John J. Buckley, Jr., FCIArb, FCCA

John Buckley is an independent arbitrator based in New York, N.Y. and Washington, D.C. He has served as arbitrator in domestic and cross-border commercial disputes for more than two decades. Ranked and recommended by Chambers in its USA 2026 Guide as an international arbitrator in the U.S., he is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He has acted as chair, sole arbitrator, and co-arbitrator in institutional administered (AAA, ICDR, ICC and CPR) and ad hoc arbitrations in disputes involving billions of dollars.  He serves on the panels of arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution and as a Distinguished Neutral of the CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution.

“He is to my mind one of the most gifted arbitrators. He’s a brilliant lawyer with brilliant judgment.”

Chambers USA, 2026

As an attorney and partner of Williams & Connolly LLP for more than four decades, he established and chaired the firm’s International Disputes Practice, acting as lead counsel in commercial and investor-states cases. His experience includes numerous arbitrations and commercial litigations at the trial and appellate level, spanning a broad variety of subject matters and industries. In recognition of his advocacy skills, professionalism, ethical conduct, and collegiality, he was elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

As a faculty-appointed lecturer, he taught a seminar on advocacy in international arbitration at Yale Law School for many years  and is a frequent speaker at U.S. and international arbitration conferences and in other fora. He has been recognized for his significant contributions to thought leadership, heading committees to revise and improve arbitral rules and procedures and develop model clauses and protocols for arbitral institutions.

He is a member of the U.S. Council for International Business (the USCIB, ICC’s U.S National Committee) and a Delegate to, and member of, the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR. He is also a member of the ICC’s Task Force on Arbitration and ADR and CPR’s Council and Arbitration Committee as well as Co-Chair of its Rules Revision Committee. He also serves on the London Court of International Arbitration’s North America Users’ Council; the Advisory Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA); the International Bar Association’s Arbitration Committee, and the American Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Section. He was a delegate to UNCITRAL Working Group II (Expedited Procedures).

Mr. Buckley began his legal career as law clerk to Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and then to Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States. Following these judicial clerkships, he became Special Assistant to Hon. Edward H. Levi, Attorney General of the United States, who is universally credited with restoring integrity to the U.S. Department of Justice following the Watergate Scandal.

He earned his A.B., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Georgetown University and his J.D., with honors, from The University of Chicago, where he was Editor-in-Chief of The University of Chicago Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

Mr. Buckley is admitted to practice in the State of New York and the District of Columbia.