Stephen L Drymer

Head of Woods LLP’s international arbitration group, Woods LLP

Stephen L. Drymer is a partner and head of the firm’s International Arbitration practice. A litigator and advocate by background and experience, he now practices almost exclusively in the area of domestic and international arbitration and dispute resolution.

Stephen acts as counsel, and serves as arbitrator and mediator, in domestic and international commercial and investment treaty disputes, and he advises parties on a broad range of issues associated with the design, negotiation, drafting and implementation of dispute resolution agreements and strategies.

Educated and trained in both common law and civil law, Stephen has pleaded cases and served as mediator, party-appointed arbitrator and tribunal president in matters involving the laws of many jurisdictions, both in ad hoc proceedings and under the rules of most major international arbitral institutions. He has acted in commercial and investment cases in the manufacturing, infrastructure, construction, petrochemical, oil and gas, mining, energy, environmental, financial services, outsourcing, hospitality, transportation, aviation, IT, telecommunication, aerospace and crop science industries, among others. He is currently serving as arbitrator or as tribunal president in several ICSID cases as well as in other (non-public) investor-State disputes.

Stephen also advises and represents clients, both government and non-governmental, in matters of public international law and dispute resolution, including in matters involving maritime delimitation and transboundary resource management. He was a negotiator for Canada in the renewal of the Canada-US Pacific Salmon Treaty and counsel to Canada in the mediation of disputes arising under that Treaty. He was counsel for the Government of Nova Scotia before an international tribunal constituted to determine the offshore boundary between the province of Nova Scotia and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. He was an adviser to the Secretary General of the United Nations and mediator in a territorial and resource dispute between Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. And he was a neutral evaluator in an international dispute involving private and public parties in the Middle East.

Stephen is as well very active in the resolution of sport-related disputes in Canada and internationally, in cases before the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne. In addition to extensive work as counsel, he has served as arbitrator and mediator in numerous cases involving a wide range of issues and sports.

In addition to numerous professional associations in which he is active, Stephen is a member of the CAS list of arbitrators, the International Panel of Arbitrators and Mediators of the American Arbitration Association - International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the International Panel of Arbitrators of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and the Panel of Arbitrators and Mediators of the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC). He is also Chair of the Arbitration Committee of ICC Canada, the Canadian National Committee of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

Stephen is recognised as one of the world’s leading international lawyers and dispute resolution professionals by a number of Canadian and international publications.