Živa Dispute Resolution

Independent arbitrator, dispute board member & counsel

About

Živa brings to her independent arbitrator and counsel practice deep, institutionally grounded experience in international dispute resolution. She spent over fourteen years at the ICC International Court of Arbitration, eight of them as Managing Counsel, where she played a central role in the administration of arbitration proceedings worldwide. Her work spanned virtually all sectors, ranging from matters involving parties and arbitrators with no prior arbitration experience to some of the world’s most complex and sensitive disputes, handled by leading law firms and top arbitrators. She guided parties and tribunals through a wide array of complex procedural situations and participated in the scrutiny of hundreds of arbitral awards issued under diverse governing laws, including awards rendered by the field’s most prominent arbitrators. She also has extensive experience handling cases involving states and state entities. 

Her experience has given her a rare ability to anticipate and respond creatively to procedural challenges, a thorough understanding of both common and civil law traditions, and a finely tuned awareness of commercial sensitivities across sectors and regions.

Having developed particular expertise in construction and infrastructure disputes, including dispute boards, dispute prevention, and conflict management, Živa combines procedural mastery with in‑depth knowledge of industry practices. 

Živa has particularly extensive experience with cases from the CEE and Balkan regions and the Middle East, while also maintaining close professional ties with Africa and Latin America—capabilities further supported by her language skills.

She is fluent in Slovenian, English, French, Italian, and Spanish. She also understands and reads Croatian, Serbian, German, and Portuguese, and has worked in all of these languages.

She regularly lectures on international arbitration in leading university programmes, contributes to the CiARB Global Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration, and is a frequent speaker at international arbitration conferences.