Huebner, David, 1960-

<p>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.</p>

<p>Huebner was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, a small coal mining town in Schuylkill County. He attended Mahanoy Area High School after which he earned an A.B. degree summa cum laude from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. While at Princeton he was named a David Lawrence Scholar, served as president of Quadrangle Club, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his Juris Doctor degree at Yale Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation, was director of the Street Law Project (which taught civics and basic law classes in local high schools), and was a member of the Yale AIDS Law Project, a student group that assisted with the publication of AIDS and the Law. From 1984 to 1985, Huebner was on leave of absence from Yale as a Henry Luce Scholar, serving as a special assistant to the Hon. Koji Kakizawa, a member of the lower house of Japan's Diet.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>In April 2014, Huebner joined the law firm Arnold & Porter LLP as a partner in its international arbitration, public international law, energy, and national security practices. He represented governments and corporations in international disputes, trade, and investment matters with an emphasis on intellectual property-intensive sectors as well as energy, infrastructure, and construction projects. He also handled cross-border regulatory, corporate compliance, and cyber and supply chain security matters. In 2016, President Barack Obama appointed him to the Panel of Arbitrators of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The White House press release announcing the designation mentioned that the key administration appointment is for a six-year term. In early 2017 he left private law practice to become an independent arbitrator and mediator, and he affiliated with the arbitration institution JAMS International.</p>

<p>He is admitted as a Fellow of the London-based Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, serves on the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce's Commission on Arbitration and ADR, and serves on the panels or lists of arbitrators of several arbitration institutions, including the International Center for Dispute Resolution, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, Shanghai International Arbitration Center, Kuala Lumpur Regional Center for Arbitration, World Intellectual Property Organization, American Arbitration Association, China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, and JAMS. He is the chairman of the Southern California chapter of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.</p>

<p>In 1999 Huebner was appointed to the California Law Revision Commission by Governor Gray Davis and was reappointed in 2005 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. From 1999 to 2007 he taught full-semester courses in international law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. He has also served as an arbitrator for more than a decade at the annual Willem Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competitions in Hong Kong and Vienna.</p>

<p>In October 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Huebner as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, a post held by William McCormick until January 2009. Huebner was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 20, 2009. Huebner, a Democrat, was the first openly gay ambassador in the Obama administration, and the third openly gay ambassador in U.S. history. He was the first LGBT ambassador in American history knowingly confirmed by the U.S. Senate. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Huebner introduced his partner of 20 years, Duane McWaine; the hearing was held on the couple's 20th wedding anniversary, which Huebner acknowledged in his remarks. Huebner was sworn in as ambassador at the White House by Vice President Joseph Biden on December 4, 2009.</p>

<p>Separately accredited to New Zealand and Samoa, he has responsibility as well for U.S. relations with the small island nations of Cook Islands and Niue. During his time as ambassador, Huebner reengineered his two embassies around youth outreach, whole-of-society engagement, expanding exchange programs, developing new approaches and tools of “21st Century Statecraft,” and identifying practical, mutually beneficial opportunities for bilateral and multilateral cooperation on economic, science/technology, political, security, and civil society projects.[44] In February 2013, The Sosaiete o Fa’afafine in American Samoa (S.O.I.F.A.S) hosted a welcoming event for Ambassador Huebner as a way of recognizing the role of human rights in the region raise awareness on "organizational issues" (in Samoan culture, transgenderism has traditionally been tolerated and celebrated, while homosexuality is illegal). During this visit, Ambassador Huebner was given an official shirt embroidered with the S.O.I.F.A.S logo that is currently available in the LGBT Collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The U.S. State Department and outside commentators have suggested that current relations between the United States and New Zealand are the best they have been in decades.</p>

<p>Huebner has been a generous benefactor of youth literacy and education programs including the Mahanoy City Public Library. He currently sits as honorary chairperson of Fulbright New Zealand, a trustee of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, and patron for the American Chamber of Commerce. He was a founding member of the Los Angeles Committee on Foreign Relations and was active in the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He served as a founding national board member, co-chair, and general counsel of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and as a member of the board of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center.</p>

<p>In 1994 he was appointed by the City Council to the Los Angeles Quality & Productivity Commission, where he served as president. In 1999 Huebner was appointed to the California Law Revision Commission by Governor Gray Davis and was reappointed in 2005 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, serving several terms as chairman. He served as a staff counsel to the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, formed after the Rodney King incident. He served on California Governor Gray Davis’ Judicial Selection Advisory Committee.</p>

