Robert Smit

Professor Robert H. Smit is a Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where he is Co-Chair of the Litigation Department’s International Dispute Resolution Practice. He represents clients in a wide range of complex commercial litigations and arbitrations, concentrating in the areas of international commercial and investment arbitration.

Mr. Smit regularly also serves as arbitrator in international arbitrations in the United States, Europe and Latin America, and is listed as one of the leading international arbitration lawyers in the world.

Mr. Smit’s current and recent positions include: U.S. Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration; Chair of the New York City Bar Association International Commercial Disputes Committee; Adviser, ALI Restatement (Third) of International Arbitration in the United States; Co-Chair of the ICC Task Force on Production of Electronic Documents in Arbitration; Chair of the Center for Public Resource’s Arbitration Committee; and Vice Chair of the International Bar Association’s Committee on International Arbitration and ADR.

He received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1981 and his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law in 1986. Mr. Smit also has a graduate law degree (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies) in private international law and international arbitration from the Sorbonne in Paris, and taught U.S. Commercial Law at the Sorbonne. He clerked for the Honorable Charles M. Metzner, U.S. District Court Southern for the District of New York, from 1986-1987.