Huebner, David, 1960-

David Huebner (born 1960) is an international arbitrator based in Southern California. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. He was the first openly gay ambassador in the Obama administration and the third openly gay ambassador in United States history. His tenure was marked by significant improvement in bilateral relations, with commentators observing that relations are stronger and closer than they have been in decades. Called an “excellent public face for the United States,” he has been widely praised as a successful Ambassador including for his accessible, inclusive approach, his emphasis on students and future leaders, and the innovative restructuring of his Embassies around social media and other nontraditional tools and approaches of diplomacy. Before being appointed Ambassador he worked as an international lawyer in Los Angeles, Shanghai, and New York City, specializing in international arbitration and mediation. He is licensed as an attorney in California, New York, and in the District of Columbia, and as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Born in 1960 in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, a small coal mining town in Schuylkill County, Huebner attended Mahanoy Area High School. In college he studied at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, earning his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in 1982. While earning his Juris Doctor at Yale Law School, Huebner served as editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation and was a member of the Yale AIDS Law Project. He spent a year in Japan (1984-1985) thanks to a Henry Luce Fellowship that allowed him to serve as an aide to Koji Kakizawa, a member of Japan’s House of Representatives (Diet).

After graduating from law school in 1986, Huebner moved to Los Angeles, California as a Fellow at the Center for Law in the Public Interest. A year later, he began his career in private legal practice at Irell & Manella. In 1992, Huebner joined the international law firm Coudert Brothers where he specialized in international arbitration and corporate compliance work and served as managing partner of the Los Angeles office, on the global executive board, and for a term as global chairman and chief executive officer. In September 2005, he joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, moving to Shanghai to open the firm's first overseas office. He served as the firm's chief representative in China and managing partner of the Shanghai office, where he specialized in international arbitration, corporate compliance, and trade until leaving to become Ambassador.

In April 2005, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Huebner to the California Law Revision Commission. Huebner also served as president of the Los Angeles County Quality and Productivity Commission and taught courses at the University of Southern California’s Gould Law School in international arbitration, international intellectual property law and policy, and international business transactions.

Huebner has served as board co-chair and general counsel for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

In addition to teaching at Gould, he has been a guest lecturer at USC’s Marshall School of Business on various dispute resolution and intellectual property issues, at Tsinghua University on international dispute resolution, and at the East China University of Politics and Law on international dispute resolution and intellectual property.

Huebner has been active in non-profits, community organizations, and professional associations such as the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and the International Chamber of Commerce Commission on Arbitration.

Huebner was elected to life membership in the Council on Foreign Relations in 2015. He currently serves on the board of the Pacific Council on International Policy, Founder Council of the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, the executive committee of the Asia Society of Southern California, and the boards of the Swiss International Law School, Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, Princeton AlumniCorps, USC Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation.

Huebner is married to Dr. Duane McWaine.