Biography: Arbitration

Kevin O'Gorman is a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski LLP and a member of the firm's international arbitration and litigation groups. He represents clients in international, energy, commercial, construction, and investor-state disputes. In addition to his work as counsel, he regularly serves as an arbitrator and is a member of the AAA, ICDR and Houston Maritime Arbitrators Association panels.

Kevin chairs the Disputes Division of the 23,000 member ABA Section of International Law, and is an elected member of its Council. He also serves as senior advisor and past chair of ABA International's arbitration committee. He has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center and is a Council member of the State Bar of Texas section of international law. He is a Life Fellow of the American, Texas and Houston Bar Foundations.

Kevin formerly served as senior legal secretary and team leader of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland (the Holocaust bank accounts tribunal) and was a member of its policy and choice of law committees.

His recent counsel work has included the representation of a multinational company in an offshore EPC construction dispute subject to Nigerian law; representation of a Russian oil company in an LCIA arbitration relating to a failed multibillion-dollar merger; and representation of an international electricity company against a Latin American state at ICSID regarding breaches of a legal stabilisation investment agreement.

In the international litigation context, Kevin successfully defended a West African national oil company accused in US District Court of bribing a panel of distinguished international arbitrators in an international arbitration in Geneva, and defended a party in novel proceedings under 28 USC 1782 for discovery in aid of arbitration in Delaware and Texas federal courts and on appeals before the US Courts of Appeal for the Third and Fifth Circuits.

Kevin frequently appears as an arbitrator in significant disputes. His recent appointments have included service as co-arbitrator in an ICDR case involving a dispute between equal partners in a refinery and trading entity in which the claims exceeded US$1.5 billion, work as co-arbitrator in a deepwater joint operating agreement dispute, and as sole arbitrator in an ICDR dispute relating to well services provided in Asia. In addition to these appointments, Kevin has been appointed to tribunals in commercial, banking, distributorship and employment-related disputes.

Kevin has received a number of professional honours, including recognition from the US Department of Commerce for teaching a delegation of Iraqi Judges and a Certificate of Appreciation from the US Department of State for his representation of a client under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. He also has been recognised by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, Chambers Latin America, the Legal 500, the International Who's Who of Commercial Arbitration, the Best of the Best USA Expert Guide, the Guide to the World's Leading Commercial Arbitration Experts, The Best Lawyers in America, PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook, Global Arbitration Review's 45 Leaders in International Arbitration under 45 (runner-up), Texas Super Lawyers (Top 100 in Houston), Texas Rising Stars and the Irish Legal 100.

After graduating from the University of Houston Honours College, Kevin studied at the University of Bonn and served as assistant to Herbert Helmrich, member of the Bundestag and chairman of the legal committee. In 1990, Kevin served as the assistant liaison to the Canadian Delegation of the G-7 Summit of Industrialized Nations.

Kevin received his JD with honours from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993 and clerked for US District Judge Howell Cobb of the Eastern District of Texas. He is a member of the Texas and New York bars and is admitted to the roll of solicitors in England and Wales.