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James Castello has advised and represented clients (and has arbitrated disputes) in a wide range of commercial and investor-state proceedings under multiple arbitral rules. Based in Europe for 23 of his 36 years in practice, James now serves as both counsel and arbitrator. According to Chambers Global, he is “praised by market commentators as an ‘absolutely open, thorough, fantastic lawyer,’” and is "highly praised by clients for his ‘extensive, in-depth experience’ in international arbitration."
James represents European, Middle Eastern, African and Asian clients, especially in energy disputes (e.g., contested control of a refinery, privatization of a power plant, gas price readjustments, conflicts on upstream development) and large infrastructure cases (road, tunnel, rail, industrial facilities). He and a K&S team recently won a $2+ billion award against Egypt for curtailing long-term gas supply. According to Who's Who of International Commercial Arbitration, James "has a ‘great brain’ and is ‘one of the reasons [King & Spalding] is so good in Paris.’”
As a U.S. delegate to UNCITRAL’s Arbitration Working Groups since 2001, James has assisted in drafting or revising each arbitration and mediation instrument adopted by the UN. James has written Commentaries on UNCITRAL's Arbitration Rules for books published by Oxford, Kluwer, and Juris.
James helped draft the LCIA’s 2014 Arbitration Rules, as a member of the LCIA Court, and he is now Deputy Chair of the LCIA’s Board of Directors. He also sits on the International Advisory Board of Vienna’s International Arbitral Centre, co-chairs CILS' biennial Salzburg Arbitration Symposium, and is a Vice-Chair of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration.
For six years during the Clinton Administration, James held such senior legal positions as Deputy Counsel to the President at the White House and Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Justice Department, where his portfolio included immigration, hate crimes, and human rights. He began his legal career with clerkships at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. and at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague.
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