Michael Mcilwrath has conducted mediations and arbitrations around the world under the rules of the leading international and regional institutions as well as domestic and international ad hoc procedures.
Michael spent 22 years as in-house counsel leading dispute resolution teams, most recently as Vice-President of Litigation for Baker Hughes, an energy technology company. Prior to that he was Global Chief Litigation Counsel for GE Oil & Gas, and General Electric’s lead litigation lawyer for Europe. His experience spans the range of disputes arising in technology and services industries, including oil & gas, renewable energy, transportation infrastructure, environmental, healthcare, M&A, and intellectual property.
Practice
2021
Founder
2017-2021
Vice President & Global Chief Litigation Counsel
1999 - 2017
Global Chief Litigation Counsel
2015 - Present
Adjunct Professor, Milan
1994-1999
Associate, New York
Professional activities
2017 to present
2019 to present
Member of the Organizing Committee
2020 - present
Member, Officers Committee
2018 - 2019
Member, Officers Committee
2016 2017
Member, Steering Committee
2008 to 2020, as well as IMI’s President in 2009-10.
Member, Board of Directors
1998 - 2011
Member, Board of Directors
Qualifications
1994
Admitted to legal practice
In the state and federal courts of New York
1994
Juris Doctor
1985
Bachelor of Arts
Awards
2017
Champion of Change in International Arbitration
2010
General Counsel Award
2009
Award for Excellence in Dispute Resolution
2008
Award for Innovation
2007
CEO Award
Main features
Nationality
USA
Residence
Florence, Italy
Working languages
English, Italian
Approach
Michael’s experience has covered a range of mediation, arbitration, and national court litigation proceedings in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and North and South America. These conflicts have involved private companies and firms, public companies, public bodies/authorities, and state-owned enterprises, ministries, and national governments. They have included a broad cross-section of commercial disputes from relatively modest amounts to billions of dollars in value.
Whether acting as a mediator or arbitrator, Michael understands that disputes of any size are important to the parties, who are entitled to a fair and efficient means of resolving them. Above all, Michael avoids adopting a “one size fits all” approach in which the current dispute can be resolved the same way as a previous one. The potential paths to resolution are as different as the parties and the circumstances that gave rise to disputes.
Collaboration
Chiara Tondini, International mediation and arbitration counsel with an international law firm in Florence, and previously the founder and manager of the Florence International Mediation Chamber (FIMC) and the Florence International Dispute Resolution Academy (FIDRA), with over 11 years of experience in organizing and supporting domestic and international mediation procedures, and as tribunal secretary in Italian domestic arbitration, and 18 years of experience with the Florence Chamber of Commerce.
Short list
The COVID-19 Revolution
International Arbitration and the COVID-19 Revolution is a timely book that elucidates and analyses how the COVID-19 crisis has redefined arbitral practice, with a critical appraisal of the pandemic’s effects from well-known practitioners on substantive and procedural aspects from the commencement of proceedings until the enforcement of the award. To find out more, visit Wolter Skluwer.
International Arbitration and the COVID-19 Revolution is a timely book that elucidates and analyses how the COVID-19 crisis has redefined arbitral practice, with a critical appraisal of the pandemic’s effects from well-known practitioners on substantive and procedural aspects from the commencement of proceedings until the enforcement of the award. To find out more, visit Wolter Skluwer.
Negotiating International Commercial Contracts
This workbook is designed to assist anyone involved in the negotiation, enforcement, or interpretation of international commercial contracts. To find out more, visit boomdenhaag.
This workbook is designed to assist anyone involved in the negotiation, enforcement, or interpretation of international commercial contracts. To find out more, visit boomdenhaag.
Puppies or Kittens?
Optimising the outcome of disputes connected with international business forms the subject matter of this book. To find out more, visit wolterskluwer.
Optimising the outcome of disputes connected with international business forms the subject matter of this book. To find out more, visit wolterskluwer.
Develop a Negotiation Index
Mediate.com has published a series of peer reviewed articles and videos under the collective title Seven Keys to Unlock Mediation’s Golden Age. To find out more, visit mediate.com.
Mediate.com has published a series of peer reviewed articles and videos under the collective title Seven Keys to Unlock Mediation’s Golden Age. To find out more, visit mediate.com.
Selecting Arbitrators for Commercial Oil & Gas Industry
From wellhead to consumer, the world’s oil and gas industry is built upon a physical infrastructure that, with the depletion of easily accessible reserves, is ever more dependent on the development and implementation of new technologies. To find out more, visit arbitrationlaw.com.
