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Bento, Lucas

Lucas Bento

Of Counsel

lucasbento@quinnemanuel.com
Direct Tel: +1 212-849-7552, Direct Fax: +1 212-849-7100
New York
Tel: +1 212 849 7000 Fax: +1 212 849 7100

Lucas Bento is Chair of the firm’s Section 1782 Practice and has been a member of that practice since its inception in 2015.  He is a dual-qualified lawyer in New York and England & Wales.  His practice focuses on cross-border disputes, including international litigation, international arbitration, and international investigations. His experience spans energy, finance, technology (including emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain), aerospace, biotechnology, insurance, construction, and healthcare. He also has significant experience representing and advising clients in Asian, European, and Latin American markets (particularly Brazil, of which Mr. Bento is a founding member of the firm’s Brazil Practice).

Mr. Bento is President of the Brazilian American Lawyers Association, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and was formerly a Visiting Scholar at Columbia Law School.  He is the author of the only book on Section 1782 discovery, which is a mechanism that allows a foreign litigant to obtain discovery in the United States for use in a foreign proceeding.  Mr. Bento’s book has been authoritatively cited by U.S. federal courts, including the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  His amicus brief on the statute, submitted with Professor George A. Bermann and other prominent legal scholars, was authoritatively cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark decision on the statute’s application to arbitration proceedings.  He’s the lead editor of the forthcoming International Evidence: The Law and Practice of Cross-Border Evidence Gathering, the world’s first book on global evidence gathering mechanisms (to be published by Kluwer in 2025).  As a result of his expertise, Mr. Bento has advised and successfully represented clients in multiple Section 1782 proceedings, ranging from cases related to multi-billion dollar corporate transactions to applications involving individuals. 

In 2018, Mr. Bento was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, in recognition of his contributions to the Legal Profession in both the UK and the U.S.  In 2024 the Royal Society of Arts selected Mr. Bento as a distinguished Fellow in its Spotlight Series.  He is a Barrister in England & Wales and a member of The Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn.  Mr. Bento has published in leading academic journals and newspapers, including the New York Times and Financial Times.  He has also taught courses on International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution at New York University and Transnational Dispute Resolution at INSPER in São Paulo, Brazil. Mr. Bento has also been an invited speaker on international legal issues at the United Nations in New York and Geneva (where he acted as an expert on artificial intelligence and regulation) and in conferences around the world.

  • Harvard University
    (Master of Liberal Arts, Government)
  • University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University (OXILP)
    (Postgrad. Dip. in Legal Practice, Distinction)
  • University of Bristol
    (L.L.M., Commercial Law)
  • University of Warwick
    (L.L.B., First Class, with Honors)
  • London School of Economics (University of London IP)
    (BSc Politics and International Relations)
  • The State Bar of New York
  • Solicitor of England and Wales
    • Higher Rights of Audience (Civil and Criminal), England & Wales
  • French
  • Portuguese
  • Bento, L., The Globalization of Discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782: Law & Practice (Kluwer Law International, 2019)
  • Firm memorandum: Victory Update: Foreign Parties Can Use U.S. Court To Obtain Documents Located Abroad
  • Interview, “Blockchain Training For Arbitrators Can't Come Fast Enough”, Law360, October 12, 2018

  • Panelist, “Artificial Intelligence in Arbitration”, Lisbon Commercial Arbitration Center Annual Conference, July 6, 2018.

  • Interview, “Who Is Responsible When AI Fails?”, Healthcare Analytics News, June 27, 2018.

  • Interview, “Smart Contracts May Yield Unique Solutions In Arbitration”, Law360, May 8, 2018.

  • Panelist, “The Dawn of the Digital Era of ADR: Artificial Intelligence in Arbitration”, May 6, 2018, Asian International Arbitration Centre (Malaysia).

  • Panelist, “Blockchain Arbitration: Will Enforcement be a Thing of the Past?”, Cornell University, April 13, 2018.

