Baptiste Rigaudeau Co-Chairs the New CAIP Working Group on Arbitration in the Mining Sector
Lead up is proud to announce that Baptiste Rigaudeau has been selected to co-chair the new Working Group launched by the Chambre Arbitrale Internationale de Paris (CAIP) on Arbitration in the Mining Sector. He takes on this role alongside Aboubacar Fall, Senior Partner at AF Legal.
This appointment marks an important milestone and confirms the position Lead up now holds among the leading names in international mining arbitration, particularly in francophone Africa, OHADA jurisdictions and Latin America.
It also builds naturally on Baptiste’s recent track record. In April 2026, he was elected Global Vice Chair of Young Mining Professionals (YMP). Taken together, these two roles point to the same trend: a firm whose sector expertise is now recognised and actively sought out by the mining and arbitration communities.
A practical mandate
The Working Group’s mission is to produce practical reference documents on the key legal and operational aspects of mining-related contracts and disputes. Three areas will be given priority: risk allocation, contract drafting, and arbitration mechanisms. The aim is straightforward: to give practitioners, companies, counsel and decision-makers usable guidance they can apply directly to their work.
A genuinely multidisciplinary group
To carry out this project, the CAIP has brought together professionals from law firms, arbitral institutions, mining companies, private equity, governments, academia, legal tech and consultancy. Members include:
- Aïssatou Ndong (GENI & KEBE Lawyers)
- Alejandro Karacsonyi (AKT Advisory)
- Annie Lespérance (Jus Mundi)
- Arnaud de Nanteuil (Université Paris Est Créteil)
- Blanche Kouassi (SODEMI)
- Capucine Davy – du Pac de Marsoulies (De Gaulle Fleurance)
- Edouard Kolié (Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée)
- Florent Lager (Zanaga Iron Ore Company)
- Hamidou Dramé (Guilex Avocats)
- Ibrahima S. Camara (Rio Tinto Guinée)
- Iris Sauvagnac (Hogan Lovells Cadwalader International LLP)
- Juan Carlos Herrera (HvKN | Dispute Resolution)
- Julie Blot (Eramet)
- Laurie Achtouk-Spivak (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)
- Luke Tucker Harrison (Keidan Harrison LLP)
- Mamadou Ciré Diallo (Consultant, ALSF)
- Mamadou Coulibaly (Satis Partners)
- Matthew Fisher (La Mancha Resource Capital LLP)
- Nhu Hoang Tran Thang (Astute Dispute Resolution)
- Orphée Haddad (ADNA)
- Ousmane Cissé (Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum, Senegal)
- Sabrina Aïnouz (Squire Patton Boggs)
- Sandrine Christel Kouamé (Mining Services & Consulting)
- Tunde Oyewole (Asafo & Co)
- Zawadi Lemayian (Econic Partners)
This breadth of backgrounds is exactly what will make the group’s output useful. Mining disputes sit at the intersection of contract law, public international law and industrial reality, so the group needed voices from all three.
The whole team behind it
This appointment also involves the whole Lead up team. Baptiste will be able to draw on his fellow partners and the wider firm, bringing their day-to-day experience of mining, energy and infrastructure disputes across Africa, the Middle East and Latin America into the group’s work.
Lead up is a Paris-based boutique law firm specialising in international arbitration, commercial litigation and mediation. The firm advises on mining, energy, construction and infrastructure disputes, with particular expertise in francophone Africa, OHADA jurisdictions and Latin America.