Cedric Chao

Experience

After leading BigLaw teams for years in high stakes and precedent setting cases in U.S. courts and international arbitration tribunals, Cedric in 2019 launched Chao ADR, PC, now sitting as an arbitrator and mediator in international and domestic commercial disputes and advising clients on cross-border matters. Cedric was a partner for 29 years at the 1,000-lawyer firm Morrison & Foerster where in addition to his U.S. courtroom practice, he founded in 1996 and for 17 years thereafter led the international litigation and arbitration practice. In 2013, Cedric moved to the 4,500-lawyer firm DLA Piper, serving for six years as its U.S. head of the global international arbitration practice. Cedric has advocated all over the world, including five cases where the disputed amount exceeded $1 billion and multiple others in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition to his trial advocacy, Cedric has argued 20 appellate cases in the U.S. courts including once to the U.S. Supreme Court and once to an 11-member en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He sat as second chair in five additional U.S. Court of Appeals matters and in a second U.S. Supreme Court case. Cedric combines practical commercial experience with legal acumen, is familiar with many industries and fields of practice, and is comfortable with complex commercial and technology disputes.

Work History

Principal, Chao ADR, PC (2019-present). Partner and U.S. Head of Global International Arbitration Practice, DLA Piper LLP (2013-2019). Partner (1983-2013) and Head of International Litigation and Arbitration Practice (1996-2013), Morrison & Foerster LLP. Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice (1978-1981). Law Clerk, Honorable William H. Orrick (1977-1978).

Cases

Cedric has handled, as arbitrator or advocate, arbitrations involving companies in many industries: biosciences and pharmaceuticals, fossil fuel and renewable energy, power plant (construction, finance and operations), computers, semiconductors, telecom, private equity, venture capital, risk insurance, apparel, sporting goods, beauty products, agriculture and food, health and nutrition, automobile replacement parts, digital advertising, and shipping. The disputes have arisen from commercial sales contracts, joint ventures, investment contracts, distribution and franchise agreements, commercial development, and patent and licensing agreements. Cedric also has been an advocate in the U.S. courts (as first chair) on a great number of matters covering a range of commercial and constitutional issues.

License(s)

State Bar of California (1977); Supreme Court of the United States; U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Ninth, Fifth, and Tenth Circuits; all U.S. District Courts in California.

Awards

In 2018, the California legal publication, The Daily Journal, named Cedric to its Top 100 California Lawyers list. In 2019, he received the prestigious California Lawyer of the Year award for international arbitration from The Daily Journal. The publication Best Lawyers in America named Cedric the 2018 San Francisco Arbitration Lawyer of the Year, and two years later the 2020 San Francisco Mediation Lawyer of the Year. Best Lawyers gives this award to a single lawyer in a practice area and geographic region based on peer review. Global Arbitration Review and Whos Who Legal (WWL): Arbitration rank Cedric as a U.S. Thought Leader in arbitration.

Panels

American Arbitration Association (AAA); International Center for Dispute Resolution (ICDR); International Chamber of Commerce (ICC); Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC); Korea Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB ); China International Economic and Trade and Arbitration Commission (CIETAC); Fed Arb.

Associations

Cedric is a Fellow of the invitation-only organizations Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (London), College of Commercial Arbitrators, Litigation Counsel of America, and American Law Institute. He is the former Chair of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California, and a former Co-Chair of the International Litigation Committee of the ABA Litigation Section. He served as a U.S. member of the ICC Arbitration Commission, and as a member of the AAA/ICDR Council where he co-headed the ICDR International Advisory Committee. Cedric was one of 31 Advisors to the American Law Institute project to draft the Restatement of the U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration. He is a former Chair of the U.S. Magistrate Judge Screening Committee of the Northern District of California and is the former Ninth Circuit member on the ABA Standing Commitee on the Federal Judiciary.

Miscellaneous

Cedric co-authored with Judge Daniel Weinstein (JAMS) the Mediation Chapter in Thomson Reuters treatise Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts (5th ed. 2021). Cedric has spoken many times over the years on a range of topics related to arbitration, cross-border disputes, and mediation. He graduated from Stanford University (with Distinction and Departmental Honors) and Harvard Law School.