Bio
Cherise Valles is deputy director at the Advisory Centre on World Trade Organization Law (ACWL). The ACWL is an international organization, independent from the World Trade Organization (WTO), with a mandate to ensure that developing and least-developed countries are able to protect their interests in the WTO legal system. Valles has assisted the ACWL's developing country members at all stages of the dispute-settlement proceedings, before the WTO Appellate Body, panels and arbitrators.
Before joining the ACWL, Valles was at the US law firm of Sonnenschein (now Dentons), where she provided advice to corporate clients on trade law issues, including on the WTO agreements and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Previously, she was a member of the Canadian Foreign Service. As a lawyer in the Trade Law Bureau, she provided legal advice and advocacy services to the Canadian government on a wide range of trade law issues, including services, investment and the Canada-US softwood lumber dispute. She has been appointed as an arbitrator for domain-name disputes more than 50 times by the World Intellectual Property Organization.