Theresa Amato is counsel.  She was formerly a senior associate in the International Arbitration practice.

Her international arbitration experience includes enforcement proceedings before U.S. courts, and arbitrations conducted in accordance with ICC and ICDR Rules.

Prior to joining Shearman & Sterling in 2015, Theresa spent more than two decades as a litigator, advisor, of counsel, in-house counsel, general counsel or executive director in various nonprofit, for profit and political entities.

RECENT International Arbitration EXPERIENCE INCLUDES:

• The U.S. proceedings to confirm on behalf of the majority shareholders in the former Yukos Oil Company three Final Awards in which the Arbitral Tribunal ordered the Russian Federation to pay over US $50 billion in damages to our clients.  This is the largest arbitral award ever rendered by an arbitral tribunal.
• The pursuit of information for use in foreign proceedings through various actions brought under 28 U.S.C. § 1782.
• The U.S. enforcement of Confessions of Judgment against large corporate investors in default of their loan obligations to a consortium of international banks.
• Representation of a State-owned Latin American oil and gas company as Respondent in an ICC arbitration against a contractor involving the expansion of a refinery.  The seat of arbitration was The Hague.
• Representation of an international joint venture as Respondent and Counterclaimant and in an ICDR arbitration in New York initiated by a North Asian company. The dispute arose from an agreement for the construction of a chemical plant in North America. Issues included delay and defective works.  New York law applied

Professional Affiliations

• Elected Member, American Law Institute (Member of the Consultative Groups for the forthcoming Restatements of Law on International Commercial Arbitration, and Consumer Contracts)
• Fellow, American Bar Foundation
• Member, American Bar Association
• Advisor, Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies
• Member, Economic Club of Chicago
• Member, National Women’s Law Center, Leadership Advisory Committee

Publications

• Co-author, Appendix 1 to Steven Gee Q.C., Commercial Injunctions 913 (6th ed. 2016)
• Author, Op-Ed, “Put Lawyers Where They’re Needed,” New York Times, June 17, 2015
• Theresa has appeared throughout national and international media outlets, including a dozen C-SPAN appearances; a wide range of publications have published her work, including CNN, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Harvard Law Record, the New York University Law Review, Vox, Trial magazine, the Nation, the Stanford Law & Policy Review, and the Yale Journal of International Law.
• For a full list of publications, see Theresaamato.com

Awards & Accolades

• Fellow, Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (Fall 2002)
• Wasserstein Fellow, Harvard Law School (1998-1999)
• Loyola University Chicago School of Law Public Service Award (2000)
• NYU School of Law Public Service Award (1999)
• The American Lawyer, 45 Under 45 (1997)

Other

• Theresa is the founder (1993) and former president of the award-winning, 25-year-old Citizen Advocacy Center
• She served as an Adjunct Professor, Distinguished Scholar in Residence, at Loyola University Chicago School of Law (2013-2015)
• Theresa is the first woman in U.S. history to manage two high-profile presidential campaigns outside of the two major parties
• She is committed to addressing the access to justice gap and the advancement of women in the workplace 
• In 2019, Theresa delivered the Tabor Institute on Legal Ethics Lectures on “Minding the Gaps:  The Democracy Gap, The Access to Justice Gap, & The Gender Pay Gap”