David W. Rivkin

David W. Rivkin
Born	October 17, 1955 (1955-10-17) (age 56)
Residence	New York
Citizenship	United States
Education	Yale Law School, 1980, J.D. Yale University, 1977, B.A.
Occupation	Lawyer
Political party	Democratic Party

David W. Rivkin (Born: October 17, 1955) is a litigation partner in the prominent international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, specializing in international litigation and arbitration,^[1] and Co-Chair of the firm’s International Dispute Resolution Group. Rivkin is Secretary-General of the International Bar Association,^[2] the world’s largest international association of lawyers, which comprises more than 40,000 individual lawyers and nearly 200 bar associations and law societies. He is the organization’s most senior American and the first American to hold one of the top three positions in more than 20 years.^[3]

Personal

David W. Rivkin graduated from Yale University in 1977 with a B.A. magna cum laude in history, and received a J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1980. From 1980 to 1981, he served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Luther Merritt Swygert, US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Rivkin joined Debevoise in 1981^[4] and has been a partner since 1988.

Career in Private Practice

Rivkin has represented both domestic and international corporations in addition to high-profile individuals, including: Occidental Petroleum Corporation, General Electric, ExxonMobil, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline, and the Virgin Group.^[5][6] Rivkin also represents European, Latin American and Asian companies in transnational litigation in the United States, including the enforcement of arbitral awards and arbitration agreements.

Among Rivkin’s note-worthy representations are advising Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in winning in 2009 one of the largest ICC arbitration awards ever, worth approximately $750 million in a dispute involving shareholders rights and governance decisions in a Korean oil refinery company jointly owned by HHI and a Middle East sovereign-owned company.^[7] Rivkin represented Occidental Petroleum Corporation in winning over $100 million in damages in a BIT arbitration resulting from Ecuador’s failure to refund VAT payments to Occidental through 2003 and in its subsequent ICSID arbitration against Ecuador, filed on May 17, 2006. The second filing was made two days after Ecuador terminated all of Occidental’s exploration and production rights and seized all of its assets in the country, worth more than $3 billion.

Rivkin also represented Kenneth Dart and EM Ltd. against the government of Argentina over defaulted bonds^[8] in litigation in federal court in New York, in which he successfully secured a judgment in excess of $700 million.^[9][10]

At Debevoise, Rivkin works out of the firm’s New York and London offices.

Rankings and Recognitions

Rivkin has been ranked as one of the top international dispute resolution practitioners in the world. He was ranked among the top seven international arbitration practitioners worldwide in Chambers Global (2010), which calls him “wonderful as counsel and wonderful as arbitrator” and notes he is well regarded for producing “high-quality work that is fair and balanced.” Rivkin ranked in the top tier of International Arbitration practitioners in Chambers USA (2010) where he is lauded as “a true giant in the field, whose depth of knowledge is incredible.” He is listed among the “Stars” of International Arbitration by IFLR Benchmark: Litigation (2010), which acknowledges him for his resourcefulness and ability to represent a diverse set of clients. He is listed as a “leading lawyer” for International Arbitration in The Legal 500 (2010) which describes him as “a brilliant lawyer and tactician” with an “analytical mind.”

Along with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP partner Donald Francis Donovan, Rivkin received the 2006 Chambers Award for Excellence as the top international arbitration lawyers in the United States.

Professional Activities

Rivkin holds leadership positions in many professional and internationally recognized organizations, including: International Bar Association, the American Law Institute, Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Arbitration Institute (SCC), London Court of International Arbitration, and the Commission on Settlement in International Arbitration of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution. Before becoming Secretary-General of the IBA, he served as Chair of its Legal Practice Division (which includes more than 50 substantive committees) and of its Committee on Arbitration and ADR. Rivkin led the Committee that drafted the widely used IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration. He has also headed the revision of arbitration rules of the SIAC, SCC and the American Arbitration Association.

