Professor Ben Davis Honored for Contributions to Diversity Ben Davis, a visiting professor at W&L Law, received the 2022 Outstanding Contribution to Diversity in ADR award from the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).

By Law Communications
March 8, 2023

Ben Davis, a visiting professor at W&L Law, received the 2022 Outstanding Contribution to Diversity in ADR award from the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).

Professor Davis has devoted his entire career to equality work. He has worked across diversity genres and has advocated for the inclusion of racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, and people of differing sexual orientations.

“I am amazed and deeply moved that the world-renowned CPR selected me to be a recipient for this award, which honors those who have gone before, who work now, and who work in the future to make the Alternative Dispute Resolution field reflect and represent all,” said Davis in remarks to CPR. “It is a field I have been passionate about for 41 years in the international and domestic arena. It is deeply appreciated that you have heard and heeded the longstanding call globally for the ADR community to appoint as neutrals and develop as practitioners minorities, women, LGBTQ, and lawyers with disabilities. It is what we do together that will make all the difference for students, practitioners, educators, business and the world community.”

In 2018, as Chair of the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association, Professor Davis led efforts toward the unanimous adoption of Resolution 105 on Diverse Neutrals. In the four years since, Resolution 105 has inspired empirical research on the inclusion of diverse neutrals in ADR, publications and conferences, and led to the establishment of at least one non-profit organization dedicated to the increased participation of diverse neutrals in ADR (the Ray Corollary Initiative).

Professor Davis is an emeritus faculty member at the University of Toledo College of Law. He joined W&L Law as a visiting professor in 2022. Professor Davis teaches in the areas of contracts, commercial law, alternative dispute resolution, arbitration, public international law, and international business transactions.

Between 1983 and 1986, Professor Davis worked in Paris, France as a development consultant in West Africa, and as a strategic business consultant with Mars & Co in Europe. In 1986, he became the American Legal Counsel at the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) where he supervised directly or indirectly over 5000 international commercial arbitration and mediation cases, made filings before courts around the world on behalf of the ICC, assisted with the drafting of arbitration laws in countries such as India and Sri Lanka, and led conferences in Eastern and Western Europe, North America, and Asia. In 1996, he was promoted to director, conference programs and manager of the Institute of World Business Law where he organized training sessions on international contracts, dispute resolution, project finance, and electronic commerce.

In 2022, the French Republic named him to the Chevalier rank in the Ordre des Palmes Academiques, a decoration dating back to 1808, for services rendered to France, its language, and its culture in the United States.

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