International Conference on Arbitration

Speaker

Opening Remarks

Danesh Chandran, Assistant Director, Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC)

Special Address | Need for Rules of Conduct for Arbitrators

Dr Ulrich Wessels, President, The German Federal Bar

Lawyer and notary Dr Ulrich Wessels completed his law studies in Freiburg and Münster. After spending some time in London and a doctorate on the subject of "Execution of Wills on a Limited Partnership Share", he was admitted to the bar in 1988. He is a partner in the law firm Dr. Koenig & Partner GbR in Münster.

He has been a member of the board of the Regional Bar Hamm since 1994, served as its treasurer for several years, and was president of the bar from 2012 to November 2019. Since 2003, he has been a board member and treasurer of the German Lawyers' Institute. In 2015, Ulrich Wessels was elected as 2nd Vice President of The German Federal Bar. Since 2018, Dr. Ulrich Wessels has been President of The German Federal Bar.

Special Address | Court of Arbitration at the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Prof. Dr. Stephan Wernicke, Chief Legal Officer, German Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Stephan F. Wernicke is Chief Legal Officer of the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK, representing approx. 4 million commercial enterprises in Germany and 150 German Chambers of Commerce abroad) and Professor for European Law at Humboldt-University Berlin. He holds a PhD in Law from Humboldt-University. He advises and is a renowned speaker on German and European Legal Policy. Since 2023 he serves as Chairman of the board of the newly established Court of Arbitration of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Prior assignments include: Member of the private office of the Vice President of the European Commission and Member of Cabinet, Chambers of the German Judge at the European Court of Justice, Luxemburg.

Technical Session 1: Future of Arbitration – The New Digital Way

Arun Chawla, Director General, Indian Council of Arbitration

Mr. Arun Chawla is the Director General of Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA) and Principal Advisor FICCI. He is the Former Director General, FICCI.

ICA, an apex Arbitral Institution of India and a quasi-judicial body is able to provide world class arbitrations, international and domestic due to its modern well-equipped infrastructure and networks. As an organisation it has also been deeply involved in development of Arbitration Law and Policy including the ongoing reforms to promote awareness and provide technical knowledge in Arbitration laws and Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure.

He serves as a member of several Government constituted committees. He has been a speaker at many of the national and international Conferences, representing FICCI & ICA.

Mr. Chawla is a prolific writer who has authored many articles for the national dailies of India and reputed magazines on legal, social, and political-economy issues.

Nitin Nadkarni, Chairperson, Bar Council Arbitration and Construction Law Committee

Nitin is a consultant and head of his firm’s International Arbitration and Tax, Customs & Trade practices. His main area of practice is in International Arbitration, with a focus on oil & gas, energy, construction & engineering, and infrastructure projects. Moreover, he also focuses on income tax and customs litigation and disputes. Nitin has more than 37 years of experience in representing major governmental organisations, multinational corporations, national and international contractors, sub-contractors, financial institutions and high-profile individuals in arbitration, litigation, income tax and customs disputes. He has acted as counsel and sat as arbitrator in disputes arising from projects in or arbitrations seated in Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, London, Switzerland, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Paris, and Algeria under ad-hoc and institutional rules such as the AIAC, ICC, SIAC and LCIA rules. In the first case of its kind in Malaysia, he currently represents the Republic of Zimbabwe before the Malaysian courts, to resist applications by Swiss and German investors to enforce ICSID arbitration awards.

Angela Lin, Taiwan Bar Association

Angela Y. Lin is a partner at the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Department of Lee and Li, Attorneys-at-Law, the biggest law firm in Taiwan. Qualified to practice law in Taiwan and the state of New York, U.S.A, Angela has assisted various local and foreign clients in many large Taiwan infrastructure projects, including Independent Power Plants, the Taiwan High Speed Rail Project, the Taiwan Fourth Nuclear Power Plant Project, the Taoyuan Airport MRT Project and offshore wind power Projects. Angela is active in local and international arbitration societies. She is the LAWASIA ExCo member representing the Taiwan Bar Association, a director of the Chinese Arbitration Association, Taipei ("CAA") and the Vice-Chairperson of the CAA Mediation Center.

