Our Mandate.
Learn about the Houston Place of Arbitration's objectives,
mission, and values.
Houston Place of Arbitration (HPA) is a member-led initiative of the Texas dispute resolution community with an objective of the promotion of Houston as a leading seat for international arbitration. HPA aims to strengthen Houston’s reputation as a neutral, reliable, and sophisticated venue for the resolution of domestic and international disputes, and to enhance the city’s visibility and credibility as a seat of arbitration.
Houston Place of Arbitration benefits from the collective experience of its contributors and supporters, including those with expertise in international arbitration and related fields such as energy, construction, infrastructure, maritime, and cross-border commercial disputes. HPA community includes a significant number of bilingual and multilingual professionals, enabling effective engagement with parties, counsel, and experts from across the Americas and other regions. Houston’s international character, including its multicultural and multilingual professional population, is an integral part of this identity.
The mission of Houston Place of Arbitration is to unite and connect the diverse arbitration communities in Houston, the State of Texas and worldwide.
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Objectives
Houston Place of Arbitration seeks to highlight Houston’s role as a global center for energy, construction, maritime, and infrastructure-related disputes.
HPA provides practitioners, in-house counsel, academics, and students with practical tools and resources to better understand domestic and international arbitration landscape in the United States and the Americas.
HPA’s goal is also to benefit a large community of bilingual and multilingual legal and business professionals, supporting the conduct of international proceedings in Spanish and English, as well as other languages.
A Threefold Mission
Houston Place of Arbitration has a threefold mission:
(1) to promote Houston as a seat of arbitration for both Spanish- and English-language disputes;
(2) to showcase the depth and quality of Houston-based practitioners active in domestic and international arbitration; and
(3) to educate practitioners, in-house counsel, and other stakeholders about the advantages of Texas arbitration law, Texas state courts, and the pro-arbitration jurisprudence of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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What We Do
Conferences, meetings, publications, and debates form the core of the HPA’s activities. Houston Place of Arbitration organizes online and in-person events in the United States and abroad to promote international arbitration practice and to highlight the advantages that Houston offers as a seat of arbitration.
HPA facilitates dialogue between different arbitration communities and enables participants to remain informed about developments in arbitration through both formal programming and informal professional exchanges.
Through these activities, HPA also supports the development of professional capacity in Houston, including engagement with academic programs and initiatives that contribute to the training of practitioners interested in arbitration.
Neutrality
HPA remains a not-for-profit organization and does not provide expert opinions, legal advice, or services in connection with individual arbitration proceedings. It is not an arbitral institution and does not administer arbitration proceedings, appoint arbitrators, or otherwise manage cases.
Houston Place of Arbitration is dedicated exclusively to the promotion of Houston as a seat of arbitration, information, education and facilitation of international exchange.
HPA does not give advantage/promote individual law firms or practitioners and maintains strict neutrality in this respect. Its activities are focused solely on promoting Houston as a competitive, credible, and attractive forum for international dispute resolution.
