Natalya Stepanova Sipper

Since 2001, Natalya Stepanova-Sipper has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Law. She created materials and taught these courses: "Introduction to the Legal Theory of the Commonwealth of Independent States," (major topics: civil, commercial, constitutional and human rights laws), "Introduction to Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbek Legal Systems" and "Introduction to Russian and Uzbek Legal Systems". She is an affiliated faculty member at the Center for Russian and East European Studies (REES) and the Central Eurasia Initiative at the University of Pittsburgh. She provided evaluation and review of papers for "The Carl Beck Papers" at REES. In 2001, she was appointed as a Center Associate in the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies.

Since 1999, she has owned the "Central Asian Consulting" company and had served as an independent legal consultant to companies such as: Westinghouse Electric Company LLC (Kazakh project) Coca-Cola Bottlers Uzbekistan; Reed Smith LLP; Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Jones Day; Herbert Smith Freehills LLP; AKINCI Law Office (Turkey); Nokia Corporation; Cooley LLP; Addleshaw Goddard LLP; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, and other businesses and private persons.

She has provided expert witness testimony before the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (Singapore), during ICSID proceedings (Paris, France), and for political asylum petitions for clients from Uzbekistan. Some of the cases she worked on include:

• United States of America v. All Assets Held in Account Numbers 102162418400, 102162418260 and 102162419780 at Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV, et al. (Case No. 1:15-cv-05063-ALC) – an action in rem to forfeit over U.S.D. 300 million in assets and property of Government Official A;
• The State Committee for Demonopolization and Development of Competition of Uzbekistan v. Ministry of Justice of Uzbekistan, the State Property Committee of Uzbekistan, JV “Coca-Cola Ichimligi Uzbekistan Ltd.” (Case No. 2494/01-t);
• Federal Elektrik Yatrim ve Ticaret A.S., Mustafa Nurdogan, Irfan Nurdogan and Asim Kayan v. Republic of Uzbekistan (ICSID Case No. ARB/13/9);
• Vladislav Kim and Others v. the Republic of Uzbekistan (ICSID case No. ARB/13/6) – consulting Vladislav Kim and other Kazakh citizens in this case;
• Güneş Tekstil Konfeksiyon Sanayive Ticaret Limited Şirketi and others v. The Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ICSID Case No. ARB 13/19);
• Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell Co., LLD v. Joint Stock Company Uztransgaz (ICC Case No. 21115/CYK);
• BURSEL TEKSTIL SANAYI VE DIŞ TICARET A.Ş. BURHAN ENUŞTEKIN SELIM KAPTANOĞLU v. REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN (ICSID Case No. ARB/17/24);
• Mehmet Zeki Obuz and others v. Republic of Uzbekistan (ICSID Case No. ARB/21/32).

She has been licensed by the Ministry of Justice of Uzbekistan to serve as a Leading Legal Advisor to state agencies and legal entities in Uzbekistan (1996). In 2012, the Fahamu Refugee Programme (FRP), which later became the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) at AMERA International, selected her to serve as a Country of Origin Expert on Uzbekistan. Since then, she has provided free legal aid to refugees from Uzbekistan.