IGNACIO RIPOL

Senior Fellow – Spain

Ignacio Ripol is an attorney, who currently leads the Litigation and Compliance Department at Grant Thornton Spain (Barcelona office).

About Ignacio Ripol

Ignacio Ripol is an attorney, who currently leads the Litigation and Compliance Department at Grant Thornton Spain (Barcelona office).

Mr. Ripol’s professional practice as a lawyer is focused on commercial and business law. He has extensive experience regarding international contracts, corporate issues and commercial disputes between Spanish and international companies. He has represented many companies before Spanish courts in all stages, as well as before most arbitration tribunals. As a business lawyer, negotiator and dispute resolution practitioner, he has a broad perspective on the legal issues in which companies are involved. He has further developed a dispute management program and has extensive expertise in designing corporate compliance programs in organizations.

Mr. Ripol is a founding partner and neutral at NEUTRALES, a dispute resolution company affiliated with JAMS International, the world’s largest and most experienced provider of mediation services. NEUTRALES offers mediation suitable for commercial disputes by introducing highly qualified mediators and implementing a methodology for mediation success. NEUTRALES is devoted to changing the paradigm of conflict resolution, accompanying companies in their search for efficient, realistic, and economically advantageous solutions to their commercial disputes.

Mr. Ripol holds a Ph.D. in ADR from the University of Barcelona, and he is an active researcher on mediation and dispute management.

He is a lecturer in negotiation, mediation and arbitration at the University Abat Oliva-CEU in Barcelona. He is also an academic collaborator at ESADE Law School and a member of its research group on dispute resolution.

Litigation and Arbitration Practice

Mr. Ripol leads the litigation department at Grant Thornton Spain and has more than seventeen years of experience representing companies before the Spanish courts. He began his career in insurance disputes, which provided him with a strong background in procedural practice. More recently, he has focused on commercial disputes between companies, particularly representing the interests of international corporations in Spain. He has expertise in insolvency and bankruptcy procedures.

Mr. Ripol collaborates closely with the corporate and M&A areas of his firm, and he leads the pre-litigation negotiations and the design of conflict resolution strategies with his clients.

His litigation practice focuses on commercial and civil law, including:

Commercial contracts
Insurance disputes
Real estate
Civil works disputes
Bankruptcy and insolvency
Medical negligence, tortious liability
Collection claims
Shareholder and board of directors’ disputes
Antitrust
Defense of intellectual and industrial property rights
Withe collar criminal cases and criminal compliance

Mediation Practice

Ignacio Ripol has been a mediator since 2014 and has mediated several cases in Spain. He has also has represented his clients in many mediation procedures before mediation institutions.
He is a co-founder and panelist of NEUTRALES, a dispute resolution company in Spain.
He is registered as a mediator in the Official Register of Commercial Mediators.

ADR Achievements and Training

Awarded a Weinstein JAMS International Fellowship (2014)
Visiting Scholar, Gould Center for Conflict Resolution, Stanford Law School (2014)
Extensive advanced mediation training at JAMS (San Francisco, 2014 and New York, 2016)
Coordinated the training of NEUTRALES’ mediators in Barcelona (2016)
Attended Partners Global training on Pathways to Sustainable Mediation in Vienna, Austria, (2016)
D. in Arbitration (2012)
Has attended many courses and conferences on ADR, particularly on mediation and arbitration, as well as several national and international workshops, seminars and week-long courses in dispute resolution, negotiation, insolvency law, healthcare industries and others

ADR Teaching and Mentoring

Teaches Negotiation, Mediation & Arbitration at Abat Oliva – CEU University in Barcelona (since 2012)
Lecturer at ESADE Business & Law School, teaching the subject Dispute Resolution (since 2014)
Collaborates as a visiting professor with other law schools (Universitat Internacional de Catalunya and Universitat Popeu Fabra)
Member of the Research Group of Dispute Resolution at ESADE Business & Law School

Publications and Education

Publications

“Negociar para el fracas,” Expansión (March, 21, 2018)

“5 Ways Managers Can Enhance Their Mediation Skills,” IESE Insight (September 2017) (co-author Kandarp Mehta)

“Gestion de Conflictos y Corporate Compliance,” Harvard Deusto Business Review (March 2017)

“Venta de Unidad Productiva y Consecución de la Finalidad del Concurso,” Revista de Derecho Concursal y Paraconcursal, No. 20 (January 2014)

“La suspensión de la ejecución del laudo. Estudio del artº 45 LA,” Justicia: Revista de Derecho Procesal, nº 1/2013 (September 2013)

“La ejecución del laudo y su anulación,” Bosch Editor (March 2013)

“La firmeza del laudo arbitral tras las modificaciones introducidas por la Ley 11/2011,” Spain Arbitration Review nº 12/2011 (December 2011)

“Admisión a trámite de la propuesta anticipada de convenio y adhesiones de acreedores subordinados,” Revista de Derecho Concursal y Paraconcursal, nº 13 (November 2010)

Educational Qualifications

Doctoral Degree (Ph. D.) in Arbitration, University of Barcelona School of Law (2012)
Masters in Law (LL.M.) – Taxation, International University of Catalunya (2001)
Law Degree, University of Barcelona School of Law (2000)