  • Interview, “Arbitration Uniquely Situated To Benefit From Blockchain”, Law360, March 29, 2018.

  • Bento, L., "It's stories that separate us from other primates", Financial Times, March 17, 2018. 
  • Bento, L., International Arbitration and Artificial Intelligence: Time to Tango?, Kluwer Arbitration Blog, Feb. 23, 2018.
  • Panelist, "Artificial Intelligence, Rational Choices, Irrational Behavior", IVR Annual Conference, November 21, 2017.
  • Panelist, "Regulation of Artificial Intelligent Systems in North America”, United Nations, Group of Government Experts, Geneva, November 13-14, 2017.
  • Panelist, “Violent Intelligent Systems and International Law”, University College London and EPLO, Athens, July 27, 2017.
  • Interim Measures: Arbitral Tribunals and Courts, in INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION IN THE UNITED STATES (Kluwer Law International, forthcoming, 2017) (with M. Peng).
  • Bento, L. and Sader, M., On Deference and Deflation: National Football League Management Council v. National Football League Players Association, Revista Brasileira de Arbitragem, Issue 50 (2016), pp. 197–222.
  • Bento, L., The “Piratisation” of Environmental Activism, Lloyd’s Maritime And Commercial Law Quarterly, 2014: 2, 152 (cited by counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court case Sea Shepherd Conservation Society v. The Institute of Cetacean Research,  135 S.Ct. 2816 (2015).
  • From Anarchy to Rational Design: Direction and Perception in International Investment Law, in YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAW & POLICY, Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • Cheng, T., and Bento, L., How the Downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 Could Play Out in Court, Huffington Post (World Post), July 22, 2014.
  • Bento, L., Distilling Principles of Law from ICSID Cases Against Ecuador, Journal of International Arbitration, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2014. (Translated into Spanish and republished by the Ecuadorian Arbitration Review (April 2015)).
  • Bento, L., The Case for Synopses in Arbitral Awards, Kluwer Arbitration Blog, Nov. 21, 2013.
  • Bento, L., Time to Join the "BIT Club"? Promoting and Protecting Brazilian Investments Abroad, American Review of International Arbitration, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2013.
  • Lee, M., and Bento, L., Class Arbitration In The United States Survives Another Battle, But Will It Survive The War?, Kluwer Arbitration Blog, Jun. 20, 2013.
  • Panelist, United Nations (UNITAR & OLA), Repression of Piracy on the Oceans and Seas: An International Legal Framework, Apr. 29, 2013.
  • Cheng, T., and Bento, L., Should Syria Honor Assad-Era Debts?, Yale Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 8, Issue 2, Summer 2013.
  • Bento, L., and Lee, M., Finality Confirmed, Constitutionality Upheld: Major Victory for International Arbitration Community in Australia, Kluwer Arbitration Blog, Mar. 19, 2013.
  • Cheng, T., and Bento, L., ICSID’s Largest Award in History: An Overview of Occidental Petroleum Corporation v the Republic of Ecuador, Kluwer Arbitration Blog, Dec. 19, 2012.
  • Cheng, T., and Bento, L., Practical Measures to Control Annulments in Investor-State Arbitration, New York Law Journal, Nov. 26, 2012.
  • Bento, L., Brazil’s Trial of the Century, Yale Journal of International Affairs, 9 October 2012.
  • Bento, L. and Yusuf, G., The Rohingya: Unwanted at Home, Unwelcome Abroad, The Diplomat, 9 October 2012.
  • Yusuf, G., and Bento, L., “The End Times for Timbuktu?”, New York Times and International Herald Tribune, 31 July 2012.
  • Bento, L., Toward an International Law of Piracy Sui Generis: How the Dual Nature of Maritime Piracy Law Enables Piracy to Flourish, 29 Berkeley J. Int'l Law. 399 (2011), authoritatively cited by the United States District Court, District of Columbia in United States v Ali, 885 F.Supp.2d 17 (D.D.C. 2012).