John J. Hay

John J. Hay is a Partner in Dentons' New York office and head of the US International Dispute Resolution group, with more than 35 years' experience representing domestic and international clients in complex commercial and investment treaty disputes. His primary practice area is Arbitration and Mediation.

His practice involves matters in federal and state courts throughout the US and before arbitration tribunals throughout the world, including the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) of the American Arbitration Association (AAA), and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

He has arbitrated disputes in a wide variety of areas, including construction, energy, joint ventures, financial services, real estate, and investments in foreign countries. He has represented clients in disputes involving parties from the US, Mexico, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil, England, France, Russia, Lebanon, the UAE, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Egypt, Albania, Switzerland and Panama. He has also served as a party-appointed arbitrator.

In addition, he has extensive experience representing clients in mediations. For more than 10 years, he served as a member of the Panel of Mediators of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. He serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, where he teaches the Practice of International Arbitration.

His representative experience includes representing a Canadian gold mining company in an ICSID arbitration against the Government of Colombia; representing a number of US investors against Egypt under the US-Egypt Bilateral Investment Treaty regarding the government's expropriation of their investments in an array of industries, including cotton, food processing, investment banking and real estate; and representing two Canadian companies in an ICSID arbitration against the US government based upon violations of the investment chapter of NAFTA.

He has also represented foreign clients in related ICC arbitrations involving disputes concerning funding for two industrial projects in the UAE, obtaining two arbitral awards totalling over US$62 million; successfully represented a general contractor seeking more than US$30 million in damages for extra work and delay costs associated with a contract to construct a 35-mile pipeline in the Long Island Sound, defending against counterclaims by the owner and claims by numerous subcontractors in excess of US$40 million; and represented a solar power producer in a US$30 million ICC construction arbitration in Brazil involving the construction of a solar power plant, achieving an award completely in the client's favour.

Other matters include obtaining a US$34 million award in favour of a foreign client in an AAA arbitration of a claim alleging breach of a joint venture agreement under Venezuelan law; representing an Albanian oil refinery in a consolidated ICC arbitration concerning the disappearance of oil valued at more than US$26 million and enforcement of loans totalling over US$40 million; and representing US clients in LCIA arbitrations against foreign banks to recover investments related to projects in Russia, obtaining awards for the full amounts sought and successfully enforcing the awards in proceedings in the US and abroad.

He has also represented an international aviation company in two arbitrations, one before the LCIA and the other before the ICC, against foreign airlines concerning claims of breaches of leasing and maintenance agreements, obtaining a US$24 million award in one case and an award in excess of US$14 million in the other; represented a UAE company in an LCIA arbitration against a joint venture partner over control of a project to construct and operate a steel plant in the UAE, resulting in the partner's removal from the joint venture; and defended a US supplier of medical equipment in a US$45 million ICDR arbitration with a Mexican company involving claims of breach of contract, fraud and RICO, which resulted in all claims against the client being denied.

His recognition includes being listed as a Recommended Lawyer by The Legal 500 for International Arbitration (2019–2023) and named an "Acritas Star – independently rated lawyer" in 2019, praised by clients as "a practical litigator, very confident, and a very good risk manager."

He is a member of the International Bar Association, The Law Society (London, England), the US Supreme Court Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, the New York City Bar Association's Inter-American Committee, the United States Council on International Business, the International Chamber of Commerce and the Society of Construction Law, North America.

He holds a JD, with Honors, from George Washington University, where he was a member of the George Washington Law Review, and a BA, magna cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.