WilmerHale

International Arbitration; International Litigation; United Kingdom; Litigation; Trials; Latin America

Chair of WilmerHale's International Arbitration Practice Group

Gary Born is the chair of the International Arbitration Practice Group. Mr. Born is widely regarded as the world's preeminent authority on international commercial arbitration and international litigation. He has been ranked for more than 20 years as one of the world's leading international arbitration advocates and the leading arbitration practitioner in London.

Practice

Mr. Born has participated as counsel in more than 675 international arbitrations, including four of the largest ICC arbitrations and several of the most significant ad hoc arbitrations in recent history.

Among many accolades for his work as counsel, Mr. Born received the Global Arbitration Review inaugural “Advocate of the Year” award, the Client Choice award for “Best International Arbitration Practitioner” and the Best Lawyers “London Arbitration Lawyer of the Year” award. He is one of only two practitioners to achieve “starred” status for international arbitration in the Chambers Global and Chambers UK guides. Chambers recognized him for his “Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession,” describing him as the world's foremost authority on international arbitration and litigation. Clients and competitors have also described Mr. Born as “awesome,” “inimitable,” and “in a league of his own,” praising him as “a phenomenal mind and a brilliant lawyer,” “easily the most capable disputes lawyer alive today,” and “at the absolute top of the international arbitration universe.”

Mr. Born has represented European, US, Asian and other companies in arbitrations under all leading institutional rules (ICC, LCIA, AAA, Vienna, Stockholm, ICSID) and in ad hoc arbitrations in all leading international seats (London, Paris, Geneva/Zurich, Vienna, Stockholm, New York, Washington, Singapore). He has particular experience in joint venture, investor-state, M&A, investment banking and other financial services, project finance, energy, oil and gas, intellectual property and insurance disputes.

Mr. Born heads the firm's international arbitration group, which is based in London with lawyers in in our New York, Washington, Boston, Silicon Valley, Beijing and Berlin offices. Mr. Born also advises on the litigation of international disputes in US courts. He has particular experience in the fields of jurisdiction, enforcement of judgments, conflict of laws and international judicial cooperation, and also serves as an expert witness on aspects of US private international law in foreign proceedings.

Mr. Born also sits as arbitrator (presiding arbitrator, sole arbitrator and co-arbitrator) and serves as expert witness. He has served as arbitrator in more than 250 institutional and ad hoc arbitrations.

Publications

Mr. Born has published a number of leading works on international arbitration, international litigation and other forms of dispute resolution, including International Commercial Arbitration (Kluwer 3d ed. 2021), the leading treatise in the field. This authoritative 5,000-page work, in three volumes, provides the most comprehensive available commentary on all aspects of the international commercial arbitration process. The First and Second Editions of International Commercial Arbitration have been widely cited by national courts and arbitral tribunals, including by Supreme Courts in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Netherlands and elsewhere.

He has also authored International Arbitration: Law and Practice (Kluwer 3d ed. 2021), International Arbitration and Forum Selection Agreements: Drafting and Enforcing (Kluwer 6th ed. 2021), International Arbitration: Cases and Materials (Aspen 3d ed. 2021) and International Commercial Arbitration: Commentary and Materials (Kluwer 2d ed. 2001). Mr. Born is also the author (together with Peter Rutledge) of International Civil Litigation in United States Courts (Aspen 7th ed. 2022), the leading commentary on the subject.

Professional Activities

Mr. Born is an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and Tsinghua University, Beijing. He has also taught at Harvard Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Stanford Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, National University of Singapore, Peking University School of Transnational Law, University of Virginia School of Law, University College London and the University of Arizona College of Law.

Mr. Born is a member of the American Law Institute and of the Board of Trustees of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law. He has served on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, the Advisory Committee of the ALI's Restatement of US International Arbitration Law, the Advisory Committee of the ALI Restatement of US Foreign Relation Law (Fourth) and as co-chair of the ABA International Section, Committee on International Aspects of Litigation. He is also a Vice President of the American Society of International Law.

Mr. Born recently served as President of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Court of Arbitration for six years. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), a member of the Global Advisory Board of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC), a member of the International Arbitration Committee of the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB) and a member of the Jerusalem Arbitration Center's Court of Arbitration.

He is a member of the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, the Advisory Board of African International Legal Awareness, the Advisory Board of the Indian Journal of Arbitration Law and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of World Investment and Trade.

English, German

District of Columbia

England and Wales, Registered Foreign Lawyer

JD, University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1981

BA, Haverford College, 1978