Eric Ordway is a leading member of the firm's International Arbitration group with extensive experience in international litigation and arbitration, products liability, mass tort and complex litigation. He has been involved in all aspects of such litigation and arbitration, including hearings, jury trials and appeals.
Mr. Ordway is known for his successful handling of international matters involving multiple foreign laws and languages, and for his ability to deal with expert witnesses from diverse disciplines and countries. He is particularly adept at presenting and simplifying difficult and complex technical, scientific issues for juries and arbitral tribunals and at developing strategies for avoiding litigation. The subject matter of the actions in which Mr. Ordway has been involved is extremely diverse, including matters relating to nuclear power, the oil industry, electrical equipment, PCBs, asbestos, lysine, construction, mining, real estate, tax, accounting, banking and the Internet. Mr. Ordway also has extensive experience in antitrust and bankruptcy, having been responsible for the litigation of all claims in one of the largest real estate bankruptcies of the 1990’s. In addition, he has supervised internal investigations concerning environmental spills, cosmetic products and pharmaceuticals, and coordinated litigations across the country concerning the same product.
He has handled international arbitrations before various arbitral institutions, including the International Chamber of Commerce ("ICC"), the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes("ICSID"), the American Arbitration Association, the Arbitration Court of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the International Arbitration Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber. Mr. Ordway was also consulted with respect to the development of the arbitration provisions of NAFTA and frequently advises clients on the proper drafting of arbitration agreements. He has previously served on the European Advisory Committee of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution and an ICC Task Force on the arbitration of antitrust disputes and is a former Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Litigation for the Trial Practice Committee of the American Bar Association.
Mr. Ordway has written extensively on international arbitration and other forms of alternate dispute resolution, and is a co-author of a chapter on alternate dispute resolution in The Corporate Counselor’s Deskbook and a biannual column on international arbitration in the United States in the French law journal Gazette du Palais. He has also been a frequent speaker on international arbitration and has lectured on this subject in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
Mr. Ordway was recognized as a leader in International Arbitration by Chambers USA - America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2005-2011. In addition, he was ranked as "Highly Recommended" in the 2004/05 edition of the PLC Global Counsel Dispute Resolution Handbook, and he was recognized in PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook 2006-2009. Mr. Ordway is also recommended in the area of International Arbitration and noted for his significant track record in investment treaty arbitration by Legal 500 2010.
Mr. Ordway has been active in pro bono work involving Latin America and Africa and is Chair of the Subcommittee on Latin America for the New York City Bar Association's Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice.
Mr. Ordway speaks French and Spanish, and has a good knowledge of Portuguese.