Robert Houston is an international arbitration associate who has acted for major corporate or state-owned entities and other clients in complex cross-border matters with substantial amounts in dispute, including in international investment treaty and commercial arbitrations under the arbitral rules of the ICC, ICSID, SCC, SIAC, and UNCITRAL.

Robert is also the pro bono coordinator of the Singapore office, a founding member and executive director of The Global Pro Bono Bar Association, and a leader in the firmwide Anti-Human Trafficking Initiative, in which he has coordinated a number of multi-jurisdictional pro bono projects involving multiple K&L Gates offices and collaborating firms around the world.

Prior to joining the firm, Robert represented the United States in Singapore through the development of scholarship related to the use of international arbitral process to resolve disputes in public international law with the U.S. Department of State Fulbright Program. He served as a Captain in the 1-175 Infantry Battalion of the Maryland Army National Guard and earned the U.S. Army’s Meritorious Service Medal for his work as the U.S. battalion communications officer deployed to the Egyptian Sinai with the Multinational Force & Observers peacekeeping mission in 2011-2012.

Robert holds the Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown Law in Washington, D.C. and the Master of Economic Law degree (Master II, Global Governance Studies) from Sciences Po Law School in Paris. He completed his internship service with international arbitration teams in the offices of two global law firms in Paris and Singapore, served as a summer law intern with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and Consumer Protection Branch, and completed a judicial internship with Judge Lynn Leibovitz of the District of Columbia Superior Court.