David Huebner

Ambassador (r.) David Huebner has more than 25 years’ full-time experience in international, investment, and complex commercial arbitration. He has particular expertise in technology, telecom, life sciences, media/communication, investment, and energy/infrastructure disputes but has handled matters across a wide range of industry sectors, legal issues, and geographic regions. Currently resident in California, he hears cases throughout the U.S. and internationally and has in the past been based for extended periods of his career in Tokyo, Shanghai, London, and New York.

Experience

Ambassador (r.) David Huebner has handled more than 200 arbitrations in three dozen jurisdictions around the world, under the rules of more than a dozen arbitral institutions.

Although his matters have involved a wide range of industry sectors and legal issues, he has particular expertise in technology (including semiconductor, hardware, software, materials, AI, haptics, telecom, and gaming), life sciences (including pharma, biotech, clinical trials, health tech, medical devices, healthcare), entertainment/media, investment (including investor-state under ICSID, UNCITRAL, and ICC rules), energy, and infrastructure disputes.

His diverse professional background informs his approach to decision-making, process, and efficiency. In addition to practicing law at large firms, he has served as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, founding managing partner of law offices in China, chairman of an international law firm, chairman of the California Law Revision Commission, and IP adviser to a member of Japan’s National Diet.

Work History

Amb. Huebner established his independent arbitrator practice in December 2016 and affiliated with JAMS in April 2017.

He previously worked at Arnold & Porter LLP in Los Angeles (2014-2016), Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP in Shanghai (2006-2009), and Coudert Brothers LLP in various offices (1992-2005). He was a partner in the arbitration, intellectual property, and public international law practices of those firms. He began his career as an associate at Irell & Manella LLP (1987-1992) handling patent and other intellectual property arbitration and litigation matters in the technology and life sciences sectors.

On hiatus from legal practice, he served as American Ambassador to New Zealand and the Independent State of Samoa from 2009 to 2014 in the Obama Administration.

Training

Amb. Huebner taught full-semester courses in international arbitration, international intellectual property law & policy, and international business transactions at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law for nine years, as well as a full-semester intellectual property course at UCLA Law School. He has guest-lectured on dispute resolution and intellectual property topics at numerous other universities in the United States, China, Germany, New Zealand, and elsewhere.

He teaches advanced international arbitration courses for the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, most recently in Miami, Detroit, Houston, and Singapore.

Over the course of his career he has taken numerous training and refresher courses in arbitration, international arbitration, and mediation in the United States, London, Hong Kong, and elsewhere.

License(s)

He is licensed as a solicitor in England & Wales and is a member of the Bars of California, New York, and the District of Columbia. The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators has designated him a Chartered Arbitrator (C.Arb), its highest professional qualification.

Education

Amb. Huebner is a 1982 graduate of Princeton University (summa cum laude), where he majored at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and a 1986 graduate of Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation.

Awards

Over the course of his career he has been regularly listed on a variety of “best” practitioners lists in his fields of practice. Most recently he was named to the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center’s ’Tech List’ of the “World’s Leading Technology Neutrals.” He received numerous awards for his diplomatic service including the U.S. Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Medal, and the Smithsonian Institution took certain of his papers and artifacts into its permanent collection of American history.

Panels

He has been named to the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center’s ’Tech List’ of the ’World’s Leading Technology Neutrals” and to the inaugural Sino-US Joint Panel of Arbitrators established by Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration and JAMS to resolve cross-border technology and other IP disputes.

He has been included on the panels or lists of arbitrators of the major international and regional arbitration institutions, including the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), JAMS, International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), Shanghai International Arbitration Centre (SHIAC), Beijing International Arbitration Centre (BIAC), Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC, formerly KLRCA), Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center (SVAMC), American Arbitration Association (AAA), and New Zealand International Arbitration Centre (NZIAC).

Associations

Amb. Huebner is the chair of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators’ North America Branch. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the boards of directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the education ngo Street Law, Inc. He has a long history of involvement in professional, civic, and charitable activities and in 1991 was one of the founding board members of national GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation).

Miscellaneous

For more information, including lists of lectures and publications, please see www.HuebnerArbitration.com