Shane Doyle (Australia) KC

Widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading silks with a “world class” practice (Chambers & Partners 2017) in international and domestic commercial law, Shane practices from Essex Court Chambers (London), Level Twenty Seven Chambers (Brisbane) and 5th Floor Selborne Chambers (Sydney).

With experience that covers a wide range of commercial litigation, arbitration, regulatory investigations and pricing reviews, and various Commissions, Shane is particularly familiar with heavy and complex cases, often involving coordination of litigation in other jurisdictions and working with large teams of lawyers. Instructed by a diverse range of Australian and international clients, ranging from multi-nationals and Australian public companies to government entities, he is turned to for his “ability to narrow a case down to what actually matters” as well as being “calm under pressure, practical and easy to work with and finds a way to deliver the client an outcome” (Chambers & Partners 2020).

Shane is consistently recognised as a leading QC by leading legal directories such as Australian Financial Review’s Best Lawyers®, Chambers & Partners (Asia Pacific and Global), Doyle’s Guide and Who’s Who Legal in the fields of Arbitration, Bet-the-Company Litigation, Competition, Construction & Infrastructure, Commercial Litigation, Dispute Resolution, Insolvency/Restructuring.

Dr Campbell McLachlan KC

Dr Campbell McLachlan QC was called to the Bar in 1984, and appointed a QC 2007. He is an Associate Member of Bankside Chambers, Auckland and a Door Tenant at Essex Court Chambers, London. He specialises in Public and Private International Law, and international litigation and arbitration.

Educated at Victoria (LL B (Hons), 1984), and at the University of London (Ph D (1988)), he holds the Diploma cum laude of The Hague Academy of International Law (1985). Until his return to New Zealand in 2003, Campbell was in practice in London, where he was a partner in Herbert Smith. He led the firm’s International Law Practice Group, and conducted many international arbitrations and litigations, for sovereign states, corporations, international organisations, and regulatory bodies. Reported cases include: ex parte Pinochet (no 3), Banca Carige v. Banco Nacional de Cuba, Saab v. Saudi American Bank, and In re Roys Poyiadjis ex parte US Securities and Exchange Commission and Securities Commission v Midavia Rail Investments BVBA.

Campbell has conducted numerous international arbitrations under ICC, UNCITRAL and LME rules, and has represented or advised a number of sovereign states, including the Armenia, Chile, Cuba, Malawi, New Zealand, South Africa, Tuvalu and the United States of America. Since his return to New Zealand, Campbell has combined his research and teaching with practice in international arbitration and litigation.

He is President of the Australia and New Zealand Society of International Law and New Zealand Alternate Member of the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration.

In his academic research, Campbell has published numerous articles in international journals, and engaged in international law reform through his work for the International Law Commission and the International Law Association. He has also contributed to law reform in New Zealand, including on the protection of the cultural heritage from cross-border trafficking, and the revision of the cross-border aspects of the High Court Rules.

He is a Specialist Editor of the 14th edition of Dicey Morris & Collins on the Conflict of Laws (Sweet & Maxwell, 2006), with special responsibility for the chapters on Arbitration and Foreign Awards and Foreign Currency Obligations. Dicey, which has been described by Lord Goff of Chieveley as “the prince of legal textbooks”, is the leading work on Private International Law in the Commonwealth.

Campbell’s next book (with Weiniger and Shore) is International Investment Arbitration: Substantive Principles (Oxford University Press, 2007). This work, which will be launched in London on 19 July 2007, is the first analytical work in its field. In 2008, he will give a Special Course at The Hague Academy of International Law on Parallel Proceedings in International Litigation.

Dr Gavan Griffith KC

Gavan Griffith QC is counsel at the Australian and English (call at Lincoln’s Inn 1969) bars. He has over 30 years seniority holding 8 Commissions as Queen’s Counsel. He has had extensive practice as a commercial, constitutional and public international counsel, and since his return to private practice in 1998, has practiced principally from his London chambers, usually presiding as a member of international commercial and investment treaty dispute tribunals as Arbitrator.

After 20 years in private practice, he held office for 14 years from 1984 as the Solicitor-General of Australia. As Australia’s Second Law Officer, and pleaded some 250 constitutional and other cases before the entire bench of the High Court of Australia, as ex officio the leader of the Australian bars. He also has appeared in other superior appeal courts, including Malaysia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

He was Agent and Counsel of Australia at the International Court of Justice in the several cases of Nauru v Australia, Portugal v Australia and the Nuclear Test Cases and also in two references by the WHA as to the legality of Nuclear Weapons.

He also represented Australia at the General Assembly, including the 6th Committee, Australian delegate and sometime Vice-Chairman of UNCITRAL and to The Hague Conference 1984 to 1997 and recurrent terms as member and sometime Chairman of the ITELSAT Panel of Legal Experts, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and other international bodies.

In 1994 to 1995 he was seconded as Special Counsel to the United Nations, New York, to write a report, since implemented, for the reform of the legislative structure of the UN.