John Rundell, Vice Chair, LAWASIA ADR Committee 

John Rundell is a member of the LAWASIA ADR Committee and former Chair. He practices extensively in the area of ADR as an Arbitrator, Mediator and Expert Determiner. John has extensive commercial and accounting experience gained over more than 30 years in professional services, industry and banking. He is a former partner of global accounting firm KPMG having worked internationally. He has been a director of Stratica since 2004 which isa cybersecurity specialist firm. John is both a CPA and chartered accountant with specialist designation as a forensic accountant. He regularly appears as a court expert witness and expert determiner, arbitrator or mediator in technology disputes.

John is a member of the ICC Banking Commission Techniques and Standards Committee has oversight of UCP 600, DOCDEX BPO (Bank Payment Obligations) etc., a Qualified Security Assessor and he regularly acts as an expert determiner and also mediator in shareholder, company valuation and ICT commercial disputes.

Moderator

Kei-Lin Ting-Winarto, Director, Data Protection Unit, German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK)

Kei-Lin Ting-Winarto is Director at the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK). She is heading the Data Protection Unit and DPO of the DIHK. Besides, she is also responsible for legal policy projects. Before her assignment at DIHK she worked in the field of international legal cooperation. Since 2010 she is admitted to the German legal profession and has lived and worked in Jakarta and Taipei.

Technical Session 2: New Age Commercial Disputes In International Disputes

Dr Pinky Anand, Chair, LAWASIA ADR Committee

Dr Pinky Anand is a senior advocate with a diverse practice in constitutional, civil arbitration and criminal law. She is the former Additional Solicitor General for the Republic of India and is the second woman in India to have held this office. She holds a Masters’ degree in law from the Harvard Law School. She is registered as an arbitrator with the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (“DIAC”) as well as a registered legal practitioner in DIFC Courts. She is also a member of No 5 Barristers Chambers (UK) as a door tenant. She has represented the country in various national and international forums including BRICS and SCO. She is the Exco member, Alternate Country Councilor (India) LAWASIA and Chair of the ADR committee (Business Law Section) of LAWASIA, Governing Body Member of Indian Council of Arbitration and Associate Member’s Constituency of Indian Council of Arbitration.

Rajendra Navaratnam, Member, Bar Council Arbitration and Construction Law Committee

Rajendra Navaratnam is a lawyer who obtained his first degree in electrical engineering and started his career as an engineer in the power industry. After 10 years in the power industry he retrained in law and started his legal career with Azman Davidson and Co in 1988, which has a major construction/arbitration practice. He became a partner in 1993. He is a past Chairman of the Malaysian Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and is presently one of Malaysia’s two members of the ICC Court of Arbitration in Paris.

Myung Ahn Kim, International Committee Member, Korean Bar Association

Myung-Ahn Kim is Head of Yoon & Yang’s International Arbitration/Dispute Resolution Team at Yoon & Yang and Member of the International Committee of the Korean Bar Association. Before Joining the firm, she garnered specialized professional expertise at the Bank of Korea, California Department of Justice/Attorney General’s Office, and a UK-based global law firm, respectively. Ms. Kim has successfully represented domestic and international entities in ICC, SIAC, DIS, LMAA, HKIAC, and KCAB arbitrations (including complex cross border enforcement procedures). She has also acted as counsel for the Republic of Korea in an investor-state dispute (ISD) related to an expropriation of land claim under the Korea-US FTA and obtained victory on behalf of the state. Ms. Kim is consistently lauded as Leading Individual in international arbitration by Chambers & Partners, Legal500, Benchmark, WWL et al., and serves on the panel of international arbitrators for the KCAB, HKIAC and LICA. She is a member of the California Bar since 2006.

Lara Quie, Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific, Twenty Essex

Lara Quie is the Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific at Twenty Essex chambers in Singapore. After graduating from Oxford, Lara qualified as a European Competition Lawyer with Dentons and spent time working in DG Competition at the European Commission. After several years as an associate, she left the law to become an entrepreneur. She moved to Asia in 2011 first to Hong Kong and then to Singapore, where she has been for the past 8 years. Lara has a passion for personal branding and networking. She has a podcast called The Legal Genie Podcast and can be found daily on LinkedIn.

