Sam Luttrell specialises in international arbitration. He represents clients in cross-border disputes with other businesses and in claims against foreign governments under investment treaties and free trade agreements.

Sam has experience conducting proceedings under most of the main sets of international arbitration rules. His sector focus is Oil & Gas and Mining, but his experience spans a range of other industries, including infrastructure, defence and technology.

Sam is a member of our global Trade and Investment Risk team.

Dr. Mariel Dimsey is Secretary-General of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre responsible for its international dispute resolution services and operations from Hong Kong, Seoul, and Shanghai. She is an international commercial and investment arbitration specialist.

Prior to joining the HKIAC, Mariel was a Partner at CMS and Co-Head of the global CMS International Arbitration Group. She has over 15 years’ experience acting as adviser and advocate in numerous international arbitrations. She has extensive experience in both common law and civil law disputes, including disputes involving Chinese parties, and has full professional fluency in German. She also sits regularly as arbitrator and has experience as arbitrator under the HKIAC, ICC, KCAB, and DIS Rules, and in ad hoc disputes. She is on the arbitrator panels of several institutions.

She is a past co-chair of the HK45 Committee, and a member of the WILHK Advisory Board. She is consistently ranked in both the regional and global editions of the leading legal directories.

Mariel has a Dr. iur. (summa cum laude) from the University of Basel, an LLM from the University of Cologne and an LLB/BA (Business German) from the University of Queensland. She is admitted to practice law in Australia and Hong Kong.

Neil Kaplan CBE KC SBS has been a full-time practising arbitrator since 1995. During this period, he has been involved in several hundred arbitrations as co-arbitrator, sole arbitrator or chairman. These arbitrations have included a wide range of commercial, infrastructure and investment disputes, under the auspices of the ICC, HKIAC, LCIA, PCA, SIAC, SCC, ICSID and CIETAC. Mr Kaplan’s investment treaty cases under ICSID and UNCITRAL both as presiding arbitrator and coarbitrator have involved Timor-Leste, Hungary, Croatia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Ecuador, Iran, India, Ukraine, Russia, Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1965, Mr Kaplan has practiced as a barrister, Principal Crown Counsel at the Hong Kong Attorney General’s Chambers, and served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in charge of the Construction and Arbitration List. He has been a Queen’s Counsel since 1982 and was a founder and first head of Des Voeux Chambers in Hong Kong. In March 2022, Mr Kaplan was sworn in as a member of the Supreme Court of Bahrain.

Judith Levine is an independent arbitrator with over 20 years of dispute resolution experience in public international law, investment treaty, commercial contract and sports cases. She brings valuable insight from her work in both private practice and at public institutions.

Judith has sat as presiding arbitrator, sole arbitrator, and co-panellist in disputes at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA), the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB), and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). She is also a Vice President of ACICA, an inaugural member of the National Sports Tribunal, a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal, and a Senior Member of the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Now based in Sydney, Judith worked for over a decade at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague where, as Senior Legal Counsel, she administered some of the world’s most complex disputes, including the South China Sea, Abyei, Yukos and Bangladesh Accord arbitrations and over 30 investor-state disputes. Prior to joining the PCA in 2008, Judith practised in the arbitration group of White & Case LLP in New York, representing both sovereign States and private parties in ICSID and commercial arbitrations. Earlier in her career, Judith served as a judicial fellow at the International Court of Justice, assistant adviser to the Australian Attorney-General, a judge's associate at the High Court of Australia, and lecturer in contract law.

​Judith has worked on arbitrations in a variety of contexts and industries. These include agriculture, aviation, banking, cosmetics, construction, fashion, forestry, insurance, IT, joint ventures, labour, manufacture, mining, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, sale of goods, sports, and telecommunications.

​​​Judith has shared her expertise through presentations and publications on diverse issues in dispute resolution, including arbitral procedure, investor-state arbitration, public international law, contracts, ethics, climate law, and business and human rights. Judith is actively engaged as a committee member and mentor in various professional associations such as the International Council for Commercial Arbitration and the International Law Association.

A national of Australia and Ireland, Judith obtained her Master of Laws from New York University (on a Hauser Global Scholarship and Fulbright Award) and a combined Bachelor of Arts (with French Major) and Bachelor of Laws (with University Medal) from the University of New South Wales in Australia. Judith won "Arbitrator of the Year" at the 2023 Australasian Lawyers Awards and the 2020 and 2021 Australian ADR Awards. Who’s Who Legal identifies Judith as a global Thought Leader in International Arbitration, and recognises her reputation as a "clear standout name in the new generation of arbitrators" due to her "wealth of international experience" and reputation for being “very smart, extremely well organised,” handling all matters "deftly, including the most delicate matters", and having “excellent judgement”.

James (Jim) Morrison is a specialist in international arbitration, acting as arbitrator and counsel, as well as having extensive experience working in multiple arbitral institutions.

An Australian-qualified lawyer, Jim has worked at leading international law firms, representing leading companies in a wide variety of complex high-stakes commercial and investor-state disputes, including in the fields of construction, infrastructure, energy and resources, M&A, intellectual property, shipbuilding and joint ventures. Jim is formerly Counsel at the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris and Counsel at the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration in Sydney where he managed teams of lawyers responsible for the conduct of hundreds of international arbitrations taking place all over the world (but particularly in Asia). He holds a Master's Degree in International Commercial Arbitration Law from the University of Stockholm.

Jim has been regularly recognised in the WWL: Arbitration and Thought Leaders - Arbitration. He has participated in working groups to revise various institutional and ad hoc arbitration rules, including as co-chair of the committee revising the ACICA Rules 2021. He regularly speaks and lectures at arbitration conferences and universities. Jim is a former Co-Chair of Young ICCA, a co-author of the first English language text book on Korean arbitration law and regularly publishes in international dispute resolution.