Nestor Gounaris is founding partner of China Solutions and has 20 years in-country experience in China, spanning from 1989. During this time, he has advised over 600 clients on matters spanning from large scale construction projects to multimillion dollar cross-border trade disputes.
He started his legal career at the U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C., and then was an associate with O’Melveny & Myers and with Simmons & Simmons in their respective Shanghai offices before establishing China Solution. Gounaris also worked for several years throughout Asia-Pacific as Regional Counsel for a NYSEX-listed chemical company with annual revenue nearing $2 billion.
Gounaris also teaches Chinese business law at Georgetown University Law Center, and has taught at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law, in addition to speaking at Harvard, University of Washington, Columbia and Thunderbird. Additionally, he serves on the board of the Long Island environmental nonprofit, Group for the East End.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Gounaris worked on Sino-focused projects at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Henry Luce Foundation and the Academy for Educational Development. He attended the University of Virginia School of Law and Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, and now serves on Georgetown University Law Center's Asian Advisory Board. He is a member of the New York Bar and speaks Mandarin and modern Greek.
Gounaris will be in office during the Spring 2019 semester from Feb. 25 to March 4.