Career
Elsa is a partner in the Mexico City Office. She focuses on arbitration and dispute resolution in general.
Elsa Ortega has more than twenty years of experience in large and complex cases of international commercial arbitration, both ad hoc and administered under the arbitration rules of several arbitral institutions, such as the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the National Chamber of Commerce of Mexico City’s Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CANACO), the Arbitration Center of Mexico (CAM), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), and the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA).
She has acted as party counsel, arbitrator and chair of arbitral tribunals in numerous cases, domestic and international, pertaining to different transactions, such as sale of goods, mergers and acquisitions, disputes among shareholders, and claims under construction, distribution and procurement agreements, among others, involving important Mexican and international companies and investors. She has represented clients in arbitrations related to various industries and sectors including automotive, transport, mining, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, electricity and finance. Her experience also includes providing advice in matters of investor-State arbitration.
Ms. Ortega is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. For several years now, she has been recognized in Chambers Latin America Guide, Chambers Global and WWL Mexico: Arbitration.
Ms. Ortega has been appointed by the Mexican government to be part of the Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes of the USMCA. She is vice president of the Instituto Mexicano de Arbitraje (IMA) for the term 2023-2024, vice president of the Arbitration & ADR Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce Mexico (ICC Mexico) for the term 2023-2025 and is part of the ICDR International Panel of Arbitrators and Mediators. Likewise, she teaches ADR in the Private Law LL.M. Program of the School of Law of the Universidad Anáhuac México. She co-authored the book Ley Mexicana de Arbitraje en Materia Comercial and is a regular speaker on arbitration and dispute resolution at various seminars and specialized meetings both in Mexico and abroad.
Ms. Ortega was born in Mexico City. She graduated with honors from the Escuela Libre de Derecho in 1996 and obtained an LL.M. in European Legal Studies from the College of Europe in Brugge, Belgium in 1998, and a Diploma on International Trade Negotiations from El Colegio de México in 2021.
Her native language is Spanish and is fluent in English and French.
