Ann Ryan Robertson, the 2021 global President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, is a highly regarded international and domestic arbitrator and practitioner.  She has acted as presiding arbitrator, sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator, and emergency arbitrator in a wide variety of disputes involving energy, manufacturing, construction, supply agreements, contract interpretation, right of first refusal, indemnity obligations, shareholder disputes, and the sale of goods under both the UCC and CISG.  She has served as arbitrator under the rules of the ICDR, the AAA, the ICC and the DIFC-LCIA, as well as ad hoc.  Ms. Robertson is on the panel of arbitrators of many of the world’s leading arbitral institutions, including the ICDR, AAA, SIAC, and HKIAC.  In addition, she is one of ten people appointed by the United States government to decide State-to-State disputes brought pursuant to Chapter 31 of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Ms. Robertson’s work as counsel is equally far-reaching.  She has represented clients from various industries and sectors including energy, manufacturing, franchise, warranty, and property before tribunals constituted under the rules of the ICC, ICDR and AAA.

Ms. Robertson is a Chartered Arbitrator, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators’ highest designation, a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, an Advisory Board Member of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, a Council Member of the AAA/ICDR, a member of the London Court of Arbitration, a member of the American Law Institute, a Founding Member of Arbitral Women and a former member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration.  In addition, she acted as Chair of the ICDR Task Force responsible for the 2021 revision of the ICDR International Arbitration and Mediation Rules.

Active in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Ms. Robertson served as a Trustee from 2013 to 2019, is a member of the faculty for the Institute’s International Diploma in International Arbitration Course taught at Oxford and a tutor for the Institute’s Member and Fellow courses.  She holds a J.D. and LLM in International Economic Law from the University of Houston Law Center and is an adjunct professor at the Law Center, teaching “Advocacy in International Arbitration” and coaching the Law Center’s advocacy teams, including eighteen years as the coach of the Law Center’s Willem C. Vis Moot team and most recently its Cross-Examination in International Arbitration Moot team.

Ms. Robertson has been named to Best Lawyers in America® since 2014 and is the recipient of numerous awards.  Those awards include the “Justice Ruby Kless Sondock Award,” presented by the Houston Bar Association to a woman lawyer for exceptional achievement and leadership in the law, the “Lifetime Achievement in Advocacy Award” awarded by the University of Houston Law Center Blakely Advocacy Institute, the “Sarah T. Hughes Women Lawyers of Achievement Award” awarded by the State Bar of Texas Women and the Law Section, the “Outstanding Business Leader in Law, Women Who Mean Business Award ” presented by the Houston Business Journal, the “Premier Woman in the Law Award” awarded by the Association of Women Attorneys Foundation, and the “Private Sector Achievement Sector Award” presented by the University of Houston Law Center.  Additionally, she was honored as one of “30 Extraordinary Women in Texas Law” by the Texas Lawyer.

Ms. Robertson is the author of numerous articles involving arbitration issues, including being the co-author of two chapters in The Leading Practitioner’s Guide to International Oil & Gas Arbitration and the author of chapters in two forthcoming publications.  In addition, she is frequently invited to speak at arbitration conferences across the globe.