Miami, already an international business hub, is emerging as a center for international arbitration and mediation -- especially when it comes to business involving Latin America and the Caribbean.
Geography makes Miami a logical crossroads, and there's plenty of legal talent fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. "Many people feel Miami is the ideal forum," says Miami-based Pedro Martinez-Fraga, who chairs the international litigation and arbitration group for Greenberg Traurig. "It's no-man's land and everyman's land for disputes in this hemisphere.

Wilfredo A. Rodriguez, a Miami attorney who chairs theinternational arbitration and litigation team at Holland &, says strong growth in arbitration in Miami is evident in the numberof attorneys working in the area and the increase in seminars and programs.
This semester, the University of Miami School of Law invited Jan Paulsson, a prominent figure in arbitration who heads the international arbitration group at the Freshfields law firm in Paris, to present a five-week seminar: "The Globalization of the Rule of Law through Arbitration."