2024 Warren M. Christopher International Lawyer of the Year Award Recipient Steven Smith

Steve Smith was an early pioneer of the practice of international arbitration in California, starting in 1983 with his work on expropriation cases against the Government of Iran and the National Iranian Oil company before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in the Hague. Those cases were attracted to O’Melveny & Myers, where Steve was a first-year associate, by Warren Christopher, who, as Deputy Secretary of State, negotiated the Algiers Accords that established that tribunal and secured the release of the American hostages in Tehran, thus ending the tense standoff between the United States and Iran that gripped the world’s attention for the final year of the Carter Administration. Steve’s career would continue to benefit from Christopher’s guidance and support through his remaining years as an associate, his elevation to partner, and his establishment, growth and development of the firm’s international arbitration practice group.

Steve joined Jones Day as a partner in 2013 to take advantage of the firm’s pronounced international strategy. He became Of Counsel at the firm in 2022.

Steve’s practice, now in its 41st year, has focused on international arbitration of complex, high-stakes disputes in the energy, power, mining, defense, chemical, and life sciences industries. He has significant experience resolving cross-border licensing, distribution, and joint venture disputes, often involving multiple parties. He has been the lead advocate for clients in both ad hoc and institutional arbitrations, including under the UNCITRAL, ICC, LCIA, ICDR, WIPO, DIS, HKIAC, and SIAC Rules, and has handled matters involving foreign states or their instrumentalities from five different continents, including before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. He regularly serves as an arbitrator in international commercial arbitrations.

Recognized as one of the world’s leading international arbitration lawyers in many notable directories, Steve has been described by Chambers Global and other publications as “a truly outstanding advocate whose written product and oral advocacy simply astound”; a “masterful advocate who can put together mesmerizing arguments”; and a “first-class advocate” who is “ferociously well-prepared” and a “master strategist.”

For many years, Steve was a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, where he taught the course in international commercial arbitration. He continues to be a frequent author on international arbitration issues and has spoken at conferences around the world.

Steve is a longstanding member of the ICC’s Leaders Group in the United States and is on the Board of Directors of California Arbitration, the voice of California’s international arbitration community.

He is a past chair of both the International Law Section of the State Bar of California and the ABA’s International Arbitration Committee. He served for many years as a U.S. member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration in Paris. He is also a former member of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre Users Council.

At the request of the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Steve served as a member of the Court-appointed working group that proposed and drafted the statute (Senate Bill No. 766) that authorized out-of-state and foreign attorneys to participate in international arbitrations taking place in California. Once passed by the California legislature and signed by Governor Brown, the legislation became part of California’s International Commercial Arbitration Act, thereby overcoming a major impediment to California’s acceptance as a welcoming venue for international arbitration.

Steve began his legal education at Cambridge University, where he received an LLB in Law with a focus on international and comparative law, before receiving his J.D. in two years at U.C. Berkeley School of Law. Berkeley did not have an international law journal, so Steve started one, becoming the founding Editor-in-Chief of what is now called the Berkeley Journal of International Law, which continues to thrive in its 41st year.

Over the course of Steve’s lengthy career he has served as a mentor to countless lawyers who themselves have gone on to successful careers in international law, including in academia, the corporate world, and with preeminent global law firms.

Steve received the California Lawyer of the Year (CLAY) Award in 2008 for extraordinary achievement in alternative dispute resolution, and the Stefan A. Riesenfeld Award from Berkeley Law in 2014 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of international law.