All arbitral enquiries should be made to 24 Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Gourab Banerji, SA

Gourab was called to the Bar in England and Wales in 1990 and also developed his practice before the Supreme Court of India as Senior Counsel with an emphasis on commercial matters, and particularly commercial arbitration.  He also has experience of competition, along with other aspects of corporate transactions like mergers and acquisitions and private equity.  He is a Senior Advocate practising primarily in the Supreme Court of India and specialises in domestic and international arbitration. He read law at Cambridge University where he was a Bundy Scholar and won the Norah Hunter Dias Prize, eventually graduating with First Class Honours. He was designated a Senior Advocate in 2003 and has served as the Additional Solicitor General of India from 2009 to 2014.

He was recognized as a leading Senior Advocate in the category of ‘Dispute Resolution, Supreme Court of India’ by Chambers and Partners in 2021 and has appeared in several high stake and complex matters, including commercial and investment treaty arbitrations, and has also been appointed as an arbitrator in various international commercial arbitrations seated in India and abroad, including most recently by the Supreme Court of India.

He has appeared in cases involving the scope of a court’s power while appointing an arbitrator, scope of a court’s interference with an arbitral award, levy of interest on arbitral awards, validity of multi-tier arbitral clauses, territorial jurisdiction in enforcement of arbitral awards, and validity of emergency awards, among others.

He is often asked by the Supreme Court to assist as amicus in diverse areas. He was recently appointed the amicus curiae by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in NN Global Mercantile Pvt Ltd. v. Indo Unique Flame, C.A No.3802-03 of 2020, on the issue of enforceability of arbitration agreements contained in an unstamped contract. He had also been appointed amicus curiae by the Supreme Court in Union of India v. Vedanta Ltd [(2020) 10 SCC 1] which related to the enforcement of a foreign award in India. Presently, he is assisting the Supreme Court on the issue of viva voce interviews in public employment.

A National Correspondent of India for the UNCITRAL CLOUT system and the Vice Chairman of the UNCITRAL National Coordination Committee for India, he is presently a Member of the Chamber of Arbitration of the India International Arbitration Centre set up under the India International Arbitration Centre Act, 2019. He has also been nominated as a member of the Ministry of Law & Justice’s expert committee for examining the working of arbitration law in India and recommending reforms in the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

Professor Chester Brown

Professor Chester Brown is Professor of International Law and International Arbitration at the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, Australia; a Barrister at 7 Wentworth Selborne Chambers Sydney, and an Overseas Associate at Essex Court Chambers, London, and Maxwell Chambers, Singapore. He practices, teaches and researches in the fields of public international law, international arbitration, international investment law, private international law, international trade law, and general commercial matters. He has been nominated by the Governments of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada for election to the United Nations International Law Commission, with the election to take place in November 2016.

Professor Brown is currently acting in a number of investment claims, including acting as counsel for the Government of Australia in the claim brought by Philip Morris Asia Ltd under the Australia – Hong Kong bilateral investment treaty. He is also engaged in proceedings commenced by Timor-Leste against Australia before an ad hoc inter-State arbitral tribunal (Arbitration under the Timor Sea Treaty). He recently served as counsel for the Government of Australia in proceedings before the International Court of Justice (Questions Relating to the Seizure and Detention of Certain Documents and Data (Timor-Leste v Australia)), as counsel for the Government of Iran in proceedings before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal (Case A/15 (II:A), Iran v United States), and as counsel for the Government of India in the claim brought by White Industries Australia Ltd under the Australia – India BIT.

Before joining the Faculty of Law in 2009, Professor Brown served as Assistant Legal Adviser at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2007–2009), and prior to this, he was a Senior Associate in the International Law and International Arbitration Group of Clifford Chance LLP, London (2004–2007). He was a Visiting Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in 2006, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School in 2011, and a Herbert Smith Freehills Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge in 2013. He is a Research Consultant at the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore, and he co-teaches (with Professor David Williams QC) International Arbitration on the LLM programme at the University of Auckland.

Professor Brown is the author of A Common Law of International Adjudication (OUP, 2007), a major study dealing with the applicable procedure and remedies before international courts and tribunals, which was awarded the American Society of International Law’s Certificate of Merit. He is the co-editor of Evolution in Investment Treaty Law and Arbitration (CUP, 2011), which was awarded the OGEMID Award for ‘Book of the Year 2011’; co-author of The International Arbitration Act 1974: A Commentary (Lexis-Nexis Australia, 2011; 2nd edition, 2015); editor of Commentaries on Selected Model Investment Treaties (OUP, 2013); and author or co-author of more than 60 journal articles, book chapters, and notes. He serves as Associate Editor (Notes) of the ICSID Review – Foreign Investment Law Journal, and is the Australia and New Zealand reporter for the International Law Reports.

Professor Brown has been appointed as presiding arbitrator in an arbitration governed by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre Rules of Arbitration. He is a member of the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, a Panel Member of the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration, and a Fellow of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration. He is also a member of the American Society of International Law, the European Society of International Law, the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (of which he co-chairs the International Economic Law Interest Group), the International Law Association, and the Oxford-Australia Scholarships Committee.

Professor Brown was educated at the Universities of Melbourne, Oxford, and Cambridge. He speaks German and French.