Mr. Whitney Debevoise

Whitney Debevoise is a senior partner in the firm's International Practice with particular involvement in international financial transactions, banking and international trade.Mr. Debevoise also has experience in international arbitration and multi-jurisdictional litigation.Mr. Debevoise has extensive experience in transactions involving sovereigns, multilateral financial institutions and export credit agencies.He has represented the central banks and finance ministries of many countries, as well as the Bank for International Settlements, the World Bank, and the InterAmerican Development Bank.The transactions have ranged from Brazil's $49 billion Brady Plan exercise to numerous Yankee bond, Samurai bond, and Eurobond issuances in ten different currencies and billion dollar equity placements of shares in such firms as Telefonica Argentina, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce - CVRD, Petroleo Brasileiro SA - Petrobras, and Unibanco-União de Bancos Brasileiros.

Mr. Debevoise has also advised private sector clients on major transactions in the telecommunications and power sectors.He has assisted multinational corporations and international investment funds on privatization and direct investments in such sectors as steel, electricity and telecommunications.He has also worked with emerging market issuers in debt and equity transactions.

In addition, Mr. Debevoise functions at the forefront of trade liberalization, having advised with respect to the GATT accession process, GATT panel proceedings (including the first-ever WTO panel and Appellate Body proceedings and the leading trade-and-environment cases) and regional trade integration.In the arbitration field, Mr. Debevoise has handled sugar and coffee commodities cases, investment disputes before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and the Inter-American Arbitration Commission and has experience in several cases as an arbitrator appointed by the International Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Debevoise has written articles on WTO dispute resolution, debt restructuring, international banking, U.S. export controls, and sovereign immunity.He has lectured at the Harvard and Yale Law Schools and the Hungarian Institute for the Training of Bankers.

Mr. Debevoise is a 1974 summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, with departmental honors in Latin American Studies, and is a 1977 graduate of Harvard Law School.He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Society of International Law, the International Law Section of the American Bar Association, and the International Bar Association.Mr. Debevoise speaks fluent Portuguese, Spanish, and French.