Helmut Ortner

Managing Partner
Honorary Professor

+43 1 934 63 23 0
h.ortner@paragon-advocacy.com

Helmut Ortner specializes in complex multi-jurisdictional disputes, leveraging extensive experience from practicing law in New York, Vienna, and the London office of a leading US-based international law firm. He is experienced in arbitral practice and procedure in civil and common law systems and regularly advises clients on conflict of law issues and the international enforcement of arbitration awards and judgments. He also has extensive experience advising clients on drafting the contractual basis and framework for their international business projects.

Helmut Ortner has acted as counsel and arbitrator in ad-hoc proceedings and under the rules of major arbitral institutions (including ICC, LCIA, AAA, SIAC, DIS, VIAC, SCC, NAI, CAS and ICSID), at multiple seats and governed by a variety of substantive and procedural laws.

Helmut Ortner is a regular speaker on international arbitration topics and serves as a lecturer on US law, Austrian private law, comparative law, international dispute resolution, and advocacy at several institutions, including the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck (Austria). He is also a Honorary Professor of International Business Law and International Dispute Resolution at the Europainstitut of the University of Saarbrücken (Germany).

Helmut Ortner has published extensively on a variety of subjects and legal areas including topical issues of international contract law and arbitration law. Among others, he is the author of the monograph “Contractus and Cyber Law”, an editor of the digest “Conflict of Law”, and the leading comparative work on “Contractual Performance and Covid-19”.

Helmut Ortner has been awarded numerous honours and commendations, including the conferral of the doctorate by the Federal President of the Austrian Republic (Promotion sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae), the Würdigungspreis of the Austrian Ministry of Education for excellence in academic studies, the Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship of the Austrian Science Fund, and multiple awards for excellence in legal research and writing (including the Franz Gschnitzer Award).

In addition, Helmut Ortner is consistently featured as a Global leader in Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration. Clients and peers emphasize that he is “an impressive practitioner” and “an excellent lawyer as both counsel and arbitrator” with “excellent strategic skills” and a “deep and cutting-edge international arbitration knowledge.” They also highlight that he is “a very smart lawyer who stays calm even if under tremendous pressure” and “combines strong strategic thinking with clear communication and prioritization.” Clients and peers particularly highlight his “deep knowledge of and breathtaking experience in quantum claims and damages calculations”.

Helmut Ortner completed his studies in economics and law in Austria (Vienna, Innsbruck) and the US (Yale, Harvard) and is admitted to the New York bar as well as the Austrian bar.

He speaks English, German, and Italian.