Full Name
Arif Ali
Job Title
Founder, Arbitrator
Company
Ahali Dispute Resolution
Speaker Bio
Arif Hyder Ali, FCIArb, is a highly respected independent arbitration lawyer with more than 35 years' experience as a presiding, party-appointed, and neutral arbitrator and lead counsel in international commercial, construction, and investor-State arbitration, as well as State-to-State disputes.
Arif’s international arbitration experience spans continents and cultures, the common and civil law legal systems, national political establishments and inter-governmental organizations, private companies and state-owned enterprises, sovereign governments and private individuals. Following graduation from law school, from 1990-1993, Arif practiced international arbitration and litigation in Washington, D.C. In 1993, he moved to Geneva, Switzerland to join the United Nations Compensation Commission, a subsidiary organ of the United Nations Security Council established to address claims arising out of Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, where he served as a Legal Officer and then Section Chief. In 1996, Arif joined the international arbitration group of Freshfields, Bruckhaus Derringer based in Paris and Bahrain. He returned to Geneva at the end of 2000 to take up a position as Senior Counsel at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Arbitration and Mediation Centre. In 2001, Arif joined the Houston office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, moving to its Washington, D.C. office in 2005. For two decades, Arif led the international arbitration and public international law departments of three AmLaw 100 firms (Crowell & Moring LLP, 2007-2012; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, 2012-2015; Dechert LLP, 2015-2024), before establishing AHALI Dispute Resolution LLC in January 2025 to focus on serving as an arbitrator and mediator. Arif is admitted to the bar in New York and the District of Columbia. He is a Registered Foreign Lawyer of England and Wales. His working languages are English and Spanish. He has professional reading proficiency in French and Portuguese (including legal documentation) and is conversant in those languages, as well as Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali.
Arif’s international arbitration experience spans continents and cultures, the common and civil law legal systems, national political establishments and inter-governmental organizations, private companies and state-owned enterprises, sovereign governments and private individuals. Following graduation from law school, from 1990-1993, Arif practiced international arbitration and litigation in Washington, D.C. In 1993, he moved to Geneva, Switzerland to join the United Nations Compensation Commission, a subsidiary organ of the United Nations Security Council established to address claims arising out of Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, where he served as a Legal Officer and then Section Chief. In 1996, Arif joined the international arbitration group of Freshfields, Bruckhaus Derringer based in Paris and Bahrain. He returned to Geneva at the end of 2000 to take up a position as Senior Counsel at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Arbitration and Mediation Centre. In 2001, Arif joined the Houston office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, moving to its Washington, D.C. office in 2005. For two decades, Arif led the international arbitration and public international law departments of three AmLaw 100 firms (Crowell & Moring LLP, 2007-2012; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, 2012-2015; Dechert LLP, 2015-2024), before establishing AHALI Dispute Resolution LLC in January 2025 to focus on serving as an arbitrator and mediator. Arif is admitted to the bar in New York and the District of Columbia. He is a Registered Foreign Lawyer of England and Wales. His working languages are English and Spanish. He has professional reading proficiency in French and Portuguese (including legal documentation) and is conversant in those languages, as well as Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali.
Speaking At
