Jean Kalicki

Jean Kalicki is an independent arbitrator in New York, specializing in investor-State, international and complex commercial disputes.

Until 2016, she was a Partner at Arnold & Porter LLP, serving as counsel in high-stakes international disputes; she then transitioned exclusively to arbitrator work. In 2020, she joined Arbitration Chambers, an association of independent arbitrators with offices in Hong Kong, London, New York and Singapore.

Ms. Kalicki has served as arbitrator in more than 150 cases involving six continents. She is particularly known for investor-State and public international law disputes, having sat as arbitrator in more than 50 cases involving sovereign States or international organizations, including two inter-State treaty disputes. She was the chair of both the first all-female investor-State tribunal (at the Permanent Court of Arbitration) and the first all-female ICSID tribunal. She is listed on the roster of arbitrators of institutions around the world and on several rosters for State-to-State treaty arbitrations.

Ms. Kalicki has held numerous leadership positions in the arbitration field. She served on  the Governing Board of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) from 2016-2024; on the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) (2014-2021) and Vice President of the Court (2016-2021); a member of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) Board of Directors and Council (2010-2021); and a member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Arbitration and the Board of Directors of SICANA, Inc. (ICC North America). She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and of the College of Commercial Arbitrators (CCA) and taught arbitration and advocacy for a dozen years at Georgetown University Law Center and American University Washington College of Law. She is co-editor of two books, respectively on the future of international arbitration and reshaping the investor-State dispute settlement system.

Ms. Kalicki is regularly ranked in Chambers’ Band 1 (“Most In-Demand” Arbitrators) for both Global Arbitration and Public International Law, and for two years was its only “Star Arbitrator” (above Band 1) in the USA. Best Lawyers in America has named her “Lawyer of the Year” in her jurisdiction and practice six times; Who’s Who Legal annually lists her in their “Thought Leaders: Global Elite”; Global Arbitration Review named her the “Best Prepared/Most Responsive Arbitrator” in the world in 2017 and Law360named her one of the “Five Most Influential Female International Arbitrators” in 2016.

• JD, magna cum laude, Harvard Law School, 1989 - (Editor, Harvard Law Review)
• Harvard Law School, 1987-1989
• B.A., summa cum laude, Harvard College, 1986

Ms. Kalicki is a former member of the ICCA Governing Board and Chair of Its Initiatives Committee; she previously served on the LCIA Court (including as its Vice President), as a member of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) Board of Directors and Council, and as a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and of the Board of Directors of SICANA, Inc. (ICC North America).

Ms. Kalicki has also served on the Editorial Boards of Global Arbitration Review and the ICSID Review, as an Associate Editor of Transnational Dispute Management; and on the Board of Directors of the Cross-Examination Moot. She was co-chair of ICCA’s Programme Committee for its 2018 Sydney Congress and a Programme Committee member for the 2022 Edinburgh Congress.

For more than a decade, she served as Chair of the DC Bar’s International Dispute Resolution Committee. She also served as Chair of the CIArb’s Washington, D.C. Chapter and as Chair of the USCIB’s Arbitration Subcommittee for Washington, DC. For many years she was a member of the Executive Committee of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA).

From 2005-2017, Ms. Kalicki was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and from 2006-2017 she also taught as a Professorial Lecturer (Adjunct Faculty) at American University Washington College of Law’s Summer Program on International Arbitration.

She has served on numerous task forces, working groups and committees. This includes the ICCA-ASIL Joint Task Force on Issue Conflicts in Investor-State Arbitration, the IBA Subcommittee on Investment Arbitration, the ICC Task Force on Reducing Time and Costs in Complex Arbitration, and the ICC Task Force on National Rules of Procedure for Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, the ICC Task Force on Emergency Arbitrator Proceedings, and the Energy Charter Secretariat’s Legal Advisory Task Force.  She is a past member of the Steering Committee of the English-American Litigation Forum.

Ms. Kalicki is a member of the Global Advisory Board of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC) and a member of the International Arbitration Club of New York (IACNY) and the London International Arbitration Club . She was one of the Founding Members of the ArbitralWomen Association and Washington Women in International Arbitration.

$850/hour, including study, travel and award drafting time.