Jaime Alberto Arrubla

Civil and commercial litigation. Domestic and international arbitration. Cassation and

extraordinary appeals before the Supreme Court of Justice and the Council of State. Contract law,

obligations and civil liability. Expert evidence on Colombian law before arbitral tribunals and

foreign courts.

Jaime Arrubla Paucar founded Arrubla Devis in 1988, joining his private law practice to the public

law practice of Consuelo Devis Saavedra.

He was Justice of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia from 2004 to 2012,

President of the Civil Chamber in 2006, Vice-President of the Court in 2009 and President of the

Supreme Court of Justice in 2010. Earlier he served as Legal Secretary to the President of the

Republic (1998–2000) and as Secretary General of the Government of Antioquia (1982).

He has sat as arbitrator at the arbitration centres of the Chambers of Commerce of Medellín, Bogotá

and Cartagena for more than thirty years, in disputes arising from public and private contracting:

infrastructure, agency, supply and concession agreements.

He serves on the board of Grupo Sura (since 2022) and on the Governing Council of Universidad

Pontificia Bolivariana (since 2023). He leads the firm's civil and commercial law, contracts,

arbitration and dispute resolution practice.

Colombian Academy of Jurisprudence — full member.

Corporación Excelencia en la Justicia — member of the Committee of Experts.

Medellín Bar Association — Honorary President.

Arbitration lists of the Chambers of Commerce of Medellín, Bogotá and Cartagena.

Author of Contratos Mercantiles, a four-volume treatise on Colombian commercial contracts published

by Legis and a standard reference in the field. Contratos Típicos is in its fourteenth edition and

Teoría General del Negocio Mercantil in its thirteenth. Author of Los negocios fiduciarios y la

fiducia en garantía. Co-author of more than thirty publications in commercial and civil law.

Professor emeritus of Commercial Contracts at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. Full professor at

Universidad del Rosario. Has taught obligations at Universidad de los Andes and contracts at

Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and lectures in the commercial law graduate programmes of

Universidad de los Andes, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Universidad Nacional de Colombia and

Universidad Externado de Colombia.

Intervention for the Colombian state legal defence agency in three infrastructure arbitrations worth

USD 561 million combined: a metropolitan road concession, a concessioned national highway network,

and port concessions on the country's main river.

Appointed by two international arbitration tribunals as expert on Colombian law in disputes between a

transport infrastructure contractor and the national infrastructure agency, opining on contract law,

public procurement and civil liability.

Defence of a hydroelectric generator with seven plants and USD 6.3 billion in assets in a USD 43

million arbitration, alongside the review and rebuilding of its entire contracting system.

Legal adviser to one of the constructors of the metro system of Colombia's second city, from contract

performance through delivery, and counsel to the consortium in its dispute resolution proceedings,

including international arbitration.

Fifty years in litigation and arbitration. Jaime Arrubla brings doctrinal authority in commercial and

contract law to proceedings whose outcome turns on legal characterisation rather than on the facts,

and he is regularly instructed at the cassation stage, where the appeal must be built as a precise

correction of the lower court's legal reasoning. He acts as counsel, as arbitrator and as expert, and

that combination lets him anticipate how a tribunal will read a record before it is filed.

Universidad de Salamanca

Doctor of Law, cum laude

Universidad de Salamanca

Master in Advanced Studies in Private Law

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Master of Laws in Private Law

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Specialist in Civil and Commercial Law

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Specialist in Canon Law for Civil Lawyers

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Specialist in Labour Relations

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Law degree (Abogado)

Professor Emeritus

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Honorary President

Colegio de Abogados de Medellín

Four decades of disputes in the sectors that generate Colombia's most technically demanding

litigation: energy and power generation, mining and mining services, transport and road

infrastructure under concession, ports, construction, telecommunications and financial services, as

well as disputes in which the counterparty or the client is a public entity. Recurring themes are

long-term contracts, risk allocation, contractual economic equilibrium and the enforceability of

negotiated payment mechanisms.

Colombia. Regularly instructed on Colombian law before international arbitral tribunals and has

given expert evidence on Colombian law before a United States federal court.