Tafadzwa Pasipanodya

Practice Areas

Tafadzwa Pasipanodya is a partner in Foley Hoag’s international litigation and arbitration department and chairs the firm’s Africa practice group. For almost two decades, she has represented sovereign States from all over the world in investor-state arbitrations concerning natural resources, mining, the environment, infrastructure, and health policy before arbitration tribunals.

Tafadzwa has also advised States in disputes against other States concerning the law of the sea, maritime delimitations, territorial claims, human rights, and environmental rights before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) tribunals, and other fora. In addition, she has represented foreign States in U.S. federal court proceedings.

As a member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Court of Arbitration, Tafadzwa participates in the judicial supervision of ICC arbitration proceedings, including scrutinizing and approving arbitral awards and deciding arbitrator challenges.

Tafadzwa’s expertise in international litigation and arbitration has been recognized by Global Arbitration Review (GAR), who named her to their 2023 “45 Under 45” guide to leading figures of the international arbitration bar under the age of 45; Latinvex, who rank her as one of the top 33 female arbitration lawyers working on Latin American matters in the world, and by Africa Arbitration Academy, Africa Arbitration and the Association of Young Arbitrators (AYA), who list her as one of the top 30 arbitration practitioners from Africa. She has also been recognized by Chambers & Partners, Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration, Legal 500: USA, Legal 500: Latin America, and Lawyer Monthly.

Tafadzwa is also engaged in Foley Hoag’s Global Business and Human Rights practice, which advises businesses, states, and intergovernmental organizations on various aspects of business operations including, human rights, sustainability, the environment, and the negotiation of public private partnerships.

Prior to joining Foley Hoag, Tafadzwa worked with several intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in relation to the prosecution of alleged genocidiaires in Rwanda; natural resources and conflict in Angola; caste discrimination in Nepal and India; U.S.-Africa policy; Roma and prisoner health in Romania; and post-conflict reconstruction in Sri Lanka.