of our client’s experts. The tribunals also acknowledged the effectiveness of our team’s cross-examinations in highlighting issues related to the counterparty’s experts’ impartiality and questionable methodologies. Our overarching legal strategy in navigating these three arbitrations proved successful, contributing to the resolution of this exceptionally complicated construction dispute. What common challenges do counsels typically face when representing clients in international arbitration cases related to construction and infrastructure? In international arbitration cases related to construction and infrastructure, counsel often face the challenge of effectively coordinating a diverse team of professionals working on a single case, including financial FIFA World Cup in Qatar, culminating in highly favorable outcomes received in September 2023. The dispute arose among the stakeholders spanning technical issues, delay, and quantum matters, and ended up each resorting to ICC arbitration. The stakeholders, respectively located in the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Qatar, India, and Germany, initiated three separate but closely related ICC arbitrations. The seat of arbitration was London while hearings were held in Doha. The complexity of the cases was immense, involving over 5,000 pieces of evidence and 13 witnesses. The arbitration proceedings extended beyond 2.5 years. When handling these three cases, my team invested substantial time in comprehending the core technical dispute with the assistance of our clients and experts. This enabled us to present compelling submissions and conduct effective cross-examinations. As can be clearly seen from the final awards, the tribunals were very impressed by the independence, objectivity, and technical prowess analysts, technical experts, and legal professionals from various jurisdictions. To tackle this challenge, my approach begins with an initial case assessment, which is pivotal for me to identify the various dimensions of the dispute. Based on the assessment results, I tend to encourage the client to engage key experts at an early stage. In the realm of construction and real estate, the expertise of three key types of professionals—technical experts, delay experts, and quantum experts—is often essential. I usually actively assist the client in engaging those experts and delineate clear roles and responsibilities for each expert. This helps mitigate the risk of overlaps and ensure comprehensive coverage of every facet of the dispute. In cases where experts from opposing parties need to discuss technical or financial matters, I often arrange joint meetings. This proactive approach serves to clarify issues, narrow down points of contention, and potentially pave the way for agreements on specific aspects. Given the complexity of the process with multiple moving parts, effective timeline management becomes crucial. So, I always place particular emphasis on establishing reasonable timelines for experts. During hearings, I meticulously plan the sequence of presentations and testimonies to ensure a coherent and logical flow. Considering the intricate nature of construction and real estate disputes, characterized by complex factual scenarios, I favor the hot-tubbing approach. This enables experts to directly engage, responding to and challenging each other’s perspectives on specific issues. This dynamic interaction fosters a thorough discussion, elucidates intricate details and aids the tribunal in grasping the nuances of the case. WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM 33
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