From wellhead to consumer, the world’s oil and gas industry is built upon a physical infrastructure that, with the depletion of easily accessible reserves, is ever more dependent on the development and implementation of new technologies. To find out more, visit arbitrationlaw.com.
An Unamicable Separation
An Unamicable Separation: Brexit Consequences for London as a Premier Seat of International Dispute Resolution in Europe
From: Journal of International Arbitration – Volume 33, Issue 7 (2016) pp. 451 – 462. To find out more, visit kluwerlawonline.com.
An Unamicable Separation: Brexit Consequences for London as a Premier Seat of International Dispute Resolution in Europe
From: Journal of International Arbitration – Volume 33, Issue 7 (2016) pp. 451 – 462. To find out more, visit kluwerlawonline.com.
Textbooks
2020
Eleven International Publishing
2010
Kluwer Law International
Book chapters and articles
The Future of International Arbitration Isn’t Over Yet, in International Arbitration and the COVID-19 Revolution (Kluwer Law Int’l 2021), co-author Ema Vidak-Gojkovic
Develop a Negotiation Index, in Seven Keys to Unlock Mediation’s Golden Age (first published on Mediate.com in June 2020)
The Prague Rules: The Real Culture War Isn’t Over Civil vs Common Law,
An Unamicable Separation: Brexit Consequences for London as a Premier Seat of International Dispute Resolution, Kluwer Journal of Int’l Arbitration (2016)
Puppies or Kittens? How to Better Match Arbitrators to Party Expectations, with Ema Vidak-Gojkovic & Lucy Greenwood, in Annual Yearbook of the Vienna Int’l Arbitration Centre (Feb. 2016)
Puppies or Kittens survey results, Kluwer Arbitration Blog (8 August 2016)
In Conversation with Michael Mcilwrath, Interview by the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy in 2016,
Selecting Arbitrators for Commercial Oil & Gas Industry Arbitrations, in The Leading Practitioners’ Guide to Intl’ Oil & Gas Industry Arbitration (J. Gaitis ed., 2015, Juris Publishing)
Finishing Before You Start: International Mediation, with E. Villarreal, in Int’ Litigation Strategies and Practice (B. Legum, ed., 2d edition, 2014 ABA)
Transparency in International Arbitration: What Are Arbitrators and Institutions Afraid Of?, with R. Schroeder, in Contemporary Issues in Int’l Arbitration and Mediation: The Fordham Papers 2010 (2011), reprinted in Rise of Transparency in Int’l Arbitration, Chamber of Arbitration of Milan (Juris 2013)
Chapters on Chamber of Milan Arbitration rules: (1) The Model Clause, (2) The Request for Arbitration, (3) The Statement of Defense, in The Chamber of Arbitration of Milan Rules: A Commentary (R. Luzzatto & U. Draetta, eds, 2012, Juris Publishing)
Common and Civil Law Approaches to Procedure, with H. Alvarez, in Int’l Commercial Arbitration Practice: 21st Century Perspectives (H. Grigera Naon & P. Mason, eds, 2011, LexisNexis)
Faster, Cheaper: Global Initiatives to Promote Efficiency in International Arbitration, 76 Arbitration 568–570 (2010)
The View from an International Arbitration Customer: In Dire Need of Early Resolution, with R. Schroeder, 74 Arbitration 3-11 (2009)
Ignoring the Elephant in the Room: International Arbitration: Corporate Attitudes and Practices 2008, 2 World Arbitration & Mediation Review 111 (2009)
Grading the Arbitrator, 73 Arbitration 224-27 (2007)
How to Define Winning: Rights, Lawyers, and Interests in Int’l Disputes, with R. Calabresi (Florence Chamber of Commerce; reprinted in English in Transnational Dispute Management, 2006)
Joinder: Current Practice in Int’l Arbitration, with S. Moollan, Transnational Dispute Management (June 2005)
Selective Perception and Bad Faith Allegations in Commercial Dispute Negotiations, Alternatives (October 2004)
Il Successo del programma EDR a GE (GE’s Early Dispute Resolution Program), Risoluzione Alternativa delle Controversie Commerciali (Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper, 2001)
Blog & Podcast
Contributing Editor to Kluwer International Arbitration Blog, with numerous posts from 2011
Creator & host, International Dispute Negotiation, podcast published between 2007-2011 by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR), containing interviews with thought-leaders in dispute resolution around the world, such as Emmanuel Gaillard, William Ury, and Lord Woolf of Barnes (Chief Justice of England and Wales). Available at: imimediation.org and cpradr.org