Rivkin has been appointed to several government positions. He was appointed by the U.S. State and Commerce Departments to be a founding member of the NAFTA Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes, and he is also a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law^[11] and a member of the Sanctions Subcommittee of the Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP). Rivkin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

A prolific writer, Rivkin has published three books: Model Law Decisions: Cases Applying the UNCITRAL Model Law on Arbitration, 1985-2001 (Kluwers 2003), Litigation and Arbitration in Central and Eastern Europe (Kluwers 1998) and Stockbroker Supervision: Managing Stockbrokers and Surviving Sanctions (Butterworths 1990.^[12][13][14] He has also authored or co-authored over fifty articles on litigation- and arbitration-related topics.^[15]

Court of Arbitration for Sport Activities

Rivkin served as a member of the Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.^[16] He previously served on the panel for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.^[17]

In addition to cases heard at the Olympics, Rivkin has served on the panel of several high profile CAS arbitrations. In 2007, Rivkin heard the appeal of cyclist Floyd Landis,^[18] who was accused of doping with testosterone in the 2006 Tour de France that he had won. The panel found that Landis had been guilty of doping and upheld his penalties. As a result, Landis became the first rider in Tour de France history to lose a title for doping,^[19] and he was banned from cycling for two years. Previously, Rivkin had heard the appeal of Tyler Hamilton, another cyclist who was found guilty of blood doping, and of sprinter Michelle Collins, who was found to have used steroids produced by the BALCO lab in San Francisco.

In 2010, Rivkin was a member of the CAS panel that heard the appeal of Richard Gasquet, the French tennis player. The panel found that the cocaine found in Gasquet’s urine test was ingested inadvertently, from kissing a woman who had taken cocaine, so that he should not be sanctioned.

In 2008, again in his role as an arbitrator for the Court Arbitration for Sport, Rivkin was also on the panel that heard the Oscar Pistorius case.^[20] The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ruled in February 2008 that Pistorius, a double amputee runner known as “Blade Runner,” was ineligible for competition in races with able-bodied athletes, including the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The CAS panel overturned this ruling, as it held that the IAAF had not proven that Pistorius's prostheses gave him an advantage over able-bodied athletes.^[21]

Public Service Involvement

During the 2008 presidential election, Rivkin was active in the campaign for Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama^[22] and served as a member of his National Finance Committee. He remains a member of the Democratic National Committee National Advisory Board.

References

1. ^ http://www.debevoise.com/attorneys/detail.aspx?id=51f057f6-8110-4477-a41b-59e72f9138b5
2. ^ http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202474963478&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1
3. ^ http://www.ibanet.org/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleUid=8E926D93-3ED8-4475-B2E2-7A25A0741F51
4. ^ http://www.debevoise.com/attorneys/detail.aspx?id=51f057f6-8110-4477-a41b-59e72f9138b5
5. ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2621272620100826
6. ^ http://www.law360.com/articles/134840
7. ^ http://www.law360.com/print_article/134840?section=topnews
8. ^ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aPqiSY_aw10o&refer=latin_america
9. ^ http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN2621272620100826
10. ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0317119520100803
11. ^ http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/nafta-alena/report12.aspx?lang=en
12. ^ http://www.amazon.com/s?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=david+rivkin
13. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/9041105832
14. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0880632887
15. ^ http://www.debevoise.com/attorneys/additionalInfo.aspx?id=51f057f6-8110-4477-a41b-59e72f9138b5&type=Publications
16. ^ http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202423687702&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1
17. ^ http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article4465617.ece
18. ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/columns/story?id=3301330
19. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/7478019.stm
20. ^ http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202421455108
21. ^ http://jurisprudence.tas-cas.org/sites/CaseLaw/Shared%20Documents/1480.pdf
22. ^ http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2007/05/02/obama-fundraiser-cancelled/

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Name	Rivkin, David W.
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Date of birth	October 17, 1955
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