Profile

Ian A. Laird is co-chair of the firm's International Dispute Resolution Group and an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center. He represents a range of clients in international arbitration proceedings involving disputes between corporations and foreign sovereign governments. Ian is recognized as a leading practitioner in the arbitration field by the International Who's Who Legal: Arbitration 2016. Ian is best known for being lead counsel for Khan Resources Inc., which recently secured a US$100 million international arbitration award against the Government of Mongolia (in March 2015).

As a former chief of staff to a Canadian cabinet minister and a senior political aide to the Ontario Minister of Energy, Ian has run political campaigns and understands the intimate workings of government and politics, as well as their impact on industry. For over 15 years, Ian has counseled parties in investment arbitrations under the provisions of NAFTA, CAFTA-DR, the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), and other international investment agreements, typically applying the arbitration rules of ICSID or UNCITRAL.

A long-time Washingtonian with extensive experience representing Fortune 500 clients, Ian advises corporations on geopolitical concerns when their investments face challenges overseas. He works primarily with clients involving issues in the energy and natural resources sector - such as power generation, oil and gas, and mining.

Ian's experience includes working on the earliest NAFTA investor-state arbitrations involving each of the three NAFTA state parties, and most recently has handled high profile gold and uranium mining arbitrations under the ICSID and UNCITRAL Rules. He is currently counsel on numerous investment treaty arbitrations and disputes, most recently involving the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Turkey.