Workshop: Resolving Impact Investment Disputes - Current Practices and Future Opportunities
Date
Thursday, June 4, 2026, from 2:00 - 6:00 PM
Location
Furman Hall, NYU School of Law
245 Sullivan Street
New York, New York 10012
CLE Credit
New York CLE credit is pending. If approved, it will be categorized as non-transitional credit and will not be acceptable for newly admitted attorneys (those admitted to the New York Bar for less than two years).
Registration & Cost
$250
NYU School of Law is committed to the availability of quality affordable CLE programs for its alumni community and members of the bar-at-large. Prospective attendees interested in obtaining financial aid for this program should contact the Grunin Center at grunincenter@gmail.com. Written requests for financial aid should include applicant name, phone number, email address, employment status and recent employment history, along with a brief statement of financial need. All requests for financial aid will be kept confidential.
Workshop Overview
This experiential workshop will immerse participants in the legal, policy and business issues that can arise when an impact investment goes awry. It will draw on the findings of the Grunin Center’s 2025-26 survey of dispute resolution in impact investing and follow-on interviews with market participants to map the current landscape of dispute resolution in this field, including informal and formal proceedings. Workshop participants will engage in simulated negotiations that reflect actual disputes that have arisen in impact investing, and investigate how the existing legal ecosystem for dispute resolution might be improved to reflect the goals of impact investment transactions that aim to marry profit and purpose.
Workshop Facilitators
Deborah Burand, Professor of Law Emerita, NYU School of Law
Deborah Burand is a professor of law emerita at NYU School of Law. She also serves
as the faculty director for the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, a
pioneering initiative she co-founded at NYU Law with fellow professor of law emerita
Helen Scott.
After a decade at NYU Law, Deborah now teaches globally as a visiting professor on
topics related to social entrepreneurship, impact investing and sustainable
development. Deborah also leads a hands-on, negotiation course each spring term in
NYU Law’s Paris program that exposes students to common legal and business
challenges involved in creating and operating impact investment funds.
During her nearly twenty years in academia, Deborah established the first law
school-based international transactions clinics in the United States—at NYU Law in
2015 and at the University of Michigan Law School in 2008. She was honored as a
Higher Education Ambassador Fellow by the Council on Foreign Relations for
2024-25 and received a Distinguished Teaching Award from NYU Law in 2024. In
2021, she and retired Professor Scott Taitel (Wagner School) were recognized by the
Financial Times for their innovative and creative teaching materials in sustainable
finance education.
Beyond academia, Deborah’s experience spans the private sector (global law firm),
public sector (including the general counsel role for the US Government’s development
finance institution, senior positions at the Federal Reserve Board and Treasury
Department), and nonprofit sector (leadership positions in conservation and
microfinance organizations).
Earlier in her career, Deborah was awarded an International Affairs Fellowship by the
Council on Foreign Relations, during which she served in the legal departments of both
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD).
Sven Volkmer, Partner, White & Case LLP
Sven Volkmer is a New York-based partner at White & Case specializing in international business disputes and arbitration. He assists clients in developing and executing legal strategies for avoiding and resolving disputes through arbitration, litigation and negotiation. He has experience in a broad range of industries, with special expertise in the energy sector. Sven has been ranked by Lexology Index as a Future Leader in International Arbitration in 2024-26 and Global Elite Thought Leader in International Arbitration in 2026. He is committed to pro bono work, including pro bono litigation and arbitration capacity-building initiatives for the public sector. Sven is a member of the Bar of the State of New York and the Bar of Paris, France. He earned his LLB from Queen Mary College, University of London and his LLM from NYU Law.
Camille Esnou, International Arbitration Fellow, White & Case LLP
Camille Esnou is an International Arbitration Fellow at White & Case. Camille worked on commercial and civil litigation matters as an intern at Lenz & Staehelin in Geneva and as a mini-pupil at barristers’ chambers 12 King’s Bench Walk and 11 South Square in London. Camille is UK and U.S.-trained, holding an LL.B. from Cambridge University and an LL.M. from NYU Law, and passed the New York State Bar exam. Camille is committed to pro bono work.
