Karima Sauma

Karima Sauma is a Costa Rican lawyer who specializes in dispute resolution. She has acted as counsel, advisor, legal expert, arbitrator and tribunal secretary in a variety of arbitration proceedings. She currently teaches courses on arbitration and dispute resolution at LEAD and ULACIT universities, and is the academic director of the CICA-ULACIT Arbitration post-graduate degree.

Karima was the Executive Director of the International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration of the Costa Rican-American Chamber of Commerce (CICA-AmCham Costa Rica) between 2016 and 2022. Prior to this role, she was an advisor at the Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Trade, where she was part of Costa Rica's defense team in international arbitration cases filed under international investment agreements and free trade agreements. Prior to joining the Ministry's team, she worked as part of the International Arbitration Group of a global firm at their offices in Washington, DC.

Karima obtained her law degree with honors from the University of Costa Rica and an LLM from Columbia University in New York, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She is currently admitted to practice law in Costa Rica and in the State of New York.

Accreditations & Membership

• Costa Rican Bar Association
• New York State Bar
• Treasurer, ICC Costa Rica Chapter (2024-present)
• Delegate for Costa Rica, CIAC jóvenes (2024-present)
• Member of the Executive Committee, Rising Arbitrators Initiative (2024-present)
• Delegate for Costa Rica, ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR (2022-2024).
• Chair, Young ITA (2023-to date)
• Representantive for Costa Rica: ALARB – Siguiente Generación (2021-to date)
• Co-representative for Costa Rica, Equal Representation in Arbitration (ERA) Pledge (2018-to date)
• Ambassador - Racial Equality for Arbitration Lawyers (REAL) (2021-to date)
• Director at PRIDAT (Foundation for Data Privacy) (2021-to date)
• Young ITA Mentorship Program Chair, Institute for Transnational Arbitration (2019-2021)
• Regional Chair for Mexico and Central America, Institute for Transnational Arbitration (2017-2019)
• Contributing Member, Fundación Paniamor (2018-to date)
• Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA) Advisory Board
• Costa Rican International Law Association

Academia

2020 – to date

LEAD University
Professor of the “Arbitration” course of the Corporate Law Master’s Degree.

2017 – to date

ULACIT University
Academic Director of the “Especialización en Arbitraje CICA-ULACIT” and professor of two courses: “International Investment Arbitration” and “Arbitration”.