James R. Ferguson serves as a neutral in U.S. and international arbitrations and mediations involving complex commercial disputes, often with Intellectual Property or Information Technology issues. A partner with Mayer Brown LLP, James is a registered neutral with the AAA, CPR, ICDR, ICC, DIAC, SIAC, WIPO and the PMAC of the Unified Patent Court (Europe). He has served as an arbitrator and/or mediator in cases involving IP licensing, joint venture, co-development, royalty, patent, trade secret, data management, software, construction, employment and many other disputes. These cases span a wide range of technologies, including pharmaceutical, medical device, software development, finance, biotechnology and information technology.
James has been recognized in Chambers USA, Law Dragon 500, Patent 250 and Patent 1000, among many other publications. He has published and spoken widely on arbitration issues, including multiple presentations on arbitrating IP and IT disputes to the IBA, the ABA and WIPO. He served as a member of the Review Committee in developing the SVAMC AI Guidelines and currently serves on SVAMC AI Task Force. He teaches courses on both innovation and U.S. and international arbitration at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (2004-present), the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (2004-present), and the University of Chicago Law School (2014-2020).
