David W. Ichel was a partner for 29 years in the New York office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where he spent more than 37 years, from 1978 through 2015, litigating complex commercial disputes and advising companies, boards of directors, executives, industry associations and institutions on litigation-related exposures. He was particularly active in claims involving commercial fraud and contract, securities, product liability and mass tort, insurance coverage and insurance company insolvency, distributor termination, antitrust and trade practice, libel/slander, and advertising / labeling. He is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., the United States Supreme Court, and numerous federal Circuit and District Courts across the United States.
Since 2016, Ichel serves as a large case mediator, arbitrator and special master in his firm X-Dispute LLC, www.x-dispute.com, resolving disputes similar to those he litigated as an advocate. He is ranked as one of the nation’s top mediators in Chambers USA, and is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Academy of Court Appointed Neutrals. He is member of the both the arbitration and mediation rosters of the American Arbitration Association (AAA), International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), CPR Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC-USCIB), Federal Arbitration (FedArb), ARIAS-US and the New York City Bar Panel for Disputes among Lawyers and Law Firms.
Ichel teaches Complex Civil Litigation at Duke Law (2010-present) and Large-Scale Litigation-Practical Skills at the University of Miami Law School (2018-2020).
Ichel received his A.B. degree, summa cum laude, from Duke University in 1975, and his J.D. from Duke Law School in 1978, cum laude, having served as a staff editor on the Duke Law Journal.
Ichel has served on the Board of Visitors of Duke Law School since 2002 (Chair 2009-2014). He served as the inaugural Chair of the Editorial Board of Judicature, on which he served through 2022. He is the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School (2025-present). He is a life member of the American Law Institute (1993-present) and chaired and served for many years as a member of the Board of Mobilization for Justice, Inc., one of the country’s oldest providers of legal services to the poor, until 2024. University of Miami Class Action & Complex Litigation Forum (2018-present); Member: Miami International Arbitration Society (2018-present).
Publications:
Mediating the Billion Dollar Case, New York Law Journal (September 30, 2025);
Is there an Arbitrator Role in Addressing Settlement with the Parties, ARIAS-US Quarterly (Q3 2025);
Testing Your Arbitration Dispute in a Mock Arbitration, New York Law Journal (March 15, 2024);
How to Avoid and Break Mediation Impasse, New York Law Journal (Oct. 24, 2023);
Arbitrator Selection Is a Key Component of the Arbitration Process, New York Law Journal (Aug. 16, 2023)
A New Guard at the Courthouse Door: Corporate Personal Jurisdiction in Complex Litigation after the Supreme Court's Decision Quartet, 71 Rutgers L. Rev 1 (2019);
Has Shoe Run Its Course: How will recent Supreme Court decisions on personal jurisdiction impact the legacy of International Shoe and the future of complex litigation?, 103 Judicature 64 (Spring 2019).
