Stephen Donnelly

Stephen accepts arbitral appointments in disputes ranging across the breadth of commercial and shipping law, international investment law, and public international law with experience arbitrating under among others the ICC, LCIA, ICSID, UNCITRAL, and LMAA Rules. Stephen is on the DIAC Arbitration Court List and is a member of the LCIA Users’ Council, Young ICSID, and the ICC Young Arbitration and ADR Forum. He is also a visiting lecturer in international investment arbitration at King’s College London and a member of the board of the Young Public International Law Group

He has been described in recent directory editions as ‘an exceptional junior’, ‘wise beyond his years and an intellectual powerhouse’, ‘first rate and very hard working’, with ‘remarkable research and drafting skills’ and ‘the ability to fit in and get on with a wide spread of individuals’, who ‘inspires confidence as a safe pair of hands’.

Before beginning his arbitration practice, Stephen studied law at Glasgow, Oxford, and Yale (as a Fulbright Scholar), was judicial assistant to Lord Kerr in the Supreme Court of the UK, and served as assistant to the Tribunal (Sir Frank Berman KCMG KC, Judge Schwebel, and Judge Simma) in Merck v Ecuador PCA Case No. 2012-12.

He is also qualified at the bar in Scotland, a mixed common–civil law jurisdiction, and able to draw on that experience in arbitrations under civilian legal systems.

Stephen is fluent in French and has a working knowledge of several other languages, including Spanish and Arabic (Levantine).

Arbitration and Court related applications

ICSID arbitration for an Italian investor (led by Sam Wordsworth KC and Hussein Haeri, instructed by Withers)
LCIA arbitration under a series of finance agreements (led by David Davies KC, instructed by J Miles Arbitration)
LCIA arbitration in a high-value claim for sellers of coal under shipments not performed by buyers (led by Nigel Eaton KC, instructed by Wikborg Rein)
LCIA arbitration concerning a shareholder dispute between members of a well-known retail company, arbitrated under the UNCITRAL Rules (led by David Davies KC, instructed by Hogan Lovells)
ICC arbitration arising out of alleged breaches of contracts for the supply of oil (sole counsel, instructed by Withers LLP)
LCIA arbitration under a $300m facility agreement (led by Vernon Flynn KC, instructed by Boies Schiller Flexner)

Related court applications

RSM v Gaz du Cameroun [2023] EWHC 2820 (Comm): claim for an interim and final mandatory anti-suit injunction under an optional arbitration agreement consolidating disputes under a related series of agreements with different dispute-resolution provisions (led by Iain Quirk KC, instructed by Baker Botts)
Advising a State on set-aside of registration of an ICSID Award, raising issues about the application of State immunity from enforcement in light of the ECJ’s decision in Achmea (led by Huw Davies KC, instructed by Simmons & Simmons)
VTB v Mejlumyan [2021] EWHC 1386 (Comm): claim for an anti-suit injunction arising out of a pledge agreement in support of a facility agreement between VTB and a mining company (led by Vernon Flynn KC, instructed by King & Spalding)
Soletanche Bachy v Aqaba Container Terminal [2019] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 423: challenges under sections 67 and 68 of the Arbitration Act to an award in an ICC arbitration (led by David Foxton KC and Iain Quirk KC, instructed by Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner)
Erdenet Mining Corp. v ICBC Standard Bank [2017] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 25: LCIA arbitration and Commercial Court proceedings under a guarantee and an indemnity, arising out of a banking fraud and giving rise to the first successful application under section 70(7) of the Arbitration Act 1996 for security for the amount payable under an arbitral award (led by David Joseph KC and Edward Brown KC, instructed by Clifford Chance LLP)

Investment Treaty Disputes

In addition to his work in practice, Stephen is a visiting lecturer in international investment arbitration at King’s College London and his research on the subject has been published in the International and Comparative Law Quarterly. Some of his recent contentious and advisory work includes the following:

ICSID arbitration for an Italian investor (led by Sam Wordsworth KC and Hussein Haeri, instructed by Withers)
Advising a UK department and Minister on the investment-treaty risks of a widely publicized policy (as sole counsel)
Advising a national regulator on investment-law issues arising from proposed regulation of natural resource extraction (led by Lucas Bastin KC)
Advising a State on set-aside of registration of an ICSID Award, raising issues about the application of State immunity from enforcement in light of the ECJ’s decision in Achmea (led by Huw Davies KC, instructed by Simmons & Simmons)
Merck Sharpe & Dohme v Ecuador PCA Case No 2012-10: assistant to the tribunal (Sir Frank Berman KCMG KC, Judge Stephen Schwebel, and Judge Bruno Simma) in an investor–state arbitration under the UNCITRAL rules at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (settled)

Public International Law

Before international courts and tribunals

A dispute under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union (instructed by the FCDO)
Conquer v United Kingdom: an application concerning an alleged breach of Article 6 ECHR as a result of the length of domestic civil proceedings (as sole counsel, instructed by the FCDO)
An interstate boundary dispute (led by Vaughan Lowe KC and Mathias Forteau)
Wightman v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2019] QB 199: preliminary reference before the Full Court of the CJEU determining the circumstances in which the United Kingdom could withdraw its notification of intention to leave the European Union (led by Gerry Facenna KC, Morag Ross KC, and Anneli Howard, instructed by Bindmans and Harper Macleod)

Before domestic courts

Shehabi v Bahrain: Court of Appeal concerning the relationship between the State Immunity Act 1978 and the European and UN Conventions on State Immunity, the scope of the tort exception to State immunity, and that scope’s compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights (led by Professor Dan Sarooshi KC and Robert Volterra, instructed by Volterra Fietta)
R (Elliot-Smith) v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2022] Env LR 5: judicial review of the legality of the UK’s emissions-trading scheme, raising issues as to the effect of the Paris Agreement in domestic law (led by Tom de la Mare KC, instructed by the Government Legal Department)
Heathrow Airport Ltd v HM Treasury [2021] EWCA Civ 783: judicial review of the withdrawal of VAT-free schemes, alleging breaches of WTO law (one of The Lawyer’s ‘Top 20 cases of 2021’, led by Eleni Mitrophanous KC, Naina Patel, and Raj Desai, instructed by HMRC)
Crane Bank Ltd v DFCU Bank Ltd: for British International Investment plc, the UK’s development finance institution, in an ongoing claim by a Ugandan bank alleging breach of trust and fiduciary duty by the