Short Bio

Donna Ross is an international commercial lawyer, arbitrator and mediator and the principal of Donna Ross Dispute Resolution. She is admitted to practice in New York and Australia, holds a French civil law degree, is multilingual and multicultural and has a broad-based background in business and technology.

Ms Ross is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), a Resolution Institute (IAMA) Graded Arbitrator, an Accredited Specialist in Mediation Law (LIV), an IMI (International Mediation Institute) Accredited Mediator and has been ranked by the 2018 and 2019 Doyle’s Guide as one of Victoria’s Leading Mediators. She on the faculty of the CIArb and the Australian Disputes Centre and a lecturer at La Trobe Law School. She teaches mediation, arbitration and principled negotiation.

In addition to serving as a neutral, Donna advises and acts for clients from civil and common law jurisdictions, particularly in cross-border deals and disputes in a range of industries, including private equity investments, partnership, shareholder, import, licensing, supply, marketing and distribution negotiations and agreements. She has particular expertise in retail leases, franchise law, IT, the wine industry and the CISG (Convention on the International Sale of Goods). Her focus is preventing and resolving disputes in a cost-effective and commercial manner.

Donna sits on a number of panels as both arbitrator and mediator, including the Victorian Small Business Commission, Australian Disputes Centre, Asian International Arbitration Centre (formerly KLRCA), World Intellectual Property Organization, Immediation (On-line Dispute Resolution), Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ABSFEO), Law Institute of Victoria Arbitrators Directory and the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria.

She chairs Resolution Institute’s Victorian Arbitration Committee and sits on the National Determinative Committee, and is a member of ICC Australia’s ADR Committee, AFIA, ArbitralWomen (Website Committee) among other associations.