AiA Workgroup Art & Law

Dr Friederike Gräfin von Brühl – is practicing as a lawyer at K&L Gates LLP, Berlin, with a special focus on IP/IT law and art law. She regularly advises international collectors, art dealers, museums and foundations in all legal aspects concerning the art market. Her recent experience includes the successful representation of several buyers in the Beltracchi scandal, the major German art forgery scandals since the 1940s. She was admitted to the bar in 2006 and is an accredited “Specialist Lawyer for Copyright and Media Law” (Fachanwältin für Urheber- und Medienrecht). Based on her academic background as lawyer and art historian, she published her doctoral thesis on the “Market Power of Art Experts from the Legal Perspective” in 2008. She regularly publishes in professional journals and is lecturer for art law and copyright law at Freie Universität Berlin

William Charron – formed and chairs the AiA working group responsible for developing the ADR program in conjunction with the Netherlands Arbitration Institute.

Bill is a litigator at Pryor Cashman in New York City, where he has practiced for over 17 years. He started and co-chairs the firm’s Art Law practice, where he primarily handles cases involving authenticity and chain of title disputes. Bill has litigated some of the most high-profile recent art law cases in New York, including representing a victim of the Knoedler Gallery scandal. In another well-known case involving claims of World War II era stolen art, Bill helped to establish New York law governing the “laches” defense for good faith current owners of allegedly stolen works.

Bill is a frequent writer and lecturer on art law matters, and appears in the documentary film, Real Fake: The Art, Life and Crimes of Elmyr de Hory. He has been a regular participant and presenter at AiA congresses since 2014, and is now an Advisory Board member of AiA. Bill is also a founding board member and officer of the Professional Advisors to the International Art Market-New York (PAIAM), as well as a member of the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association.

Bill has been recognized as a New York “Super Lawyer” every year since 2013 for his work in intellectual property law. He was also an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School between 2009-2014, where he taught appellate advocacy and legal writing. Bill is a 1998 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a Dillard Fellow (recognized for exceptional legal writing) and a William Minor Lile moot court semi-finalist (recognized for exceptional appellate advocacy skills). He received his undergraduate degree from Colby College in 1993, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa

Shawn Conway – is managing partner of the international arbitration boutique law firm Conway & Partners. In addition to acting as an arbitrator and mediator he represents and advises multinational and other internationally operating companies on (international) business transactions as well as resolution of disputes. Shawn is admitted to the bar in the United States (District of Columbia and Illinois) as well as The Netherlands.

He is a founder of the International Mediation Institute (IMI) and the Netherlands Mediation Institute (NMI) and board memberof the IMI and former board member (1995-2009) of the NMI. He has also served as a Board Member and Honorary Secretary of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands (1999 – 2009) and on the AmCham Legal Committee since 1989. He is a member of the Board of Management of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (London).

In addition to being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, he is a listed Arbitrator at the International Center for Dispute Resolution / American Arbitration Association, the Netherlands Arbitration Institute, and US Council for International Business (ICC). He is certified as a Mediator with the International Mediation Institute, having previously qualified as Mediator for the Netherlands Mediation Institute, the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), the ADR Centre for Commerce and Industry (Netherlands), and the Rotterdam District Court

Luke Nikas –  is a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, in the firm’s New York City office.  Luke is a leading commercial litigator with extensive experience representing clients in complex disputes, from trial through appeal.  Recently, he was named to Lawdragon’s 2017 list of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America, Benchmark Litigation’s “Under 40 Hot List,” and the Rising Stars list by New York Super Lawyers.  A prominent art publication called him one of the most “highly influential” art lawyers in the world after he led the defense in a forgery case dubbed by ArtNews as “The Art Trial of the Century.”

