Personal bio
Alden L. Atkins has been an advocate for more than 40 years in forums around the globe encompassing a broad variety of subject matters and industries. He has been counsel in dozens of domestic and international arbitrations, including under AAA, ICDR, ICC, LCIA and UNCITRAL rules as well as ad hoc arbitrations. He has represented both plaintiffs/claimants and defendants/respondents in matters with hundreds of millions or billions of dollars at stake. As an arbitrator, he is a Fellow in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has served as an arbitrator in domestic and international commercial disputes. Legal 500 U.S. says Mr. Atkins “stands out for his vast knowledge of commercial and investment arbitration.”
Mr. Atkins’s is expert in energy disputes, joint venture disputes and antitrust/competition matters. In the energy industry, he has been lead counsel in matters involving LNG (including maritime transportation of LNG, LNG purchase and sale agreements, LNG operating agreements, and joint venture disputes), electric generation (including the construction of generation plants, O&M agreements, purchase and sale agreements of energy, claims of unforeseeability, and joint venture disputes), local gas distribution companies, and oil and gas pipelines. In antitrust/competition matters, he has been lead counsel in U.S. domestic and international disputes involving alleged price fixing, monopolization and abuse of dominance, and other alleged restraints of trade. The antitrust/competition matters have spanned a variety of industries, including airlines, auto parts, chemicals, financial derivatives, gas pipelines, grocery stores, railroads and technology. In joint venture disputes, he has represented companies in project finance and other joint ventures in many different types of claims between the participants, including disputes arising under the contracts forming the joint venture (shareholders agreements, share purchase agreements, funding agreements, guarantees, purchase and sale agreements, O&M agreements, services agreements), fiduciary duty claims and shareholder derivative claims. In addition, Mr. Atkins has extensive experience in contractual disputes, claims of fraud and misrepresentation, statutory and regulatory claims, construction, product liability, securities and government contracts disputes in many different industries arising under U.S. and foreign laws.
Mr. Atkins also has been lead counsel in numerous class and mass actions in antitrust and products liability matters, and he has written articles on developments in class action law. In one innovative matter, the products liability claims of hundreds of thousands of consumers were resolved through a nationwide class action, while allocation of the substantial settlement amount between the defendants was resolved through arbitration.
Mr. Atkins has been appointed as sole arbitrator, chair and party-appointed arbitrator in disputes arising under an international logistics contract and financing agreements.
Mr. Atkins is an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law teaching a class on damages in international arbitration. He has also written a book chapter on project finance disputes as well as articles about issues arising in international arbitrations.
Mr. Atkins was a partner at the international law firm Vinson & Elkins LLP until 2023 and is now an independent arbitrator.