Moderator

Ng Chu Yin, Head of Legal, AIAC

Chu Yin is a dual-qualified professional who obtained her first degree in Quantity Surveying and a degree in law. She has over 18 years of experience of national and international experience working in Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. She has taken on professional and contracting roles on a wide range of projects: these encompass commercial, residential, infrastructure, and façades including interiors, fit-outs, new builds and leaky building remediation. She has been involved in arbitration proceedings for various construction projects, including as the party's representative, the expert witness' assistant, as well as case management. She holds a master’s degree in construction contract management, a degree in quantity surveying and a degree in law. She is also a chartered Quantity Surveyor with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and a Registered Quantity Surveyor with the Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia. She is currently the Head of Legal Services with the AIAC

Technical Session 3: Mediation and Arbitration

Mary Walker (OAM), Barrister, 9WENTWORTH Chambers, Australia

Mary Walker has been at the forefront of ADR in Australia for the last 30 years. During this period, as a member of an independent Bar, Mary has arbitrated, mediated, negotiated, facilitated multi- party, environmental and community disputes, designed dispute resolution systems and provided expert appraisal and ombudsman services in respect to thousands of disputes referred by solicitors, industry and government bodies and corporations both domestic and international. Mary has mediated over 4,000 matters. Mary is a member of many mediation and arbitration panels including the Supreme Court of NSW and the Singapore International Mediation Centre Panel and mediates for the Supreme Court of The Australian Capital Territory. Mary is an NBN Panel Arbitrator approved by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) (2016-2023). Mary is a Fellow of the Australian Dispute Resolution Association (ADRA), awarded for “Outstanding Contribution to Australian Dispute Resolution” in 2017. Mary was Co-President of ADRA with Professor Laurence Boulle (2018-2019), Co-Vice Chair of the International Bar Association (IBA) Mediation Committee (2018), Senior Vice Chair of the IBA Mediation Committee (2019) and Co-Chair of the IBA Mediation Committee (2020-2021). Mary is a member of the IBA and Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC) Consensual Dispute Resolution Competition (CDRC) Organising Committee (2020). Mary is also a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR Task Force on ADR and Arbitration (2020- 2021). Mary was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) For Service to the Law in 2021.

Dr Harald Sippel, Foreign Lawyer (Austria), Skrine

Dr. Harald Sippel is an Austrian qualified lawyer who has been licensed by the Malaysian Bar to practise as a foreign lawyer at Skrine. He is a native speaker of German and is also fluent in English, French, Italian and Korean. Harald specialises in dispute resolution and regularly deals with matters involving international arbitration and mediation. He has been engaged in many international arbitrations as counsel and as arbitrator. He holds a certificate in Supply Chain Management from Rutgers University and regularly advises companies on legal matters arising out of supply chain contracts. He also frequently deals with ESG-related supply chain questions, as well as compliance issues.

Jeffrey Li, Arbitrator, Chinese Arbitration Association (CAA)

Jeffrey Li is an associate partner of the litigation team of Lee and Li. He is also an arbitrator of the Chinese Arbitration Association (“CAA”) and was the Chairman of the Young Arbitrator Committee of the CAA from 2018 to 2022. Jeffrey lectured for the professional arbitrator training program of CAA for multiple years. In addition to international and domestic arbitration and litigation, Jeffrey also practices cross-border dispute management, constantly helping clients working with forging law firms to deal with cross-border disputes. Jeffrey often assists clients in handling public law issues in the applications to the government and the interaction with the government. Jeffrey specializes in helping clients solve issues and bargain with the government via the public law profession. Jeffrey is the chairman of the Constitutional Litigation Committee of the Taiwan Bar Association and lectures at the Soochow University Law School.

Raja Kumar Raja Kandan, Member, Bar Council Arbitration and Construction Law Committee

Raja Kumar is a partner in Azman Davidson & Co in their arbitration and dispute resolution practice, making regular appearances in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court as well as in the arbitration and adjudication circuits both locally and internationally. His area of practice includes arbitration, adjudication and building Construction as well as in other areas including insurance and/or general litigation.

He is presently a certified adjudicator with the Asian International Arbitration Centre (“AIAC”), a member of the Bar Council Arbitration and Construction Law Committee, associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (“CIArb”), Treasurer of CIArb Malaysia and a Fellow of the Asian Institute of Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Moderator

Swetlana Schaworonkowa, Legal Senior Advisor, The German Federal Bar

Senior Legal Advisor Swetlana Schaworonkowa, LL.M. is Senior Legal Advisor at the International Department of The German Federal Bar responsible for the relations to partners form the Asian-Pacific region and Israel. She studied law in Berlin, Moscow, Singapore and Shanghai and was admitted to the bar in 2013. After having worked as Legal and Compliance Counsel at Porsche Motors in Shanghai, she joined The German Federal Bar in 2018. Today she is responsible for coordination and implementation of the country operations and legal cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and Israel.