<p>He has a particular interest in education and literacy efforts. For many years he has supported the public library in his hometown of Mahanoy City, and he was recently awarded the key to the City in recognition of his efforts. From 1999 to 2007 he taught full-semester courses in international law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and has lectured and led seminars in other universities in China, New Zealand, and the United States.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>The communications industry professional association Public Affairs Asia awarded him and his team the Gold Standard Award for Social Media Communications at its annual awards event in Singapore in 2012.</p>

<p>On August 24, 2013, Huebner served as Grand Marshal at celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the founding of his hometown of Mahanoy City. For his public service and his support of the public library he was awarded the key to the City by the Mayor.</p>

<p>On October 20, 2013, Huebner and his spouse Dr. Duane McWaine were honored by GABA (Gay Auckland Business Association) at a black-tie dinner in recognition of their whole-of-society engagement and contributions to the LGBT community in New Zealand.</p>

<p>On October 25, 2013, the Royal Society of New Zealand awarded him an Illuminated Scroll for his efforts in promoting science and technology collaboration and education.</p>

<p>On October 30, 2013, Huebner was made a Fellow of the Auckland University of Technology Faculty of Business and Law in recognition of his commitment to higher education and student achievement. AUT's Vice-Chancellor, Derek McCormack, presented the award at a reception held at Auckland's Mackelvie Gallery.</p>

<p>On August 19, 2014, Huebner's diplomatic passport, his spouse Dr. McWaine's diplomatic passport, and other artifacts of his time as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa were taken by the Smithsonian Institution into its permanent collection of American history.</p>

<p>In 2015 he was invited to deliver the 7th Annual Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Lecture at Harvard's Adams House and the 10th Annual Robert I. Weil Lecture by the Los Angeles County Bar Association.</p>

<p>In 2016 the Secretary of the Navy awarded Huebner the U.S. Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award for his humanitarian and security work as ambassador.</p>

<p>In an effort to calm gay rights supporters who have grown impatient with President Barack Obama’s dithering over revoking the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, David Huebner was chosen to serve as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Sworn-in December 4, 2009, Huebner became just the third openly-gay ambassador in U.S. history and the first in the current administration.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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).</p>

<p>After completing law school in 1986, Huebner joined the Center for Law in the Public Interest.</p>

<p>In 1995, he joined the international law firm, Coudert Brothers. He served as its chairman and chief executive officer from 2003 until shortly before the firm’s dissolution in 2005.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>He joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in 2005, and two years later became the firm’s regional managing partner in China. Working out of Shanghai, Huebner led the China Practice and International Disputes Practice, specializing in international arbitration, mediation, and cross-border litigation, and advising clients on corporate compliance and governance issues.</p>

<p>Huebner has represented corporations in the construction and infrastructure, pharmaceutical, technology, entertainment/media, transportation, and energy sectors in arbitrations before various international tribunals. He has particular expertise in intellectual property, mergers and acquisition, licensing, infrastructure, investment, and state entity disputes. Huebner is included on the approved panels of neutrals of several major arbitral institutions, including the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), and the American Arbitration Association (AAA).</p>

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

<p>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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>He is licensed both as a solicitor in England & Wales and as an attorney in three U.S. jurisdictions (California, New York and the District of Columbia).</p>

<p>David Huebner has more than 30 years’ experience as an arbitrator and advocate in international, investment, and complex commercial arbitrations. He is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, has been designated a Chartered Arbitrator by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and has been named to numerous distinguished practitioner lists, including SVAMC’s “Tech List” of the world’s most accomplished technology neutrals.</p>

<p>He has particular expertise in technology, life sciences, investment, and energy disputes but has handled matters across a wide range of industry sectors, legal issues, and geographic regions. Currently resident in California, he hears cases internationally and has been based for extended periods in Tokyo, Shanghai, London, and New York.</p>

<p>His diverse professional background informs his approach to decision-making, process, and efficiency. In addition to practicing law as a partner in firms in the AmLaw 100, he has served as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, founding chief representative of a law office in China, chairman and CEO of an international law firm, chairman of the California Law Revision Commission, and IP adviser to a member of Japan’s National Diet.</p>