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CIL SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION ACADEMY 2019
Profiles of Speakers and Facilitators
(in alphabetical order of surnames)
SIAA 2019 SPEAKER / TEAM COACHES
Professor Tony Anghie, Head, International Law (Teaching), Centre for
International Law; NUS Faculty of Law
Professor Tony Anghie qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria
and practised law in Melbourne, Australia before commencing his graduate studies at
Harvard Law School, where he earned his SJD degree and was appointed as a Senior Fellow
in the Graduate Program. He then taught at the SJ Quinney School of Law, University of Utah, where he
ANGHIE
served as the Samuel D Thurman Professor of Law. He has been a visiting professor at numerous schools,
including the American University Cairo, Cornell Law School, the London School of Economics, Harvard
Law School and the University of Brasilia. He has served in different capacities on the governing bodies of
the Asian Society of International Law since its founding, and was a principal organiser of the Society’s
biennial Conference in Beijing in 2011. He delivered the Grotius Lecture at the annual meeting of the
American Society of International Law in 2010.
Professor Anghie was the lead organiser of the Centre for International Law’s inaugural Teaching and
Researching International Law in Asia(TRILA) conference, which aims to identify the challenges facing
Asian law schools and to address them in an informed, coherent and collaborative manner.
Associate Professor Robert Beckman, Head, Ocean Law and Policy Programme,
NUS Centre for International Law
Associate Professor Robert Beckman is the Head of the Ocean Law and Policy programme
BECKMAN
and the former founding Director of the Centre for International Law (CIL). He is also an
Associate Professor at the NUS Faculty of Law, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the S
Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University, and a member of
the National Executive Committee of CSCAP Singapore. Since 2009 he has lectured in the summer
programme at the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy in Rhodes, Greece, and he is a member of
the Governing Board for the Rhodes Academy. He also lectures in the international maritime boundary
workshops organised by CIL. He has published widely on ocean law and policy issues.
Page 1 of 12
Mr Rodman Bundy, Partner, Eversheds Harry Elias LLP
Mr Rodman Bundy is a partner in Eversheds Harry Elias LLP, part of the Eversheds
Sutherland International network. He is a member of the New York Bar and a former
member of the French Bar. Prior to relocating to Singapore in 2013, Mr Bundy practised
with the New York based firm, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, in New York and London from
1979 to 1984, and then out of the Paris office of Eversheds (previously Frere Cholmeley) for the next 29
years.
BUNDY
Mr. Bundy specialises in public international law, international investment arbitration, commercial arbitration
and upstream oil and gas matters. Consistently ranked in the top band of public international law specialists
by Chambers and Legal 500, Mr Bundy has appeared in over 60 cases before the International Court of
Justice (including as counsel for Singapore in the Pedra Branca case and Cambodia in the Temple of Preah
Vihear case), the International Tribunal of The Law of the Sea, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the
Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, ICSID tribunals and State-to-State and commercial arbitral panels. He
lectured for 20 years at the School of Oriental and African Studies and King’s College in London before
moving to Singapore, and is a former member of the Board of the Centre for International Law at NUS.
In 2018, Mr Bundy was invited to deliver the inaugural Public International Law lecture at The Hague
Academy of International Law for its summer session. He was conferred the status of ‘Dato’ by His Majesty,
the Sultan of Brunei, and has been decorated by the Governments of Peru and Cambodia for his services.
Research Associate Professor (CIL) Jansen Calamita, Head, Investment Law and
Policy Programme, NUS Centre for International Law
Research Associate Professor N Jansen Calamita is Principal Research Fellow at the Centre
for International Law (CIL) and also the Head for the Investment Law and Policy
Programme. He also co-teaches at the Faculty of Law as Research Associate Professor
(CIL). He was previously Director of the Investment Treaty Forum and Senior Research
CALAMITA
Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London. He has previously held
posts on the law faculties of the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham, and has been a
visiting fellow of Institute of European and Comparative Law (University of Oxford) and the University of
Vienna.
