George A. Davidson serves as an arbitrator in international and domestic disputes. He has arbitrated disputes under ICDR, AAA and CPR rules and has been counsel in arbitrations under ICC and UNCITRAL rules. Many of his appointments have been in disputes involving allegations of financial fraud and several have involved hedge funds. He also serves as a judge in moot court arguments and an arbitrator in moot arbitrations.
Prior to becoming senior counsel on January 1, 2013 he had been engaged in litigation and arbitration of complex international and domestic disputes for more than 40 years, chairing the firm’s dispute resolution practice from 1994 to 2007. He has considerable experience in cross-border disputes, accounting and securities fraud claims, banking and financial services industry disputes, corporate governance disputes, and litigation involving colleges and universities and other non-profits.
Professional Activities
Fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
Life member, American Law Institute (consultative member, Restatements of the Law of U.S. International Arbitration, the Law Governing Lawyers, and the Law of Charitable Non-Profit Organizations)
Member, London Court of International Arbitration
Member, International Arbitration Club of New York
Member, Arbitration Committee, New York State Bar Association
Member (1976 – present); Arbitration Committee (2018 – present); Executive Committee (1990 – 1994), Association of the Bar of the City of New York
Chair (2014 – present), trustee (2008 – present), William Nelson Cromwell Foundation
Past Board Member: Federal Defenders of New York (Chair) (2015-13), The Legal Aid Society (President 1987-89), Greenwich House, Inc. (Chair 2004-10), New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Inc., Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., Practicing Attorneys for Law Students, Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund, Inc., VIP Community Services, Inc.
Law clerk, the Honorable Paul R. Hays, United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit (1967 – 1968)
Recognition
Whitney North Seymour Award, Federal Bar Council 2016
Recognized in numerous editions of New York Area Best Lawyers (Alternative Dispute Resolution), New York Super Lawyers (Alternative Dispute Resolution), Who’s Who of American Lawyers, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World
Highlighted Publications
“Subject Matter Jurisdiction under Federal Arbitration Act: The Mysteries Solved”, 72 Dispute Resolution Journal no. 2 at pp. 1-18 (AAA 2017)
“Top Ten Mistakes Litigators Make in Commercial Arbitration” (Practical Law The Journal, December 2018/January 2019)
“Why Projected Awards Could Make for Better Justice”, Global Arbitration Review (January 27, 2017)
“Rethinking Depositions in Commercial Arbitration,” New York Law Journal (Sept. 27, 2010)
“Who Killed the Civil Trial,” New York Law Journal Magazine 6, no. 4 (September 2007)
“The Lawyer's Perspective,” in Celebrating the Courthouse: A Guide for Architects, Their Clients and the Public, edited by Steven Flanders ,W.W. Norton, 2006
“Are You Vulnerable to US Jurisdiction?,” International Commercial Litigation (December 1998/January 1999): 36-42 (February 1999): 32-40
Co-author, with William R. Maguire, “Evidence,” in Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, 3rd ed., edited by Robert L. Haig, West Group and American Bar Association (ABA) 2012 (and prior editions)
Co-author, with William H. Voth, “Waiver of the Attorney-Client Privilege,” Oregon Law Review 64 (1986): 637
“Squeezes and Corners: A Structural Approach,” The Business Lawyer, 40 (1985): 1283
