Berglind Halldorsdottir Birkland is a member of the International Dispute Resolution Group and is based in the New York office. Ms. Birkland represents and advises both corporations and sovereign States in investor-State and commercial disputes in a range of industries, including mining, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and financial services. She also advises investment firms and asset managers in evaluating investments in international claims or arbitration awards.
Ms. Birkland joined the firm in 2009. She received a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2009 where she was a notes editor of the New York University Law Review. She received a B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota in 2006.
Ms. Birkland has been recognized as a Future Leader by Who’s Who Legal (2024).
Ms. Birkland is actively involved in the firm’s pro bono practice, particularly in the areas of immigrant rights and educational equity. Over the course of her career, she has secured relief from removal and other immigration protections for clients from Chile, Cote d’Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ireland, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Sudan, Trinidad, and Tibet. After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 she led Debevoise’s successful representation of more than thirty Afghan asylum seekers, including young female professionals and college students, journalists and media workers. She has authored two amicus curiae briefs on behalf of the Education Law Center and a group of constitutional and education law scholars in Cruz-Guzman v. Minnesota and Bradford v. Maryland about de facto racial segregation and inadequate public-school funding, respectively. In recognition of her commitment to such pro bono work, she has twice been awarded the Legal Aid Society’s Pro Bono Publico Award for outstanding pro bono service. She was also part of a team recognized by the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice at its Celebration of Pro Bono Excellence for work preparing submissions to the International Criminal Court.
Ms. Birkland is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, where she teaches International Commercial Arbitration (Fall 2024) and International Refugee Law (Spring 2025). She has likewise guest-lectured at her alma matter, NYU Law School and served as a faculty member at the ABA International Law Section’s International Arbitration Skills Masterclass and the Cross Examination Moot hosted by Sciences Po Law School.
Ms. Birkland currently serves as Chair of the Minnesota Bar Association’s International Business Law Section (2024-2025 term) and served on the organizing committee for the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law. Ms. Birkland’s recent publications include “Record-Breaking International Arbitration Awards – Is International Arbitration an Effective Remedy?” Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Institute (2021) (with Natalie Reid) and “Key Duties of International Investment Arbitrators: A Transnational Study of Legal and Ethical Dilemmas,” ICSID Review (2019) (with Ina Popova).
Ms. Birkland is a member of the Bars of New York and Minnesota. She is a native speaker of Icelandic.