Prior to entering the academia, Mr Calamita served in the Office of the Legal Adviser in the US Department
of State (International Claims and Investment Disputes Division) and as a member of the UNCITRAL
Secretariat. He began his career in private practice in New York. He holds Juris Doctor magna cum laude
(Boston) and a Bachelor of Civil Law (Oxford). He continues to advise governments on matters relating to
international investment and international dispute resolution. He is a Consultative Expert to the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development and a member of the editorial board of the Yearbook of
International Law and Policy (Oxford University Press).
Page 2 of 12
Ms Emily Choo, International Arbitration Law Clerk to Mr. J. Christopher Thomas
QC / Singapore International Arbitration Academy 2019 Programme Consultant
Ms Emily Choo assists Mr J Christopher Thomas QC on investor-state arbitration cases.
Publicly reported cases include Antin Infrastructure v Spain (ICSID), Louis Dreyfus v India
(PCA), Natland Investment v The Czech Republic (PCA), Perenco v Ecuador (ICSID), Sanum
Investments v Laos (Singapore Court of Appeal) and Swissbourgh v Lesotho (Singapore Court of
Appeal). She also has experience, both as counsel and as tribunal secretary, in a range of high-value and
complex international commercial arbitrations under the SIAC, ICC, LCIA, and UNCITRAL Rules.
CHOO
Ms Choo leads the organisation of the Singapore International Arbitration Academy, a leading international
arbitration training programme for government and private-sector lawyers worldwide.
Ms Choo is an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore. She is a CIArb Associate and a
member of the CIArb (Singapore) Sub-Committee on Witness Conferencing. She completed her LLB with a
2nd (Upper) Honours at NUS, where she was awarded the Dean’s List (2006/2007) Honours and the C J
Koh Scholarship. During her time at NUS, she was the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Singapore Law Review
and was selected to represent Singapore and NUS in the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot.
After graduation, she trained at one of the largest international law firms, after being selected for its
international clerkship.
Dr Tara Davenport, Instructor, NUS Faculty of Law
Dr Tara Davenport is currently an instructor at the Faculty of Law, National University of
Singapore (NUS) and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law at NUS.
DAVENPORT
She has an LLB from the London School of Economics, an LLM in Maritime Law from
NUS, and an LLM and JSD from Yale Law School. She received a Fulbright Scholarship in
2013 and the NUS Overseas Graduate Scholarship in 2014. She is a qualified Advocate and
Solicitor in Singapore. Her current research interests are public international law, law of the
sea and international dispute settlement. She has written on the South China Sea disputes, submarine cables
and deep seabed mining. She was a member of the Legal Working Group on Liability for Environmental
Harm from Activities in the Area convened by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI),
the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Secretariat of the International Seabed Authority.
Judge Joan Donoghue, International Court of Justice
Judge Joan Donoghue was elected to the International Court of Justice in 2010,
following a career at the US State Department, where she served as the Principal Deputy
Legal Adviser (the senior career attorney) from 2007 to 2010. Her work there spanned
DONOGHUE
diverse topics in public international law, such as the negotiation and interpretation of
treaties, the law of the sea, the environment, investment, human rights law and
international humanitarian law.
Judge Donoghue has had extensive experience with various forms of the international dispute settlement,
including adjudication, arbitration and bilateral claims agreements. She has served on investor-State arbitral
tribunals and on ICSID ad hoc annulment committees. She has taught international law courses at several
US law schools and has taught investment law in in the United Nations Regional Training Programme in
Africa.
Page 3 of 12
Professor Mark Feldman, Peking University School of Transnational Law
Mark Feldman is Professor of Law at Peking University School of Transnational Law.
He also serves as Global Associate at the National University of Singapore Centre for
International Law (CIL) and as Vice Chair of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration
Academic Council. He previously served as a member of the E15 Initiative Task Force
on Investment Policy (World Economic Forum/ICTSD) and as Chief of
FELDMAN
NAFTA/CAFTA-DR Arbitration in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the US Department of State. As
Chief, he represented the United States as a Respondent or non-disputing Party in more than a dozen
investor-State disputes and provided legal counsel supporting the negotiation of US bilateral investment
treaties and investment chapters of free trade agreements (including TPP and US-China BIT negotiations).
