Jennifer Kirby
Principal, Kirby; Former Deputy Secretary General, ICC International Court of Arbitration
.jpg)
Jennifer is an internationally recognized arbitration expert, who acts as counsel and sits as arbitrator in a wide variety of arbitration matters in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. Her experience covers a range of disputes, including those concerning construction and engineering projects, distribution agreements, shareholder agreements and mergers and acquisitions. She has experience under all major institutional and ad hoc arbitral rules and was selected for the CAfA Arbitrator Pool in January 2020.
Jennifer began her career in 1995 with a multinational firm as a New York litigator, representing clients in both international arbitrations and complex commercial litigations, with a particular focus on securities, insurance, mergers and acquisitions and white-collar criminal cases. From there, Jennifer went to the ICC International Court of Arbitration in 2002, where she served as both Counsel and Deputy Secretary General before leaving to join a multinational law firm as a partner in their arbitration group. In 2010, Jennifer founded her own boutique arbitration practice – Kirby – in Paris.
The cases Jennifer has worked on cover the full economic spectrum, from relatively straightforward sale of goods disputes to complex cases concerning state contracts for the development of significant infrastructure projects, and involve parties and arbitrators from around the world. While at the ICC, Global Arbitration Review named Jennifer one of the 45 top arbitration lawyers under the age of 45. Since then, Jennifer has been recognized by Chambers Global as “a true expert in ICC-related disputes” and by The Who’s Who of International Arbitration as a “very sharp” global player in the field.
Jennifer regularly publishes in the field, speaks at international arbitration conferences in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and sits on a variety of expert groups helping to shape the future of international arbitration.
Jennifer studied History at Cambridge University and Columbia College (BA 1991), and obtained her law degree at the University of Virginia School of Law (JD 1995). She is admitted to the New York Bar and speaks English and French.
Jurisdiction: U.S.A. and France