James Castello — Partner at King & Spalding

James Castello has been Partner of International Arbitration Group at King & Spalding LLP since May 2009. In more than 20 years as a practicing lawyer, Mr. Castello has advised and represented clients in a wide range of legal disputes, particularly international arbitrations (both institutional and ad hoc). Recent matters in which he has been involved have ranged from large infrastructure or commercial projects to disputes over control of an oil refinery, a geophysical study project, a failed commodity purchase, and a contested privatization of leased government property. For the past eight years, Mr. Castello has also served on the United States' delegation to the Arbitration Working Group at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). During those years, the Working Group has completed significant revisions in the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, has drafted the new Model Law on International Commercial Conciliation, and has begun a project to revise the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. Before joining King & Spalding, he served as Senior Counsel in the Paris office of Dewey & LeBoeuf and was previously counsel for five years in the international arbitration group at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, based in Vienna. Prior to that, he practiced in the litigation department of Shearman & Sterling in Washington, DC, advising particularly on international matters. Between his time at Shearman & Sterling and Freshfields, James left private practice to serve for nearly six years in senior legal positions in the Clinton Administration. These posts included Deputy Counsel to the President, at the White House, and Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Justice Department, where his portfolio encompassed such international issues as immigration and human rights. At the beginning of his legal career, James served as law clerk to Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, on the U.S. Supreme Court, and to Judge Abner J. Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He also worked as a legal assistant to Judge Howard M. Holtzmann, on the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague, The Netherlands. He is a member of the International Advisory Board for the Vienna International Arbitral Centre and of the editorial board of the World Arbitration and Mediation Review. Mr. Castello speaks regularly on arbitration topics, particularly those related to the UNCITRAL Model Law and Rules, and has made presentations at conferences sponsored by many of the major arbitral institutions. In 2007, he was named to the Court of the London Court of International Arbitration, and he is recognized in the International Who's Who of Commercial Arbitration and in Chambers Global. Mr. Castello holds J.D., Order of the Coif from University of California-Berkeley, M.A. from University of California-Berkeley and M.A. from Yale University.