Delos turned 5 in January 2019. To celebrate this milestone, Delos has initiated a series of events to take a long view of the evolution of international arbitration and the place of Delos within this wider narrative.

Each event features senior, experienced practitioners in a fireside chat to exchange about their perspectives on the field, their personal journeys, their hopes for the future of arbitration and potential words of caution. The learnings of this series of events are being brought together in a publication by leading young practitioners, who together form the Steering Committee for these events.

The short bios of the speakers follow. To find out about other events in this series, please click here.

Sheila Ahuja is a Partner in Allen & Overy’s Global Arbitration group based in Singapore. She has advised on a wide range of arbitration matters and arbitration related court matters involving various jurisdictions such as Myanmar, Hong Kong, Singapore, England and Wales, the Philippines, the PRC and India. Sheila has particular experience of energy and infrastructure disputes, disputes arising from joint ventures and distributorship arrangements, and disputes relating to complex financial products. She represents clients in both commercial arbitrations and investor-State arbitrations. Sheila is a member of the Steering Proceedings Committee of the HK45 (Young HKIAC), the steering committee of the IBA Arb 40 and the Steering Committee of the newly formed Young MCIA (Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration). She is also a contributing author of Alternative Dispute Resolution: The Indian Perspective, published by Oxford University Press. Sheila speaks English, Sindhi, Hindi and Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin).

Jonathan LIM is Counsel at WilmerHale in London. He has represented governments and private corporations in commercial and investment arbitrations under all major arbitration rules sited across Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. He has also advised governments in Africa and Asia on a range of public international law issues and the drafting of arbitration legislation. In addition to his practice as counsel, Jonathan has a developing practice as an arbitrator, with appointments as sole and party-appointed arbitrator in proceedings seated in Europe and Asia. Jonathan also co-teaches a course on international arbitration at the National University of Singapore each January. He is listed in Who’s Who Legal 2018 as a Future Leader in International Arbitration, and has been described by clients and peers as “a very smart all-round lawyer with a strong work ethic” and “a sure bet as a future global leader.”

May Tai is the Managing Partner, Asia, at Herbert Smith Freehills. She specialises in cross-border China-related and regional Asian disputes, as well as contentious regulatory matters. She regularly advises governments, government-owned entities and commercial clients (including financial institutions and energy companies) in Asia, Europe and the United States, including acting as counsel and advocate in arbitrations under various rules and court proceedings.  She has acted as arbitrator in SIAC and HKIAC proceedings, and has also sat as an Emergency Arbitrator under the ICC Rules. May speaks five languages fluently, including Bahasa (Malaysian and Indonesian), Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and English. She is a CEDR accredited mediator and an arbitrator in the HKIAC List of Arbitrators, and is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales, and Hong Kong. May is based in Hong Kong but divides her time between Herbert Smith Freehills’ nine Asia offices in her role as managing partner for the region.

Rimsky Yuen SC’s practice was primarily commercial in nature with experience in various areas of commercial and related civil matters. The key areas of his practice included advisory and court works relating to contract disputes, shareholders and partners disputes, corporate and personal insolvency, banking, insurance and international trade. Apart from acting as advocate in court or arbitral proceedings, Rimsky Yuen SC also from time to time acted as arbitrator in international arbitration and as mediator in commercial and other civil disputes. During the period from 1 July 2012 to 5 January 2018, Rimsky Yuen SC occupied the position as Secretary for Justice of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“HKSAR”). In his capacity as Secretary for Justice, he acted as the chief legal adviser to the HKSAR Government overseeing five key areas of legal works: (1) civil disputes involving the HKSAR Government; (2) criminal prosecutions; (3) international law; (4) drafting of government legislation; and (5) legal policy matters (including the promotion of arbitration and mediation) as well as law reform. Major matters that he handled during this period included public law cases (such as judicial review applications involving constitutional, human rights and planning issues), commercial disputes involving the Government, regulatory matters relating to statutory bodies, international law matters (such as investment treaties, surrender of fugitives and assets recovery), as well as arbitration and mediation involving the Government. After his resignation as Secretary for Justice on 5 January 2018, Rimsky Yuen SC resumed private practice in April 2018 at Temple Chambers as barrister, arbitrator and mediator with special focus in commercial disputes. Since then, he has been appointed as arbitrator in various international arbitrations and has also been retained as advising counsel or advocate in various commercial disputes.