience structuring and negotiating transactions both in-house and as an advisor to corporations and investors gives her a firsthand understanding of the operational and financial complexities that define the most challenging commercial disputes. She leverages her legal and business experience 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 yet practical, business-minded approach to every matter. For international disputes, the breadth of her work on global transactions gives her a distinctive sensitivity to the legal, cultural, and business nuances that shape cross-border proceedings.

Myrna is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a Member of National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (NADN) and a CEDR Accredited Mediator.  She is a graduate of McGill University’s Faculty of Law, where she earned degrees in both common law and civil law, and McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, concentrating in Economics and Finance. She is trilingual in English, French, and Arabic, with working proficiency in Spanish.