Crenguta Leaua
Crenguta Leaua, Ph.D. is a professor of law and a problem-solving specialist with a background in international dispute resolution and an integrative approach, combining legal expertise with economics and technical perspectives. With a strong ability to grasp the technology-related problems, she has a deep understanding of the functioning and decision-making processes in both private and state entities and direct experience in entrepreneurship and leadership in international organizations.
Recognized as a Thought Leader globally in the area of alternative dispute resolution, she used her multi-faced experience in the international framework to structure the proprietary alternative thinking method, a tool for business leaders to grow and reset their thinking perspective in innovative and original ways.
Constantly looking at matters from an alternative perspective, she introduces forward-thinking and a visionary worldly perspective in all her circles. Her wide range of areas of expertise, interests, and the energetic personality and interlocking potentials have made her a catalyst force in any initiative she undertakes, in shaping and supporting transformative solutions.
Experience
Crenguta’s wide international exposure and knowledge was obtained in her professional experience – both in law, entrepreneurship and leadership – in Western & Eastern Europe, Asia, and North America, combined with her executive education in leadership at Harvard University – John. F. Kennedy School of Government, as well as her executive education in the economical features of disruption at London School of Economics, Crenguta is a full professor of law habilitatus at Bucharest University of Economic Studies, where she teaches comparative international arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution methods, business law and communication and new technologies law to students at the School of Doctoral Studies in Law, Faculty of International Relations, and Faculty of Cybernetics and Informatics in Economy. She was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York, and had been invited for various lectures and conferences at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., Florida International University in Miami, Florida, Arizona State University in Phoenix, Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, Thessaloniki University in Greece, and Science Po in Paris, France. She is the author of numerous books and publications in law reviews in the US and Europe.
The source of Crenguta’s legal experience resides in her 25 years of international practice as attorney at law, as a leading specialist in alternative dispute resolution for particularly complex disputes, with a significant technology-related components, business and tax, as well as macroeconomics or sociological dimensions. Her practice also includes complex investment law, international transactions, corporate and competition law issues, as well as highly technical legal areas, such as new technologies law, communication law, construction law, aviation law, natural resources, environment and climate change. She represented clients ranging from governments, major municipalities, state owned companies to multinational corporations, investment funds and private investors. She has been featured in all issues of ‘Who’s Who Legal’ since 2007 and she is named a Thought Leader GAR in all editions since 2017 in the field of international arbitration.
The recognitions Crenguta has gained in the international legal community led her to develop a practice as arbitrator in over 150 cases. She has a wide experience at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris and London Court of International Arbitration and she is also listed as arbitrator by the Word Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center, and by arbitral institutions and organizations in the US (the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center – SVAMC), in Austria (VIAC), courts of arbitration in Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Slovenia, and Poland) and Asia, where she is listed both for commercial and investment disputes in China (CIETAC – Beijing, SHIAC – Shanghai, SCIA – Shenzen), Singapore (SIAC), and Malaysia (AIAC).
Crenguta is particularly skillful in understanding and absorbing technical information about new technologies as well as immediately identifying their impact in business and society. She is working as an expert in dispute resolution for technology-related disputes for the United Nations Commission for International Trade (UNCITRAL), in the initiative launched by the governments of Israel, Japan, and the Czech Republic. She is a featured member of the List of World Leading Technology Neutrals by the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center – SVAMC, and a chair of the SVAMC Initiative on arbitration and mediation for blockchain-based transactions. She is teaching communications and new technologies law, and lecturing in various international conferences on the legal aspects of data science, blockchain & DLT, smart contracts, and artificial intelligence and conversational AI (chatbots) and the metaverse.
She is also a successful entrepreneur, having founded and built Leaua Damcali Deaconu Paunescu – LDDP, a law firm with offices in Bucharest, Romania, rapidly ranked as a GAR top 100 international arbitration law firms worldwide.
Crenguta’s strong management skills have been shaped not only as entrepreneur, but also in international organizations. She is a past Vice-president of the International Court of Arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Paris), the world largest alternative dispute resolution institution, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors and a Chair at the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center (SVAMC), leading the SVAMC initiative on arbitration and mediation for blockchain-based transactions.
