Melissa Stear Gorsline has a wide variety of experience in international commercial litigation and arbitration, with a particular focus on public international law, treaty-based international investment arbitration, and quasi-criminal claims, such as RICO, ATA, TVPA, and ATS. She has experience arbitrating complex matters before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the AAA, and ad hoc tribunals constituted under the UNCITRAL arbitration rules. She has been involved in complex international and multijurisdictional matters before federal and state courts and has practiced before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Melissa also has significant experience in Section 1782 discovery and other litigation related to foreign or international proceedings. In connection with these matters, she has addressed issues unique to representing non-U.S. corporations in the courts of the United States and U.S. corporations with respect to legal matters abroad.

Melissa played an integral role in some of the earliest international investment arbitrations brought pursuant to Chapter Eleven of NAFTA. She has significant experience in claims for denial of justice, denial of fair and equitable treatment, nationalistic discrimination, and expropriation.

Likewise, Melissa has successfully represented clients in matters involving cutting-edge issues of the RICO, ATA, ATS, and TVPA statutes, particularly those involving questions of causation. She has significant experience representing clients as both plaintiffs and defendants in RICO matters.

Melissa is the Vice-Chair of the Virginia State Bar International Practice Section's Board of Governors and has been a featured presenter on matters of international dispute resolution.