His government experience also includes service as a law clerk to Judge Eric L Clay on the US Court of
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho during South Africa’s transition to
democracy. In the private sector, he practised law for several years at Covington & Burling. His educational
qualifications and honours are as follows: BA, University of Wisconsin (elected to Phi Beta Kappa); and JD,
Columbia Law School (James Kent Scholar, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and recipient of the Parker School
Certificate in International and Comparative Law).
Ms Judith Gill QC, Arbitrator Member, 20 Essex Street
Ms Judith Gill QC is recognised as one of the leading practitioners in the field of
international arbitration. She has conducted cases under numerous sets of rules and
subject to many different systems of law. In particular she has experience of arbitrations
under the rules of, among others, the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA),
GILL
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Singapore International Arbitration Centre
(SIAC), International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), Hong Kong International
Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), American Arbitration
Association (AAA) and United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) with seats
including Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris, London, New York, Washington, Dubai, Geneva and Seoul. She
has particular experience of projects (especially in the energy and infrastructure sectors), joint ventures,
distributorships, investor protection disputes, insurance claims and construction disputes.
Page 4 of 12
Mr Eugenio Gomez-Chico, Research Associate, NUS Centre for International
Law
Mr Eugenio Gomez-Chico is part of the Investment Law and Policy Team at the Centre
for International Law. He holds a Master of Laws from Yale Law School, and graduated
with honours from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), where he
GOMEZ-CHICO
received a BA in Law and a BA in International Relations.
Prior to joining CIL, Mr Gomez-Chico was a Yale Fox International Fellow at the School of Regulation and
Global Governance (RegNet) of the Australian National University, where he explored different options for
reform of the investment treaty system, under the supervision of Professor Anthea Roberts.
His research has been focussed on issues of international law and adjudication, as well as judicial
globalisation. Outside academia he has experience in the public sector in Mexico, having worked for the
Supreme Court of Mexico in the office of international affairs.
Mr Gomez-Chico is a member of the Mexican Bar, the American Society of International Law, and the
European Society of International Law.
Ms Koh Swee Yen, Partner, WongPartnership LLP
Ms Koh Swee Yen is a Partner in the Commercial & Corporate Disputes and
International Arbitration Practices at WongPartnership LLP.
She has an active practice as counsel, with a particular focus on complex, high-value and
cross-border disputes across a wide spectrum of matters from commercial, energy,
international sales, trade to investment. She regularly appears before the High Court and
Court of Appeal and in international arbitrations under the major institutional rules, including ICSID, ICC,
ICDR, SIAC and UNCITRAL.
Ms Koh is the vice-chair of the IBA Arbitration Committee and also a member of the Editorial Board of the
KOH
ICC Dispute Resolution Bulletin and the ICCA-ASIL Task Force on Damages. She has also served as co-
chair of the YSIAC Committee and IBA Arb40, and is on the Panel of Arbitrators in the Asian International
Arbitration Centre and Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre. She is a council member of
International Law Association – Singapore Branch.
Ms Koh is recommended in various legal publications, including The Legal 500: Asia Pacific – The Client's Guide
to the Asia Pacific Legal Profession for Dispute Resolution, Chambers Asia-Pacific Guide – Asia Pacific's Leading
Lawyers for Business for Arbitration and Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific. Ms Koh is regarded as ‘exceptional’,
‘in a league of her own’, ‘an especially good courtroom advocate’, and ‘very well known for her arbitration
practice and knowledge’. Sources also praise her for a ‘keen sense of strategy’ and ‘great ability to quickly
grasp her clients' perspective and understand their commercial issues’. She is known to ‘fight tooth and nail
for her clients’ and regarded as one of the ‘outstanding members of the next generation’ under the age of 45
in Who's Who Legal: Arbitration – Future Leaders 2017. She is the only Singapore law firm lawyer to make the
Chambers Outstanding Young Partners list for Singapore (2017).
Page 5 of 12
Mr Edmund Kronenburg, Managing Partner, Braddell Brothers LLP
Mr Edmund Kronenburg is the Managing Partner of Braddell Brothers LLP, founded
in 1883. He is admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor (Singapore) and Solicitor (England
& Wales).
Mr Kronenburg is frequently engaged in trial and appellate advocacy in Singapore’s
High Court and Court of Appeal. His practice includes commercial and corporate
disputes, energy disputes, media/telecommunications disputes, pre-emptive relief and injunctions. He and
his team have handled cases involving Worldwide Mareva/ Freezing Injunctions with a combined value
exceeding USD 1 billion.
