Fangda Partners joined forces with Delos Dispute Resolution and Asafo & Co. to host an interactive roundtable on the value of African seats for African-Chinese disputes. The virtual roundtable, which took place on 12 March 2021, featured Tunde Fagbohunlu SAN, Julia (Zhang) Le Roux, Michael Tam and Peter Po Kwong Yuen. It was moderated by Andrew Skudder, a partner heading Fangda Partners’ presence in Mauritius, and by Thomas Granier, a counsel at Asafo & Co. in Paris.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
Tunde Fagbohunlu SAN
Babatunde Fagbohunlu is a partner and the head of the litigation, arbitration and ADR practice group in Aluko & Oyebode. In December 2008, Tunde was conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) by the Nigerian Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (the Nigerian equivalent of Queen’s Counsel). Tunde regularly represents Nigerian as well as foreign and multinational clients in ad hoc arbitrations and arbitrations administered by arbitral institutions. He has also acted as an arbitrator at several ad-hoc arbitral tribunals as well as arbitrations administered by the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA). He is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the International Bar Association, the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, the London Court of International Arbitration (African Users Council), the International Arbitration Institute (IAI) in Paris and has served on the LCIA Court.
Julia (Zhang) Le Roux
Julia has over 17 years of working experience in the major cities of China. She has obtained a diploma, MBA and LLB. She shall be the first female mainland Chinese attorney in South Africa. Julia has also published several translation works from English to Chinese, which include all the material for the South African pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, 2010. Julia is a sworn translator and Interpreter for the South African government. She has acted as an interpreter, at major international conferences including UN, BRICS and FOCAC conferences.
Michael Tam
Michael is a partner in Fangda Partners and he specializes in advising on development of energy, infrastructure and real estate projects in China and internationally. Prior to joining Fangda Partners in 2016, Mr. Tam was the founding partner of Michael Tam & Co in association with Berwin Leighton Paisner (HK) from 2011 to 2015. He worked with Linklaters from 2000 to 2011 and Clifford Chance from 1997 to 2000. He has constantly been ranked as a leading lawyer by Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal.
Peter Po Kwong Yuen
Peter is a partner in Fangda Partners. Peter’s practice spans a number of areas including international and regional arbitration, China-related commercial arbitration and complex commercial litigation. Peter regularly acts for clients in complex commercial disputes before the Hong Kong courts, and is experienced in acting as coordinating counsel in cross-border multi-jurisdictional disputes, particularly in matters involving court proceedings in China. He has also established a busy practice in the area of regulatory and corporate compliance, and has conducted a considerable number of corporate internal investigations in Hong Kong and China.
Michael Skudder
Andrew is a partner in Fangda Partners. He is a dispute resolution and competition litigation specialist. His primary practice areas include commercial and anti-trust litigation and arbitration as well as the provision of behavioral and transactional advice to multinational clients. Andrew has extensive experience acting for clients in complex commercial disputes before the English and Hong Kong courts, as well as coordinating complicated multi-jurisdictional investigations and disputes. Andrew is head of our Hong Kong anti-trust practice and has been involved in some of the highest profile anti-trust investigations in the PRC in recent years.
Thomas Granier
Thomas Granier is Counsel at Asafo & Co in Paris, France. He mainly focuses his practice on international arbitration and arbitration-related litigation. He has developed strong experience in disputes relating to construction, new technologies, telecoms, IT, energy, M&A. Thomas has acted as counsel in a number of commercial and investment arbitrations under the rules of various institutions such as the ICC, the LCIA, the HKIAC, the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and ad hoc arbitrations (including UNCITRAL and CIArb). Thomas has repeatedly acted as arbitrator under the ICC Rules, the rules of arbitration of Delos Dispute Resolution and in ad hoc arbitrations. Prior to joining Asafo & Co, Thomas worked at a leading US law firm. He has served as counsel in the case management team at the secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration dealing mainly with cases from Africa, the Middle East and France and as deputy counsel for the case management team dealing mainly with cases from Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
For a write-up of this event, see Ibukunoluwa Owa, “The Often-Overlooked Value of African Seats for African-Chinese Disputes” (Kluwer Arbitration Blog, 7 June 2021).
