Deborah Enix-Ross
Senior Advisor to the International Dispute Resolution Group and ABA President – Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Description of field of expertise
Deborah Enix-Ross is Senior Advisor to the International Dispute Resolution Group and the current American Bar Association (ABA) President.
Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Enix-Ross served as a Senior Legal Officer and Head of the External Relations and Information Section of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva, Switzerland. Before joining WIPO, Ms. Enix-Ross was the Director of International Litigation for the Dispute Analysis and Corporate Recovery Services Group of Price Waterhouse, and, before that, served, for seven years, as the American representative to the International Chamber of Commerce – International Court of Arbitration.
The U.S. Departments of Commerce and State appointed Ms. Enix-Ross as one of the original eight U.S. members of the trilateral NAFTA Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of the New York Law School Alternative Dispute Resolution Skills Program. She is also a former member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, the ADR Advisory Board of the International Law Institute, and the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association.
Ms. Enix-Ross is the current President of the ABA. She is a past Chair of the ABA House of Delegates and a former Chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights and Chair of the Center’s Business and Human Rights Project. She is also a former Chair of the ABA Section of International Law, where she was the Goal IX Officer and co-founded the Women’s Interest Network. Ms. Enix-Ross is a Vice President of the World Justice Project, a former Chair of the ABA’s Section Officers Conference, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She is a former Vice Chair of the International Bar Association (IBA) Bar Issues Commission and a past ABA representative to the IBA.
What advice would you offer to new attorneys interested in your field?
Do not be afraid to forge your own path. To say I have not followed a traditional path in the law is an understatement. I began as a legal services attorney and went on to practice in a variety of settings, including as the American representative to the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Court of Arbitration, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva, Switzerland, Price Waterhouse, and my current firm, Debevoise & Plimpton.
Although my career path may seem disparate, dispute resolution is the thread that runs throughout my career choices. Find a practice area of focus and interest and gain as much experience as you can. Keeping in mind that you can gain that experience in novel and unconventional ways: including as a Court appointed neutral, especially in industry specific forums, and of course through work on bar association committees.
Final thoughts…
During her tenure as Chair of the International Law Section, she led an International Legal Exchange delegation to Ghana (where she delivered an address commemorating the country’s 50th anniversary of independence), Liberia and Sierra Leone.
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