Marie-Camille Pitton, Secretary-General, OHADAC Regional Arbitration Centre
Dr. Marie-Camille Pitton is an attorney admitted to the Paris and New York Bars, with nearly two decades of experience in international arbitration and institutional ADR. Since September 2021, she has served as Secretary-General of the OHADAC Regional Arbitration Centre (CARO Centre), an arbitration and mediation centre based in Guadeloupe, French West Indies.
The CARO Centre benefits from development funding from the European Union and the French Development Agency (AFD). Its creation forms part of the operational phase of the OHADAC project, the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in the Caribbean.
The CARO Centre provides ADR services across 33 Caribbean States and territories. It develops innovative dispute resolution and prevention tools that integrate ESG considerations and respond to the specific needs of the Caribbean region. Beyond case administration, the Centre plays an active role in institutional capacity-building, policy-making and the promotion of sustainable economic growth, working in close collaboration with public and private stakeholders.
Through its training programmes, the CARO Centre engages a wide range of stakeholders - including members of the judiciary, governments, public institutions, legal professionals and SMEs - equipping them with practical tools to anticipate, manage and resolve disputes effectively. Its programmes are designed to strengthen legal and institutional capacity, foster trust in dispute resolution mechanisms and contribute to resilient, inclusive and sustainable development.
Building on this experience, Marie-Camille is developing a global network of institutions, practitioners and policymakers to share, adapt and scale this model beyond the Caribbean, including in Europe and across Africa, particularly in Eastern Africa and the OHADA zone. Her work focuses on supporting the implementation of efficient dispute resolution frameworks as part of broader development and investment projects.
Prior to her current role, Marie-Camille practised in the international arbitration department of a major international law firm. She also served as Counsel at the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce.
Marie-Camille holds a PhD in International and Comparative Law from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is also a graduate of Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas, the University of Oxford (MJur, 2001) and Harvard Law School (LL.M., 2002).
Matthew Kasdin, General Counsel, Impact Investment Exchange
Matt Kasdin has spent more than 25 years working as an impact lawyer at the intersection of finance, human rights, and the rule of law.
His career began before law school, when he spent a year in Costa Rica writing for Mesoamerica Magazine on political and environmental issues across Central America, including a cover story on police reform in Guatemala. The questions he encountered there, of how law, capital, and accountability shape outcomes for ordinary people, have animated everything that has followed.
Matt went on to clerk at the High Court of Zimbabwe in Harare and at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and to serve as a Fulbright Scholar advising the Government of Bulgaria on the legal reforms required for European Union accession. He then joined Latham & Watkins, working out of the firm's New York, London, Milan, and Moscow offices on multi-billion-dollar cross-border transactions for leading investment banks, private equity firms, and sovereigns.
While at Latham, he was seconded to help stand up two of the most consequential responsible-investment initiatives of his generation. The United Nations Global Compact and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). He drafted foundational governance documents that continue to guide both today.
Matt served as Head of Legal and Policy at the UN Global Compact in New York, before moving to Singapore as Vice President at a family office deploying billions across education, healthcare, and microfinance in South and Southeast Asia and Africa. Since 2008 he has advised Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), the global pioneer in impact investing in the Global South, and today serves as its General Counsel, where he helps structure innovations including the Women's Livelihood Bond series, the Orange Bond asset class, Indonesia's first Orange Sukuk, and the IIX Values™ impact verification methodology, alongside more than US$500 million in impact capital deployed across South and Southeast Asia.
Matt also led ESG and government affairs at NASDAQ-listed solar manufacturer, where the sustainability programme he built earned the company Singapore's #1 ranking from the UN Global Compact Network, a place on Corporate Knights' Top 25 Most Sustainable Corporations in the world, and ASrIA's silver medal for Best Human Rights Reporting in Asia. He also steered the company through a high-profile human rights crisis covered by The New York Times.
He has at separate times in his career contributed to the founding constitutions of the Republic of South Sudan, the Republic of Zimbabwe, and the PRI itself.
Today, alongside his role at IIX, Matt is the founder of Birch Court, a Singapore-based legal and strategic advisory practice working at the intersection of impact investing, sustainable finance, and business and human rights; a Principal at Dan Tan Law; an Asia-Pacific Board Member of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers; and a faculty member at Singapore Management University, where he teaches corporate sustainability. Across his career, he has advised on more than US$30 billion in cross-border transactions and worked in courtrooms and capitals from Bangladesh to Bulgaria, Costa Rica to Rwanda, Manila to The Hague.