Eric Ives is Senior Counsel for the Europe team with the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Mr. Ives leads a team of legal development professionals’ work bilaterally in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania, and multilaterally across Europe. Mr. Ives previously served as Attorney-Advisor for the Central Asia and Pakistan team, where he led the agency’s bilateral legal development portfolio with Uzbekistan and the agency’s alternative dispute resolution portfolios bilaterally in Pakistan and across the MENA region.  

Prior to joining CLDP, Mr. Ives was an associate in the international arbitration group of White & Case LLP where his practice focused on international commercial and investor-State arbitration. He advised corporate and sovereign clients across industries, with experience in financial services, manufacturing, insurance, construction, telecommunications, and post-M&A disputes under all major institutional rules, including UNCITRAL, ICSID, ICC, LCIA, JAMS, and AAA-ICDR. 

Mr. Ives received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar, Davis Polk Leadership Fellow, and editor of the Journal of Transnational Law. Mr. Ives also represented Columbia in the 25th Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court where his team advanced to the Round of 8. Mr. Ives received his B.A. in International Relations and German Literature from New York University and served as a Fulbright Fellow to Germany after graduation. He is admitted to practice law in the State of New York. Mr. Ives is proficient in German.