KRONENBURG
Mr Kronenburg also represents clients in international arbitrations, predominantly under the SIAC, ICC and
UNCITRAL Rules. He is a Fellow of the CIArb, SIArb, MIArb, AMINZ, HKIArb and PIArb.
Notably, Mr Kronenburg and his team represented the Indonesian Lippo group’s PT First Media in
successfully resisting the enforcement of over 99% of a USD250 million SIAC arbitration award obtained
against it by the Malaysian Astro group, in Singapore. He also successfully represented PT Lirik Petroleum in
its ICC arbitration against PT Pertamina (Persero).
Mr Kronenburg actively sits as an Arbitrator in Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Vietnam. He is
admitted to the panels/lists of the AIAC (Malaysia, formerly KLCRA), BANI (Indonesia), BDAC (Brunei),
CAA (Taiwan), HKIAC (Hong Kong), KCAB (Korea), IIAM (India), NCAC (Cambodia), PIAC (Vietnam),
PDRC (Philippines), IMA (Russia), SCCA (Saudi Arabia), SHIAC (Shanghai), TAI (Thailand), VIAC
(Vietnam) and VLCAC (Vietnam).
Who’s Who Legal: Litigation (2018) says that Mr Kronenburg is ‘one of Singapore's highest-regarded litigators
and arbitration counsel’. The Legal 500 has described him as ‘aggressive’, ‘articulate’, ‘good strategist’, ‘trusted
confidant’, ‘good advocate’ and ‘best in class’. Chambers & Partners has reported that Mr Kronenburg ‘…
impresses clients with his strategic approach. One source comments: ‘He has the ability to think beyond the
conventional and has brilliant ideas in terms of legal strategy’.
Page 6 of 12
Ms Judith Levine, Senior Legal Counsel, Permanent Court of Arbitration
Ms Judith Levine is Senior Legal Counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)
in The Hague, an intergovernmental organisation established by treaty in 1899, which
provides services for the resolution of disputes involving various combinations of states,
state entities, intergovernmental organisations and private parties. The PCA’s current
caseload encompasses over 150 diverse disputes involving disputes between states as
well as mixed arbitrations under investment treaties and commercial contracts. Ms
Levine has served as the Registrar in the South China Sea arbitration, the Atlanto-
Scandian herring arbitration, and the Abyei arbitration. She has assisted over 35 tribunals in some of the
LEVINE
world’s largest investor-state and commercial cases, including Energy Charter Treaty arbitrations brought by
former shareholders of Yukos against Russia. She served as tribunal secretary in the Bangladesh Accord
arbitrations, the first business and human rights cases at the PCA. Ms Levine also assists the PCA Secretary-
General in appointing arbitrators, and frequently writes and presents on issues of public international law
and dispute resolution. From 2011 to 2012, Ms Levine served as the PCA Representative in Mauritius. She
has been appointed to the list of arbitrators of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, to the Disciplinary Board
of the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and as sole arbitrator in commercial disputes under the ICC and
SIAC Rules. She is recognised in Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration – Future Leaders. Ms Levine has been a visiting
lecturer on climate change related disputes at King’s College London and a visiting fellow at Sydney
University Centre for International Law. Before joining the PCA, she practised for five years in the
arbitration group of White & Case in New York. She previously worked as a judicial clerk at the
International Court of Justice, as an adviser to the Attorney-General of Australia, and as a judge’s associate
at the High Court of Australia.
Ms Dita Liliansa, Research Associate, NUS Centre for International Law
Ms Dita Liliansa obtained her first law degree from the University of Indonesia in
LILIANSA
2014 where she specialised in public international law. In 2017, she completed her
LLM at the University of Washington under the sponsorship of the Fulbright
Program. Recently, she was awarded special recognition as the Best Oralist of the 2018
IFLOS Moot Court Competition at the International Tribunal for the Law of the
Sea. Her current research focusses on passage through Indonesian waters, IUU
fishing, and regional ocean governance in Southeast Asia.
