The ROAP Asia Finals brought to a close our advanced remote oral advocacy and cross-examination courses, by featuring the most persuasive and skilled participants on each course. The recording is available here.

The outcome of the finals was determined by a panel of world-class arbitrators consisting of Toby Landau QC (President), to whom the ROAP Asia 2021 edition was dedicated, Chiann Bao and Dr Michael Hwang SC.

The winners were: Deya Dubey and expert Moushumi Vaidya for the cross-examination course, and Jagpreet Sandhu and Lauren Toledo for the oral submissions course. The other finalists were: Sui Hang Hui and expert Michael Laming for the cross-examination course, and Georgios Fasfalis and Dennis Wu for the oral submissions course.

You will find short bios of our finalists and tribunal members below.

THE ROAP ASIA 2021 FINALS TRIBUNAL

Toby Landau QC (President) is a member of the Delos Board of Advisors. He is a barrister and arbitrator, and a member of the Bars of England & Wales, Singapore, New York, the BVI and Northern Ireland, and is registered in the DIFC. He was the first QC to be admitted as a full member of the Singapore Bar, and practices from Duxton Hill Chambers (Singapore Group Practice) in Singapore and as a Sole Practitioner in London. As Counsel, he has argued hundreds of major international commercial and investor-State arbitrations, as well as many ground-breaking arbitration cases in the Courts of England, Singapore, Pakistan and the Caribbean. As Arbitrator, he has extensive experience sitting in commercial and investor-State disputes worldwide. He is Visiting Professor at Kings College London; Vice President of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre; Court Member of the LCIA and the SIAC; Fellow of the CIArb; UK delegate to the UNCITRAL Working Group on Arbitration (1994-2013); and a draftsman of the English Arbitration Act 1996; the Pakistan Arbitration (International Investment Disputes) Ordinance, 2006; the Mauritius International Arbitration Act 2008, as well as many institutional rules. He holds a first-class law degree and a first class BCL from Oxford University (Eldon Scholar), and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School (Kennedy Scholar).

Chiann Bao, a member of Arbitration Chambers, practices exclusively as an arbitrator and has served as tribunal chair, co-arbitrator, sole arbitrator and emergency arbitrator in ad hoc arbitrations as well as arbitrations under the rules of most of the major institutions. She is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a CEDR-accredited mediator. In addition to private practice experience both in Hong Kong and New York, Chiann currently serves as a Vice President of the ICC Court of Arbitration and is the chair of the ICC Commission’s Task Force on ADR and Arbitration. From 2010 to 2016, she served as the Secretary General of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre. Chiann is an honorary senior fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

Dr Michael Hwang SC currently practices as an international arbitrator and mediator based in Singapore. He was the Chief Justice of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts from 2010 to 2018. He sits as arbitrator in domestic and international disputes, including investment treaty disputes, under a wide variety of arbitral rules. Michael was called to the Singapore Bar in 1968, when he joined Allen & Gledhill. He became a partner in 1972 and retired from the firm in 2002 after serving as head of its Litigation and Arbitration Department for 10 years. Michael’s past appointments include: a former Vice Chairman of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), a former Vice President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), a former member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), a former Court Member of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), a former panel member on the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Panel, and a former Trustee of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC). He has also served as a United Nations Compensation Commissioner (adjudicating claims against Iraq arising from the First Gulf War) and a Vice-Chair of the International Bar Association’s (IBA) Arbitration Committee, as well as a Council Member of International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS). He is on the Users Council of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), and is also a Board Member of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA) and the Hainan international Arbitration Court. Michael has also previously served as Singapore’s Non-Resident Ambassador to Switzerland and Argentina, as a Judicial Commissioner (fixed-term High Court Judge) of the Supreme Court of Singapore, and as President of the Law Society of Singapore.

THE ROAP ASIA 2021 FINALISTS

Deya Dubey is a Senior Associate in the Energy, Projects and Construction Practice of WongPartnership LLP and is a Singapore qualified lawyer. His main areas of practice are in litigation and arbitration, with matters, including environmental engineering, energy, public infrastructure, and criminal/regulatory offences. Deya graduated with a law degree from Singapore Management University.

