Cedric C. Chao

Cedric Chao has been an independent arbitrator and advisor on cross-border and domestic commercial disputes since 2019. He was a litigation partner (from 1983) and the Chair of Morrison & Foerster's international litigation and arbitration practice from 1996 to 2013, and then the U.S. Head of DLA Piper's global international arbitration practice from 2013 to 2019. In 2018, Cedric was named to The Daily Journal's "Top 100 California Lawyers" list, and in 2019, he received The Daily Journal's prestigious "California Lawyer of the Year" award for international arbitration. Global Arbitration Review and Who's Who Legal: Arbitration rank him as a "U.S. Thought Leader" in arbitration. Cedric is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (London), College of Commercial Arbitrators, American Law Institute, and Litigation Counsel of America, and formerly chaired the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California. He is the former Chair of the U.S. Magistrate Judge Screening Committee of the Northern District of California and the former Ninth Circuit member on the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. Cedric is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School.