Ms Sarah Lim, Research Consultant, NUS Centre for International Law
Ms Sarah Lim has assisted Professor Lucy Reed and Mr J Christopher Thomas QC in
their international investment and international commercial arbitration proceedings, as
well as in their research. She is an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of
LIM
Singapore, and a member of the New York bar. Prior to joining CIL, she worked for a
Senior Counsel in one of Singapore’s largest law firms. While completing her LLB at
the National University of Singapore, she represented Singapore at the Philip C Jessup
International Law Moot Court Competition. She placed second in the best individual
oralist rankings, and her team won the Richard R Baxter prize for their written memorials.
Page 7 of 12
Professor Vaughan Lowe QC
Professor Vaughan Lowe is a practising Barrister at Essex Court Chambers, mainly in
the field of international law, with cases in the International Court of Justice, the ECJ,
the ECHR, the ITLOS, the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, ad hoc Arbitral Tribunals and
LOWE
courts in England and Hong Kong, among others. He has also sat as an arbitrator in
many investment arbitrations under the auspices of ICSID, the Permanent Court of
Arbitration and other bodies; and on the tribunals addressing the boundaries between
Trinidad and Barbados, and between Croatia and Slovenia; and on the current Ukraine v Russia UNCLOS
tribunal. He sat as an ad hoc judge on the European Court of Human Rights and is the UK-nominated judge
on the European Nuclear Energy Tribunal. He is Emeritus Chichele Professor of Public International Law
and an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College in the University of Oxford.
Ms Millicent McCreath, Research Associate, NUS Centre for International Law
Ms Millicent McCreath is a Research Associate with the Ocean Law and Policy team at
the Centre for International Law. At CIL her work focusses on protection of the marine
environment and law of the sea dispute settlement. In 2017 Ms McCreath was awarded
the prize for best written exam at the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy.
MCCREATH
Ms McCreath graduated in 2015 with an LLM in Law of the Sea from the University of
Tromsø, Norway’s Arctic University. While at Tromsø, she specialised in polar law and
the protection of the marine environment from shipping. She completed her undergraduate studies in 2013
at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, graduating with an LLB (Hons) and a
BA in Environmental Studies. In 2011 Ms McCreath was awarded a scholarship to study on exchange at
Lund University, Sweden, where she spent a year studying courses on global environmental issues and legal
history.
Ms McCreath was admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales, Australia, in 2014. She completed her
practical legal training at the Environmental Defenders Office (NSW), a public interest environmental law
centre in Sydney. Prior to joining CIL, she worked as Tipstaff (judicial clerk) to Justice Nicola Pain of the
Land and Environment Court in Sydney.
Dr Hao Duy Phan, Senior Research Fellow, NUS Centre for International Law
Dr Hao Duy Phan is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law. He is
the author of many books and articles on various issues of international law. Prior to
joining the Centre for International Law, he worked as Assistant Director-General of
PHAN
the Department of International Law and Treaties, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Vietnam, and a visiting fellow at the East-West Center in Washington DC and the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. Dr Phan received a BA from the
Institute for International Relations of Vietnam, an LLM summa cum laude from the
University of Notre Dame Law School, and an SJD from the American University Washington College of
Law.
Page 8 of 12
Dr Vincent- Joël Proulx, Assistant Professor, NUS Faculty of Law
Dr Vincent-Joël Proulx is Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of
Law, where he teaches and researches in the areas of international law, international dispute
PROULX
settlement and comparative law. Prior to joining NUS Law, he served a three-year term as Special
Assistant to the President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. His past
appointments also included serving as Legal Officer to the Vice-President of the ICJ, Law Clerk at
both the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the ICJ, Québec Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars, and Secrétaire-rédacteur at the last four sessions of the Institut de Droit International.
He is the author of Institutionalizing State Responsibility: Global Security and UN Organs (Oxford University Press 2016)
and Transnational Terrorism and State Accountability: A New Theory of Prevention (Hart Publishing 2012). He was appointed as
Director of Studies for the 2022 winter session of The Hague Academy of International Law.