Luke’s clients include Fortune 100 companies; large private companies and their executives; prominent art galleries, foundations, and collectors; and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists.  His broad practice includes complex litigation in several industries, including art, banking, insurance, pharmaceutical, health care, and real estate.  He has achieved exceptional results for his clients in high-profile matters.  Among other recent victories, he prevailed at trial in a multi-million dollar dispute between two managing partners of a significant New York City law firm, recovered priceless works of art by Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, obtained the dismissal of a $400 million class action against a New York City real estate firm, and won an appeal in the New York State Court of Appeals on behalf of workers who cleaned up downtown Manhattan after 9-11

Megan Noh – joined the boutique law firm Cahill Cossu Noh & Robinson in March 2017. CCNR is widely known for its work in the art world, including on purchase and sale transactions, loans involving art collateral, insurance and risk management, litigation on title and authenticity matters, and advisory services in relation to regulatory and other matters.

Prior to joining CCNR, Megan developed a broad range of expertise over the course of more than a decade’s combined experience in both the legal and auction industries. Most recently, she served as Vice President and Senior Counsel for Bonhams; as the sole in-house legal officer for an international auction house, she handled all day-to-day U.S. legal affairs, including contractual negotiations and modifications, insurance inquiries and claims resolution, and questions of cultural property and provenance, regulatory and materials compliance, and intellectual property. She started her tenure with Bonhams as Director of the company’s Trusts & Estates department, which such role she assumed after several years in Christie’s Estates, Appraisals and Valuations department. Before moving into the auction sector, she was an Associate at the law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, where her practice focused primarily on arts-industry clients.

Megan’s education includes dual degrees in Studio Art and Government & Politics from the University of Maryland and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently Co-Chair of the New York County Lawyers’ Association’s Art Law Committee, an active member of the New York City Bar Association’s Art Law Committee (as well as its “Authenticity, Forgery and Fraud” and “Cultural Property” sub-committees, both tasked with covering topics on which she has previously spoken to various professional and academic audiences), an Advisory Committee member for the New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics, and a member of ArtTable. She has published on the topic of authenticity in the ArtWatch UK Journal and the Institute of Art & Law’s journal, Art Antiquity and Law

Judith Prowda – is an attorney, mediator and arbitrator focused on art law, copyright, entertainment and commercial law.  She is Senior Faculty member of the Masters of Art Business Program at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and author of Visual Arts and the Law: A Handbook for Professionals (Lund Humphries 2013). She is a founding member of Stropheus Art Law, a collective of art law and business specialists who offer unbundled services to the art community.

She serves on the Mediation Panels of the New York County Supreme Court Commercial Division and the United States District Court (S.D.N.Y.).  She is also a member of the Mediation and Commercial Arbitration Panels of the American Arbitration Association and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution.

She is Co-Chair of the Fine Arts Committee of the New York State Bar Association’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the ADR Committee and Past Chair of the Section. In 2006, she was honored by the New York State Bar Association for furthering the advancement of ADR. She is a member of the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and has served on the Copyright and Literary Property, Entertainment Law and ADR Committees.

She has consulted at Sokolow, Dunaud, Mercadier & Carreras in Paris and at World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva.

Judith received her J.D. from Fordham Law School and her LL.M. from New York University School of Law. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she also earned her M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and her M.A. in French Language and Literature from Middlebury College, as well as a Certificat from Sciences Po in Paris.

Judith is a frequent speaker and has published extensively on issues related to art law and the market and mediation in the arts

Nicola Wallace – is a barrister and mediator, based in London. She is a WIPO neutral for mediation for Art and Cultural Heritage disputes. She is founder of Art ADR Global (www.areadrglobal.com) and is a member of Art Resolve (www.artresolve.org). Nicola is an accredited mediator ADRg (civil and commercial), an accredited trainer for ADRg (civil and commercial mediation), an accredited mediator Royal Institute Chartered Surveyors (civil and commercial), has a certificate of Advanced mediation from Harvard university, is a Faith Dispute Mediator (BIMA) and is a panel member for ADR-ODR International. Nicola is a member of PAIAM and contributor to Christie’s Bulletin for Professional Advisers.

In 2015 she was awarded distinction in her MSc in art Law & Business with Christie’s/University of Glasgow. Nicola is a frequent speaker on the subject of art and cultural heritage mediation