XIMENA BUSTAMANTE

Senior Fellow – Ecuador

Ximena Bustamante is an established mediator in Ecuador and the founding partner of PACTUM Dispute Resolution Consulting, a firm dedicated exclusively to collaborative law through negotiation, mediation and neutral third-party assistance.

About Ximena Bustamante

Ximena Bustamante is an established mediator in Ecuador. She has successfully conducted highly complex negotiations and mediations in commercial and government disputes, reaching settlement in most cases.

Ms. Bustamante is a founding partner of PACTUM Dispute Resolution Consulting, a firm dedicated exclusively to collaborative law through negotiation, mediation, and neutral third-party assistance. PACTUM Dispute Resolution Consulting is the first initiative to professionalize mediation in Ecuador from a private perspective.

Ms. Bustamante is a full-time mediator, serving on neutral panels for the Mediation and Arbitration Centers of the Quito Chamber of Commerce, the Ecuadorian-American Chamber of Commerce, the Pichincha Chamber of Industries, and the San Francisco de Quito University, as well as at the Mediation Centers of the Office of the Attorney General, and the Center for Law and Society (CIDES).

Additionally, she is a Professor at San Francisco de Quito University and the Public Management Program at IDE Business School in Quito.

Ms. Bustamante has acted as the National Director of Mediation at the Attorney General´s Office of the Republic of Ecuador, and as Deputy Director of the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the Quito Chamber of Commerce.

She has a demonstrated ability to reach settlements with persistence, effort, and responsibility, with high ethical and professional standards.

Mediation Practice

Ms. Bustamante served as a mediator for the Small Claims, Limited Jurisdiction and Civil Harassment Courts of Los Angeles County in 2009. She has also assisted in highly complex mediations with the Weinstein-Melnick Group, since 2010.

Upon her return to Ecuador, she became the Director of the Mediation Center of the Attorney General´s Office. In this position, she has mediated hundreds of highly complex cases, involving public and private sector parties. She has also supervised thousands of mediations that have entered through the Center, nationwide.

She established Pactum Dispute Resolution Consulting in 2016, and currently works as a full-time mediator.

Her areas of expertise include:

Administrative – public procurement, public agreements, torts, environmental, human rights
Commercial – contracts, supply and distribution relations, founder and/or shareholders disputes, partnership
Labor – liquidations and compensations
Intellectual Property – royalties for plant varieties
Property – real estate, landlord/tenant
Family disputes – family business disputes, inheritances and partition, divorce, child custody and support
Organizational – in-house conflict management

ADR Achievements and Training

Ms. Bustamante represented Ecuador at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), during the discussions for the preparation of instruments on enforcement of international commercial settlement agreements resulting from mediation.
As the Director of the Mediation Center of the Attorney General´s Office, she supervised the operation of eleven offices nationwide, including: Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Portoviejo, Loja, Machala, Riobamba, Esmeraldas, Tulcán, Lago Agrio and Galápagos.
Weinstein JAMS International Fellow (2009)
Ms. Bustamante has devoted her career to mediation. She was first trained in 2004 by the Ecuadorian – American Chamber of Commerce and took advanced courses by the Pichincha´s BAR Association and Quito´s Chamber of Commerce. She also took several workshops and seminars related to negotiation and conflict resolution.
As a Weinstein JAMS International Fellow, she received extensive mediation training and shadowed 18 different JAMS Neutrals in highly complex commercial cases.
In 2010, she obtained her LL.M. in Dispute Resolution by the Strauss Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University.
Ms. Bustamante served as a mediator for the Small Claims, Limited Jurisdiction and Civil Harassment Courts of Los Angeles County in 2009.

ADR Teaching and Mentoring

As a Professor at San Francisco de Quito, Ms. Bustamante teaches “Negotiation” and “Mediation Practice.” At the Public Management Program at IDE Business School in Quito, she teaches “Conflict Resolution and Negotiation.”
She developed the Mediation Training Program for the Mediation Centers of the Attorney General´s Office and the San Francisco de Quito University.
She has been a mediation trainer for over seven years, having conducted several workshops in various urban and rural cities in Ecuador.
She has been a frequent speaker at ADR Conventions.

Publications and Education

Publications

In collaboration with María Bernarda Carpio Frixone, Isabela Moreno and María Gracia Naranjo Ponce, “Mediators orientations: An analysis of mediation in Quito” in Iuris Dictio, Vol. 20, Nu. 20 (2017)

In collaboration with John M. Lande, Jay Folberg and Joel Lee “Principles for Designing Negotiation Instruction” in the book Rethinking Negotiation Teaching: Educating Negotiators for a Connected World, DRI Press (2013)

“Investor – State Mediation: Reflection on its feasibility from a Process Perspective” in the book New Directions in International Economic Law: In Memoriam Thomas Wälde, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers (2011)

“The Mediated Settlement Agreement – The Ecuadorian Experience” in the Journal of International Arbitration, Vol. 28 (2011)

El Acta de Mediación, (Cevallos Editora Jurídica (2009)

Educational Qualifications

LL.M. in Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law (2010)
Law Degree with minor in Psychology, San Francisco de Quito University (Ranked first out of 432 students) (2007)