Professor Lucy Reed, Director, NUS Centre for International Law
Professor Lucy Reed is Director of the NUS Centre for International Law and teaches
international arbitration and mediation on the Law Faculty. Formerly head of the
Freshfields global international arbitration group, she currently sits as arbitrator and
REED
serves as a Vice-President of the SIAC Court and the Council for International
Commercial Arbitration (ICCA). Among other positions, Lucy has served as a
Commissioner on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission, General Counsel of the IO Korean Peninsula
Energy Development Organization (dealing with North Korea) and, while with the US State Department,
the US Agent to the Iran-US Claims Tribunal. She was President of the American Society of International
Law from 2008-10 and delivered Hague Lectures on Private International Law in 2001.
Professor Philippe Sands QC, University College London / Barrister, Matrix
Chambers
Professor Philippe Sands QC is Professor of Law at University College London and a
practising barrister at Matrix Chambers. He frequently appears before international
SANDS
courts, including the ICJ and the ICC, and acts as an arbitrator at ICSID, the PCA
and CAS. He has been involved in significant cases of recent years, including
Pinochet, Congo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq and Guantanamo. He is the author of
several books, the most recent being East West Street: On the Origins Of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity,
winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize (2016) and the Prix Montaigne (2018). He is a frequent contributor to the
Financial Times and the Guardian. His latest project is The Ratline, a BBC podcast, which is the subject of his
next book. He is President of English PEN and on the board of the Hay Festival.
Page 9 of 12
Ms Fedelma Claire Smith, Senior Legal Counsel and PCA Representative in
Singapore
Ms Fedelma Claire Smith is Senior Legal Counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration
(PCA) and serves as the PCA Representative and Legal Officer in Singapore under the
PCA-Singapore Host Country Agreement concluded in July 2017. The PCA is an
intergovernmental organisation established by treaty in 1899, which provides services for
the resolution of disputes involving various combinations of states, state entities,
intergovernmental organisations and private parties. The PCA’s docket currently encompasses over 150
diverse disputes involving territorial, maritime, treaty and environmental disputes between states, and
commercial and investment cases under investment treaties and contracts. Ms Smith provided assistance in
the Eritrea-Ethiopia boundary arbitration, the Abyei arbitration between the Government of Sudan and the
SMITH
Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement/Army, and the land and maritime boundary arbitration between
Croatia and Slovenia. She serves as tribunal secretary in a number of significant investor-state and
commercial cases. Ms Smith also assists the PCA Secretary-General in the appointment of arbitrators, and
frequently writes and presents on issues of public international law and international dispute resolution.
From 2012 to 2014, Ms Smith was the PCA Representative and Legal Officer in Mauritius, assisting
with implementation of the Mauritius International Arbitration Act and educational and outreach activities
to promote PCA services in Africa and the Indian Ocean region.
From 2008 to 2010, Ms Smith served as associate legal officer and law clerk at the International Court of
Justice, where she was law clerk to Judge Awn Al-Khasawneh and Judge Sir Kenneth Keith. Ms Smith is a
member of the Bar of England and Wales and a Harmsworth Scholar of the Middle Temple, and completed
pupillage in London in the fields of civil, public, and family law. She holds a BA in English Law with
German Law from Oxford University, where she was awarded the Wadham College Scholarship and the
Peter Carter Memorial Prize, and an Advanced LLM cum laude in Public International Law from Leiden
University.
Ms Charis Tan, Director, DWF LLP
Ms Charis Tan is admitted in three jurisdictions (Singapore, England and Wales and
New York), and she advises States and MNCs on commercial and public
international law issues, including in high profile State-to-State disputes before the
TAN
International Court of Justice. She has also worked on a wide range of investment
treaty and commercial arbitrations under the rules of major arbitration institutions,
including ICSID, ICC, SIAC and SCC, as well as ad hoc proceedings under
UNCITRAL Rules. Ms Tan is appointed as counsel, and she also sits as an arbitrator.
Ms Tan has been named as a future leader in arbitration by Who’s Who Legal, and recognised in the field by
Legal 500 and FT Innovative Lawyers. She is also co-editor of Investment Protection in Southeast Asia (Brill 2017).
