/ About
Prof. Barry Appleton
Managing Partner · Appleton & Associates International Lawyers LP
A pioneer of NAFTA investor-state arbitration and a leading voice at the frontier of international trade, investment, and the digital economy.
For over three decades, Prof. Appleton has shaped the law that governs how investors and states resolve their most consequential disputes.
He served as lead counsel in the first NAFTA Chapter 11 arbitration proceedings ever initiated — and the first decisions ever rendered — establishing foundational precedents that continue to govern investor-state arbitration worldwide.
Since then he has represented investors and states across NAFTA, ICSID, UNCITRAL, CAFTA-DR, and bilateral treaty frameworks, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Westlaw Appleton Investor State Reports, the leading digest of investor-state decisions. He spent three years as the former AAA representative to the UNCITRAL Working Group II on the Model Law — contributing directly to the rules that govern international proceedings today.
He works at the frontier of the digital and intangible economy — digital trade, AI governance, data sovereignty, and the protection of intangible assets — and as Faculty Director of the joint ABA / NY Law School TechCred credential, he is helping define the profession's digital competencies.