Antonio Hierro

Practice Areas

International arbitration

Career

Antonio Hierro serves as an arbitrator focusing on international commercial and investment-treaty arbitrations conducted in English, Spanish and French, in ad hoc arbitrations, including arbitrations administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), and institutional arbitrations administered by the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and other courts, mainly in Europe, Latin America and the United States.

Antonio’s experience as an international arbitrator includes notable cases with states and public entities along with multinationals, involving Energy & Natural Resources, Construction & Engineering, Consortium & Joint Ventures, Government and National Defence and Investment-Treaty arbitration.

Professional Memberships

He is a member or former member of the following Courts of Arbitration:

• International Court of Arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) from 2009 to 2014

• London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) from 2010 to 2015

• China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) from 2014 to 2017

• International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID): Having successfully passed a public merit-based selection process organised by the Government of the Kingdom of Spain, Antonio is currently included on the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators

He also serves on the:

• ICC Institute of World Business Law

• ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR

• ICC Latin American Arbitration Group

• The London Court of International Arbitration (the Company)

• Designations Committee of The Madrid International Arbitration Center (CIAM-CIAR)

He was a founder, President, and now Honorary President of the Spanish and Iberoamerican Arbitration Club, a private association created in 2005 that promotes arbitration through events held with public institutions, universities, large companies, lawyers and judges throughout western Europe, Latin America and the US. The Club has more than 1,500 members of 51 nationalities and international chapters in 31 countries.

Languages Spoken

• Spanish (native)

• English (bilingual)

• French (bilingual)

Experience

Throughout his career, Antonio has focused on complex litigation. He began his career as a State Attorney for the Spanish government, working for the Ministries of the Treasury and Justice, and later acting as Agent for the Kingdom of Spain before the Court of Justice of the European Union. He was a Legal Advisor to the Spanish government during the negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union).

He later joined Cuatrecasas, where he founded the arbitration and litigation practice and led it for more than 16 years. By the time Antonio left Cuatrecasas, the firm’s arbitration and litigation practice had grown from a handful of lawyers to more than 260 lawyers whose expertise covered 12 substantive areas, including International Commercial Arbitration and Investment Treaty Arbitration. From 2004 to 2008, he served as the general director of the firm.

As Head of the Arbitration Practice at Cuatrecasas, Antonio participated in more than 200 arbitrations acting primarily as a lawyer and occasionally as an arbitrator.

In 2015, Antonio established his own specialist arbitration firm, Hierro Arbitration, where he acts exclusively as an arbitrator. For a selection of outstanding cases, please visit https://hierroarbitration.com/outstanding-cases/

Over the course of his career, he has devoted a great deal of time to Academia and publications:

1. Academia:

• Chair of International Arbitration at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain.

• Visiting Scholar at Columbia Law School in New York.

2. Publications:

• Antonio co-directed the publication “El arbitraje comercial internacional en Iberoamérica” (Wolters Kluwer) in its two editions of 2009 and 2012.

• He has been the Director of the “Litigation & Arbitration Yearbook” (Wolters Kluwer), an annual publication that analyses and comments the most relevant litigation and arbitration cases of the leading Spanish firms, for 17 consecutive years from 2009 to 2025.

For further information about his numerous works on arbitration, please visit https://hierroarbitration.com

Awards