Louis Epstein is Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Trammo, Inc. (formerly Transammonia) and a member of Trammo’s Board of Directors. Trammo is an international commodity trading company which, over the years, has engaged in the purchase, transportation and sale of various commodities, including ammonia, fertilizer, sulfur, sulfuric acid, petroleum coke, LPG and chemicals.
Prior to joining Trammo in 1992, Mr. Epstein worked at the law firm Reid & Priest, where he specialized in international commercial litigation and arbitration. In private practice and as an in-house lawyer for Trammo and more recently as an arbitrator, Mr. Epstein has been involved in and taken an active role in litigation and arbitration around the world. He is a graduate of Columbia University (B.A. 1977, M.A. 1978) and of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D. 1982). From September 2012 to September 2015, Mr. Epstein was Chair of the Arbitration Committee of the New York City Bar Association. He has served multiple terms as a member of the City Bar’s International Commercial Disputes Committee (“ICDC”) and is a founding member of the International Arbitration Club of New York. In 2018, Mr. Epstein became a member of the Society of Maritime Arbitrators (“SMA”) and in 2023 became a member of its Board of Governors. He is Chair of the SMA’s Bylaws and Rules Committee. He is also a co-editor of the SMA publication The Arbitrator.
Since 2018, Mr. Epstein has served both as party-appointed arbitrator and as Chair in a number of international commercial and maritime cases.
Mr. Epstein has been the author of various articles and reports on arbitration and litigation. Among other things, he was the principal author of a July 2010 ICDC report entitled “Obtaining Evidence from Non-Parties in International Arbitration in the United States,” that appeared in Volume 20 of the American Review of International Arbitration; the author of “Arbitrator Independence and Bias: The View of a Corporate In-House Counsel,” ICC International Court of Arbitration Bulletin, 2007 Special Supplement; and a principal author (with Robert H. Smit) of an April 2005 ICDC report entitled “Lack of Jurisdiction and Forum Non Conveniens as Defenses to the Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards” that appeared in Volume 15 of The American Review of International Arbitration. Recent publications include “Force Majeure Clauses in International Commodity Sale Contracts: The Need for Detail,” The MLA Report (November 2020) and “Commodities Arbitration Under SMA Rules,” Chapter 16 of Navigating Maritime Arbitration: The Experts Speak – Second Edition (Juris 2024).
Mailing address: Trammo, Inc., 8 West 40th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10018-2307
Telephone: 917-650-2998 (mobile)
Email: louis.epstein@trammo.com