Jean Kalicki is an independent arbitrator in New York and Washington, DC, specializing in investor-State, international and complex commercial disputes. She is a national of the United States.

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

Ms. Kalicki has served as tribunal chair, sole arbitrator or co-arbitrator in well over 100 cases involving six continents. She is particularly known for her work on investor-State and public international law disputes, having sat as arbitrator in roughly 50 cases involving sovereign States and international organizations. In recent years she has also served on two panels adjudicating inter-State disputes. She is 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 was a member of 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 many years as an adjunct professor at both 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 was its only “Star Arbitrator” (above Band 1) in the USA for 2019 and 2020. 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 2017l and Law360 named her one of the “Five Most Influential Female International Arbitrators” in 2016.

Additional information about her education and background, experience as arbitrator and counsel, rankings and recognition, professional activities, and publications and presentations is available through the links on the left and in the downloadable CV.