Welcome to the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
North America Branch

Andrew Flake

Andrew Flake is an experienced international arbitrator and mediator in Atlanta, Georgia. He specializes in commercial and cross-border disputes, with particular expertise in IP and technology-related matters. A former partner at an AmLaw 200 firm, he founded The Flake Law Firm in 2021 to focus on dispute resolution. Today, he serves as a neutral on the AAA’s Commercial and Large Complex Case Panels, on the International Centre for Dispute resolution (ICDR), and on the WIPO List of Neutrals. He is a member of the Georgia chapter of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (NADN) and of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta International Arbitration Society (AtlAS). A German speaker in addition to his native English, Andrew earned his JD and LL.M (International and Comparative Law) from Duke University School of Law. He frequently writes and presents on ADR topics, most recently, concerning the role of GenAI in dispute resolution.

Michael Buxton Devine

Des Moines, Iowa

Michael Buxton Devine, BA, MPA, JD, LLM in International Business Legal Studies, Fellow in International Commercial Arbitration, Attorney admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, the States of Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, and Wisconsin, and to the US Supreme Court, and Barrister called to the bars of England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland, has practiced law in Des Moines, New York, and London, and has served as professor of international commercial law at The Robert Gordon University in Scotland, the University of Wisconsin—La Crosse, and Northumbria University in England. Since 2008, Mr. Devine has been an arbitrator at the Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna and the Skadden Arps Foreign Direct Investment International Arbitration Moot in the United States and Europe. Contact: mikedevinelawyer@aol.com in the US or clerks@magdalenchambers.co.uk in Europe.

Kenneth S. Korea

Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area, USA

Ken practiced as a patent litigator, a technology transactions attorney and inhouse counsel before becoming a full-time neutral. He served as Senior Vice President of IP at Samsung Electronics and oversaw hundreds of patent acquisition, licensing and litigation matters, including the Apple-Samsung patent war and some of the largest SEP/FRAND arbitration and litigation matters. Ken serves as an arbitrator on the ICDR, AAA, CPR, WIPO ADR Center, FINRA, KCAB Int’l and CAA Taipei panels. He received his BSEE from Cornell University and JD from Northwestern University. Ken served as a law clerk to a federal judge and as a federal prosecutor before entering private practice and tried more than 50 cases to a verdict.

Merril Hirsh

Washington, DC

Merril Hirsh of HirshADR PLLC and the Law Office of Merril Hirsh is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute and the Academy of Court-Appointed Neutrals (ACAN), where he also serves as Executive Director. He is an arbitrator, mediator, and a hearing examiner for the DC Board of Professional Responsibility and the Architect of the Capitol; and has litigated cases on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants as well as the United States government in federal or state courts for over 40 years and in over 40 states. Merril is a member of the Council of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution and Chair of the ABA Judicial Division Lawyers Conference Court-Appointed Neutrals Committee. He has received awards for his work from ACAN, the American Judges Association and the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution.

Ross Russell

Waco, Texas

Ross is a Fellow with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a Fellow with the Asian Institute for ADR, a Senior Fellow of the Bali International Arbitration and Mediation Centre, a Fellow of Prime Dispute and the owner of Russell ADR Group. He has many years of experience serving as counsel in addition to experience serving as Chair in over five hundred arbitrations both domestic and international. He has since transitioned his practice to full-time neutral serving as Arbitrator, Mediator, Early Neutral Evaluator and Tribunal Secretary. His experience covers a wide variety of sectors and topics, including securities, commodities, futures, energy, renewables, healthcare, construction, infrastructure, telecom, automobiles, shipping and taxation. Ross is admitted to practice law in Texas, Washington D.C., North Dakota, Minnesota.

Shelby Grubbs

Atlanta, Georgia

Shelby Grubbs is a JAMS panelist and has been engaged in well over 100 arbitrations. In addition to JAMS, he has served on arbitration panels for AAA, CPR Institute, ICDR, ICC and WIPO. He also works as a mediator and special master. In 2023, he was named Atlanta, Georgia’s Lawyer of the Year for International Commercial Arbitration by Best Lawyers in America, and he co-edits the AtlAS Desk Book, a guide for international dispute resolution lawyers, now in its fifth edition. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and of the Academy of Court Appointed Neutrals. He served on the ICC Arbitration Commission, and he taught international commercial arbitration as an adjunct professor at Georgia State University, Emory University and Vanderbilt University.

Steven G.M. Stein

Chicago, IL

Steven Stein is a leading authority in construction law and specializes in the trial and arbitration of complex design and construction matters. He is the founder and Managing Partner of Stein Ray LLP, a Chicago based firm that exclusively focuses on the litigation and arbitration of high-stakes design and construction disputes involving complex projects. Mr. Stein is the Editor-in-Chief of the nation’s leading treatise on construction law, Stein “Construction Law,” the American Institute of Architects’ Legal Citator, and Lexis Publishing’s monthly reporter Construction Law Digest. Mr. Stein has represented clients in high-stakes international arbitrations for projects in the U.S. and internationally. Representative cases include the representation of leading EPCM firms in a dispute involving a PPP contract to design, construct, operate, and maintain a $4.5 billion transnational bridge connecting the United States and Canada; the representation of two of the world’s largest EPCM contractors for disputes arising out the engineering and construction for a $45 billion oilfield expansion project in a country in Central Asia; and the representation of the EPC contractor in a series of disputes arising from the largest LNG facility project in Canada.