Domestic and International Arbitration and Mediation

After graduating from Yale University magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1960 and receiving a Master's Degree in International Relations with emphasis on South Asia from the University of California at Berkeley in 1962 with a working knowledge of Hindi, Mr. Levit joined the U.S. Foreign Service and spent the bulk of his time over the next two years as an Economic Officer in the American Embassy in New Delhi working first for John Kenneth Galbraith and then Chester Bowles.

He received his LL.B from the Harvard Law School in 1967, where he was Editor-In-Chief of the Harvard International Law Journal. Mr. Levit worked for the next 6 years in New York City as a litigation associate for Davis Polk & Wardwell. In 1973 he joined another old line Wall Street law firm, Hughes Hubbard & Reed, to return home to California and become a litigation partner in the firm's newly-opened Los Angeles office. Mr. Levit withdrew from the partnership in 1979 to become Secretary and General Counsel of Rexnord Inc., a then-Fortune 250, multinational, heavy manufacturing company headquartered in Milwaukee.

In 1983 Mr. Levit left Rexnord to join Wisconsin-based Godfrey & Kahn's Milwaukee office as a shareholder. During his 30 years with the firm, he chaired its Litigation and International Practice Groups and served on its Board of Directors and for over 25 years was its Loss Prevention Partner and Claims Counsel.

Mr. Levit is admitted to practice and an active member of the Bars of the States of California, New York and Wisconsin.

Mr. Levit's law practice, whether based in New York, California, or Wisconsin, took him over 50 years to state and Federal courts throughout the United States as well as to courts and arbitral tribunals in other countries. Before establishing Levit ADR LLC in 2014, Mr. Levit's law practice was quite diverse and eclectic. He handled all aspects of complex commercial and business disputes including trade regulation and product distribution; unfair competition and other business torts; franchise law; executive employment disputes; insurance and reinsurance coverage and bad faith; insurance regulation, rehabilitation and insolvency; attorneys' and accountants' liability; financial institutions; securities; class actions; mergers and acquisitions; corporate and shareholder disputes; partnership; LLC and joint venture disputes; patent and trademark infringement and licensing; software and other technology disputes; environmental; Native American law; and international sales and transactional law.

As an advocate, Mr. Levit has had significant experience representing clients in arbitrations under a wide variety of rules. These include the American Arbitration Association, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, the CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, the International Arbitral Centre of the Federal Economic Chamber of Vienna, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Zürich Chamber of Commerce, UNCITRAL, and other ad hoc rules and procedures.

For over 35 years Mr. Levit has served as sole, chair, emergency and panel arbitrator in well over 100 domestic and international commercial, corporate, insurance, reinsurance, employment and securities arbitrations, under CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, American Arbitration Association, International Centre for Dispute Resolution, ICC, New York Stock Exchange, NASD, UNCITRAL and various other ad hoc rules and procedures. He has mediated scores of disputes of various kinds. He is a contributor to the 4th edition of the College of Commercial Arbitrators Guide to Best Practices in Commercial Arbitration (2017).