Page 10 of 12Mr Paul Tan, Partner, Rajah & Tann LLP
Mr Paul Tan is a band 1 leading individual for international arbitration (Legal 500). He
is called to the Singapore and English bars. His ‘impressive commercial disputes
TAN
practice’ includes instructions as lead counsel before international arbitral tribunals, the
Singapore International Commercial Court and arbitration-related litigation. He is
described as ‘an absolute star’, and his cases often involve complex issues of private
and public international law. He is co-authoring the next edition of Mustill and Boyd’s
treatise on international commercial and investment arbitration.
Ms Rachel Tan, Practice Fellow, NUS Centre for International Law
Ms Rachel Tan holds a BA (Honours) and an LLB (Honours) from the National
University of Singapore (NUS). Before joining the Centre for International Law, she
served as a political and economic officer with the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs
where she was posted to the Southeast Asia and Europe Directorates, and trained at a
large law firm in Singapore.
TAN
During her time in NUS, she was awarded the Special Book Prize in European Studies for being the best
student in the programme and was placed on the Dean’s List during her BA. At NUS Law, she was awarded
the Best Memorial (Individual) in the Mallal Moot Competition in 2015, was a semi-finalist in the Drew and
Napier Advocacy Cup Competition in 2016, and represented NUS at the National Round of the Philip C
Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in 2017.
Ms Tan was also the second runner-up in the Christopher Bathurst Essay Prize Competition organised by
Fountain Court Chambers and the Singapore Academy of Law (2017). She won the Chartered Institute of
Arbitrators (Singapore Branch) Procedural Order Competition (2018) and the Essex Court Chambers–
Singapore Academy of Law International Mooting Competition (2019).
Mr J Christopher Thomas QC
While in private practice, Mr Chris Thomas acted as counsel to various governments and
private sector clients and, as such, advised on different international trade negotiations at
the bilateral, trilateral and multilateral levels. He has been involved in the design, drafting
and ‘legal scrubbing’ of treaty texts, and has argued many international trade cases before
domestic administrative tribunals and international trade dispute settlement panels.
THOMAS
Starting in the mid-1990s, he began to act as legal counsel in investor-State (ISDS) claims
brought against the Government of Mexico, and his firm was active in many WTO disputes. He has also
been called upon from time to time to provide legal opinions and expert reports on international trade and
investment issues. In 2008, he decided to no longer accept briefs as counsel in ISDS cases and began to
accept appointments to various international investment treaty tribunals. Since then he has acted as an
arbitrator in many treaty and commercial cases. He also joined the NUS Centre for International Law (2012–
18) as a Senior Principal Research Fellow, and while at the Centre appeared before the Singapore Court of
Appeal as amicus curiae in two cases (in the second case, together with CIL’s Research Associate Professor N
Jansen Calamita). In June 2018, he concluded his six-year tenure with CIL and returned to Canada, where he
continues his practice as an international arbitrator.
Page 11 of 12Dr Romesh Weeramantry, Counsel, Clifford Chance Asia
Dr Romesh Weeramantry specialises in investment treaty disputes and complex cross-
WEERAMANTRY
border commercial arbitrations. He has worked at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal
and at the United Nations Compensation Commission, which resolved claims resulting
from Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. His publications include The Hong Kong Arbitration
Ordinance: Commentary and Annotations (2nd edn, Sweet & Maxwell 2015), Treaty Interpretation in Investment
Arbitration (Oxford University Press 2012) and International Commercial Arbitration: An Asia-Pacific
Perspective (Cambridge University Press 2011). He is a General Editor of the Asian Dispute Review, a General
Arbitration Editor of the Hong Kong White Book and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Hong
Kong. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the ICSID Review, the IBA Subcommittee on Investment
Treaty Arbitration, and the Hong Kong Arbitration Charity Ball Committee.
Mr Alvin Yap, Senior Associate, Eversheds Harry Elias
Mr Alvin Yap regularly acts as Counsel in inter-State and investor-State disputes. He has
represented States in proceedings before the International Court of Justice, the Iran-US
Claims Tribunal and arbitrations administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration and
ICSID. He also routinely advises States and corporations on matters of public
YAP
international law, particularly on land and maritime boundary issues.
Mr Yap graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2012 placed on the overall Dean’s
List. He was appointed as a Lecturer at NUS from 2017 to 2019, where he teaches a course on inter-State
disputes. He received an ‘Excellence in Advocacy’ award at the 2016 Singapore International Arbitration
Academy.
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