Salli SWARTZ


Salli is a dual national (France and United States) has practiced international business law in Paris since 1979. In July 2011 she created Artus Wise with a team of French attorneys specialized in litigation, arbitration, mediation, French labor and employment law, transnational business deals such as joint ventures and consortia particularly in the extractive industries and French, European and international mergers, acquisitions and corporate and commercial law. The firm prides itself on its pro bono work and Salli A Swartz has particular expertise in advising African Governments regarding the negotiation of their extractive industry permits and agreements.

Her practice is quite diverse and has involved the negotiation of aircraft leases, hydrocarbon development and production agreements, mineral extraction agreements and joint venture agreements in the hydrocarbon and extraction industries, transnational joint venture and consortium agreements and complex industrial investments and intellectual property licensing agreements. She regularly advises French and other European subsidiaries of major American and English multinational companies in connection with their business activities in Europe, Asia (China, Japan and India) and the Middle East and has recently advised many European and other clients with respect to compliance and other issues arising out of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, anti-boycott laws and the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials. She is regularly lead counsel on due diligence and negotiations in connection with transnational acquisitions and mergers and has over 20 years experience in international arbitrations (in particular ICC arbitrations) and as well as mediations.

In addition to many speaking engagements, with regard to her experience in developing democracies, she has lectured on "Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Madagascar (USIA Guest Speaker, September 1997), "Transparency and Business and Government", Guest Lecturer at the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Oman Institute of Public Administration, May 1998, "Corruption and Transparency in Business and Government", Guest Lecturer in Burkina Faso, September, 1998; Guest Lecturer in both Lomé, Togo and Cotonou, Benin in September 2002 and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2005 on Transparency and Corruption, delegate to the ABA International Section International Legal Exchange Program in March 2007 to Accra (Ghana), Monrovia (Liberia) and Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Chaired the delegation to Jordan and Lebanon in March 2011. In March 2012, she visited Tanzania and Rwanda as part of the ILEX delegation of ABA International and in February 2014 she visited Burma and in February 2015 she visited Cuba as part of the ILEX delegation(s) of ABA International.

In March, 2013, she trained Government Officials in Chad regarding negotiating extractive industry agreements in connection with a capacity building seminar organized by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Legal Support Fund (ALSF) and in November, 2013 she participated in a capacity building seminar organized by the AfDB and the ALSF for Government officials in Ethiopia and South Sudan. In April 2014, she trained Government officials in Ulan Baator, Mongolia on the negotiation of extractive industry contracts organized by the Columbia Center on Sustainable Development. In July 2015, she trained Government officials in Senegal a under the auspices of the International Senior Lawyers Project on environmental and social/human rights issues in the extractive industry sector.

During her various trips to Africa, she has trained Government civil servants and civil society groups regarding the creation and independence of strong judicial institutions and bar associations, has worked on the development of legislation supporting women’s’ rights and has focused on post conflict issues and the Rule of Law as it affects judicial independence and bar associations. She has advised the National Resource Governance Institute on the new Mining Code in Guinea and the renegotiation of certain mining rights and has been involved in several training seminars concerning the negotiation of complex extractive industry agreements.

She a founding architect with the International Office of Migration of the “International Recruiting Integrity System” (IRIS) to certify recruiting agencies which recruit migrant labor in order to which will have a documentary, training and certification system(s).

She is a Member of the Pennsylvania and Paris Bars, with specializations in the Law of International Relations and Commercial Law, is admitted to practice before the French Courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is the past Chair of the International Section of the ABA and served on the Board of Directors of the Rule of Law Institute (“ROLI”). She is a member of “Femmes Business Angels” and Arbitral Women (an association of women arbitrators), Co Chair of the International Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, a contributor to the Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Advisory Board of the ABA Center for Human Rights, is a member of the Council of the International Legal Assistance Consortium and the ABA delegate to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in Geneva and Vienna.

* ABA = Association des barreaux américains.