Steve Smith was an early pioneer of the international arbitration practice in California, starting in 1983 with his work on expropriation cases against the Government of Iran and the National Iranian Oil Company before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague. Those cases were attracted to O’Melveny & Myers, where Steve started his legal career, by Warren Christopher, who, as Deputy Secretary of State, negotiated the Algiers Accords that established that tribunal and secured the release of the American hostages in Tehran, thus ending the tense standoff between the United States and Iran that gripped the world’s attention for the final year of the Carter Administration. Steve’s career would continue to benefit from Christopher’s guidance and support through his remaining years as an associate at O’Melveny, his elevation to partner, and his establishment, growth, and development of the firm’s international arbitration practice group, which he led for over twenty years.

Steve joined Jones Day as a partner in 2013 to take advantage of the firm’s established international strategy. He became Of Counsel at the firm in 2022 and retired from the firm at the end of 2024 to concentrate on serving as an international arbitrator. Steve’s practice focused on international arbitration of complex, high-stakes disputes in the oil & gas, renewable energy, power, mining, defense, chemical, life sciences, hospitality and wine and spirits industries. He has considerable experience resolving cross-border licensing, distribution, and joint venture disputes, often involving multiple parties. He has been the lead advocate for clients in both ad hoc and institutional arbitrations, including under the UNCITRAL, ICC, LCIA, ICDR, WIPO, DIS, HKIAC, and SIAC Rules, and has handled matters involving foreign states or their instrumentalities from five different continents.

Steve has served as an arbitrator in international commercial arbitrations involving joint venture, distribution, IP and other commercial disputes in the defense, renewable energy, life sciences, computer, medical device, airline, digital marketing and information technology industries, among others. Steve places emphasis on being well-prepared, responsive, and conducting the arbitration in a fair and efficient manner. He has extensive experience resolving disputes under, inter alia, the laws of California, New York, Texas, and Delaware, as well as English law, Hong Kong law and the laws of various civil law jurisdictions.

Steve is a frequent author on international arbitration issues and speaks regularly on international dispute resolution at conferences all over the world.