Georgios Fasfalis is an associate in Linklaters’ arbitration practice. He has previously worked for a renowned arbitration boutique and the legal department of a Dutch multinational. Georgios’ arbitration experience includes involvement in commercial and investment treaty arbitrations conducted under, among others, the ICC, ICSID, LCIA, NAI, SIAC and UNCITRAL Rules. He has also been involved in arbitration-related litigation matters, such as setting aside and enforcement proceedings. Georgios’ publications include, inter alia, a chapter in S. Balthasar (ed) International Commercial Arbitration (Hart Publishing) (2021). He is admitted to the Thessaloniki Bar in Greece and holds degrees from the University of Amsterdam and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Georgios is a Global Advisory Board member of ICDR Young & International, a member of the Global Steering Committee of CIArb YMG, and the Western Europe Vice Chair for Young ITA.

Sui Hang Hui is an Associate at Sidley Austin, specialising in international commercial arbitration and litigation. Mr. Hui is dual-qualified in Hong Kong and New York, and has represented clients from a broad range of industries. He previously practiced at a Wall Street firm in its Hong Kong and New York offices, and also served as a Judicial Assistant at the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (the highest appellate court in Hong Kong). Mr. Hui graduated from University College London (UCL) with First Class Honours, and was top of his class for Public International Law. He was the main speaker on the UCL team that came first runner-up at the 19th Willem C. Vis International Commercial Moot in Vienna. Mr. Hui is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Michael Laming is an Associate Director in HKA’s Forensic Accounting and Commercial Damages practice, and a Fellow of the ICAEW. He has over 10 years’ experience in forensic accounting and has acted as an expert in both national and international litigation and in commercial and investment treaty arbitration proceedings, giving evidence in national Courts and arbitration Tribunals both in the English and Spanish language. Michael specialises in valuations, the assessment/ quantification of damages and the analysis of complex accounting information. He has worked across a range of sectors, including transportation infrastructure and logistics, renewables, construction, manufacturing, finance, sports entertainment and TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications), amongst others.

Jagpreet Sandhu is an Associate with LALIVE in London. He specialises in international commercial arbitration and investor-State disputes with a focus on the energy sector, having worked on disputes arising out of major rare metals, iron ore, oil and LNG projects in Australia and the MENA region. He is experienced in acting under key arbitration rules, including the ICC, UNCITRAL, LCIA, SCC, HKIAC, and SIAC Rules and the ICSID Convention. Prior to joining LALIVE, Jagpreet trained with and qualified into Clifford Chance’s International Arbitration Group in Perth, Australia. His experience includes internships with WilmerHale in London, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre in Hong Kong, UNCTRAL in South Korea, and the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia. Beyond his work, Jagpreet remains a leading Director of the UNCITRAL Co-ordination Committee of Australia and is actively involved in the promotion and adoption of UNCITRAL texts in the Asia-Pacific region. He is proficient in English, Malay and Indonesian.

Lauren Toledo is qualified in the Philippines and currently serves as counsel to a global financial data and software company, where she is primarily involved in advisory and negotiation work for cross-border contracts. Prior to this, she gained substantial training in dispute resolution, having handled cases involving commercial and contract disputes, construction arbitration, and enforcement of arbitral awards. She also has experience in corporate and commercial transactions in the real estate, infrastructure, consumer goods, and energy sectors.

Moushumi Vaidya is a Director in Forensic Services practise in PwC in India. She brings over 13 years of combined experience of working in forensic services and financial audits (including 2.5 years secondment to PwC London). Her professional experience includes handling complex corporate investigations, assistance in responding to the Regulators, FCPA diligence and compliance for large M&A deals, forensic due diligence for financial fraud matters, and dispute advisory including arbitration and shareholder dispute resolution. She has assisted major Indian MNCs and international clients from a variety of industries including Private Equity, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, hospitality, real estate and IT, leading a range of cross border engagements for clients/operations based in India, UK, USA, Europe, Australia, Middle East and CIS. She is a Chartered Accountant by profession, having secured 44th Rank (All India), and is a CFE.

Dennis Wu is an associate of the Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy practice in Sidley’s Hong Kong office. Dennis focuses his practice on international commercial arbitration with an emphasis on disputes with an Asian nexus. He has advised clients in a wide variety of matters (including private equity, M&A, pharmaceutical, construction, and technology) and has acted in ad hoc and institutional proceedings conducted under ICC, HKIAC, SIAC, LCIA, and UNCITRAL arbitration rules. He also has experience in litigation matters, including general commercial litigation, insolvency, and arbitration-related court proceedings. Dennis graduated with Bachelor of Social Sciences and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of Hong Kong. He is fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin Chinese.

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Find out more about the ROAP programme here.